Tips for Working From Home: A Guide by FFF

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For many of us, this is the first time we’ve had to work from home for an extended period of time. To help FFF founders navigate, we’ve compiled best practices with an eye for founders living with kids — but most tips can apply to anyone trying to develop a routine while working from home.

Establish a Routine

• To keep a sense of routine, try to get dressed and do it around the same time every day. Some have found that wearing shoes with soles (vs. slippers or socks) is helpful.
• Try to start work around the same time every day if you can, and schedule breaks (including meals) around the same time if possible.
• For those who find themselves constantly snacking ( 🙋‍♀️), creating structure can help: Hannah Bronfman suggests eating breakfast before you begin work, scheduling your lunch & dinner to avoid all day grazing, plating your snacks instead of eating out of the box/bag, and planning movement (even just pacing around while on calls).

Organize and Communicate Your Day

• Schedule your day out at the start of the day, and do your best not to deviate. Communicate what your day is like to your partner, children, roommates, or parents (whoever you live with) so everyone in the home is on the same page with your expectations and needs.
• If you have two parents working from home, this scheduling exercise is a good opportunity to map your schedules around your partner so you can take turns watching the kids.

Keep a Distraction List

• Keep a “distraction list” while you work, so when you have the impulse to clean the bathroom or tidy your bedroom, you know the idea is written down somewhere and can be handled later / after your scheduled “work” hours.

Create Boundaries

• Make a sign: Teresa Douglas, co-author of “Working Remotely: Secrets to Success for Employees on Distributed Teams,” says that while at home “children will always think of you as a parent first.” To help her children understand when she needs to be left alone, Douglas puts a “STOP, in a meeting” sign on her door. “That’s the rule in our house. If my door is closed, you can knock one time, and if I don’t respond it means I’m in a meeting,” she said.
• Create a separate workspace: Ideally you’re able to work separately, like behind a closed door — but if this is not an option, a baby gate can help keep curious hands away from important documents and equipment.
• Communicate expectations, and do practice runs: Make sure everyone in your home (kids, parents, partners, roommates) knows which signals indicate that you’re working, and therefore are not available to help settle minor juice-box-related spats or engage in idle chitchat. Then, practice: figure out which tasks you do during your workday that demand no interruptions. For most parents, this will be phone calls or video meetings. Then, talk to your kids about what they need to do when they notice you’re doing this activity. For example, what should they do when they hear the phone ring or see you step into your office and close the door for a meeting? What’s the drill? Give them specific instructions, which will vary depending on if you have a spouse or partner at home to help. Pretend to take a call or have a meeting, and see how your kids react. Go through this drill over and over again. Praise and reward them when they start to do it right, and give them gentle guidance when they don’t. The more you practice, the more they’ll catch on to what’s expected of them.

Block Out the Noise

• The best wireless and USB headsets have excellent noise-cancelling microphones and easy-to-access mute buttons to block unwanted sounds. They won’t stop your children (partner, roommate, parent, etc.) from making a ton of noise, but it will help to signal to others that you’re not to be disturbed and to avoid getting drawn into conversations that are going to distract you.

Utilize Nap and Sleep Times

• If your kids are still taking naps, then you’ve got an hour — or two or three — of uninterrupted time to focus. Make sure you save this time to complete tasks that require your full attention. Schedule calls or work on a challenging project while your kids are asleep, and complete less challenging or low-priority tasks when they’re up and about.
• If your kids are too old for naps, then make them have “quiet play time” every day at the same time. Some parents have a special box of toys and books that only come out during quiet play time. For this hour only, the kids get to play with these special toys, and the limited availability keeps them fresh and interesting. (See “Create a Boredom Box” below)
• Resist the temptation to put the house back in order during naptime or quiet play time. Treat this time like gold and use it to focus on your most important work. You can clean up the house when your workday is over.
• Despite your best efforts, there will be days when things don’t go as planned. This is where flexibility is essential. You might have to finish up your work after the kids go to sleep, or early the next morning before they wake up.

Create a Boredom Box

• A boredom box can be a lifesaver on those days when you absolutely must finish a task and every other strategy to keep your kids occupied has failed. Put simply, a boredom box is a box of crafts or activities that help direct your kids to play a specific way or create a specific project.
• There are many different ways to make a boredom box. For example, a craft boredom box might contain the following items: construction paper, pom poms, glue, scissors, straws, pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks, a stamp set, plastic jewels, googly eyes, foam circles, watercolor paints, felt, plastic cups, buttons, stickers, bubble wrap, beads, paper towel rolls, yarn, cupcake liners, masking tape, balloons, feathers, tissue paper, a hole punch, paper plates, paper lunch bags, various clean boxes and containers from the recycling bin
• Once you’ve assembled these items, come up with a list of potential projects and write each one down on an index card. You might instruct your child to build a robot out of the materials, for example, or create their favorite zoo animal. Prepare your boredom box now, and tuck it safely away for emergency moments.

More Resources to Keep Kids Busy

• Busy Toddler: Great indoor activities, especially for young children
• ​Khan Academy: A valuable educational resource that has daily schedules and educational livestreams for kids who are off school
• ​Ideas for Social Distancing: If you’re looking for ideas of how to pass the time with your kids, this is a great crowd-sourced list

Stay Connected

• Working remotely can feel isolating at times, so as part of your routine, try to interact with your co-workers regularly (yes, introverts, even you). Chatting over messaging apps like Slack (even just saying “Hello!” when you sign on in the morning) and holding meetings over Zoom or another video app are two quick and easy ways to stay in the loop. However you connect, don’t let email be the only way you interact with colleagues.
• Elizabeth Yin from Hustle Fund VC suggests Slack, Zoom, Whereby, email, and phone for internal communications with her team, Email for non-urgent work / action items, Slack for async conversations, and Zoom, Whereby, and phone for unscheduled water cooler convos & scheduled meetings.
• Articles on available tech tools: Free Remote-work Tools, 5 Tech Companies Providing Free Remote Working Tools, 5 tech tools powering remote work

And for when you need a break…

• Join a virtual dance party and/or concert
• The Met is offering free streaming of past opera performances
• Take a tour of 10 iconic museums online

Sources

• NYT: How to Stay Sane when Working from Home with Children
• The Verge: How to work from home
• Money Crashers: How to Work From Home If You Have Kids — 9 Pro Tips
• The Simple Dollar: 17 Strategies to Survive Working From Home With Children
• The Strategist: Everything You Need to Work From Home, According to People Who Do It Every Day