17 Mar #covid_19: 10 steps for Routine & Structure #WFH is about learning to make transitions

10 steps for Routine & Structure

EQ skills: Habits, self-reliance, self-regulation, flexibility, expressing frustration

Life in an age of Covid-19 can feel a little like a roller coaster ride.

So let’s figure out how to enjoy the ride.

The 10-step process

Keep most of your routine and structure for everyone in the home the same as last Monday.  Here are a few suggestions for your first ‘work-at-home-day’ – whether solo or with family. Suggestions in italics are specific to a WFH situation

1. Get up at your regular time
2. Get showered and dressed
3. Sit down to breakfast
4. Complete your normal routine – making school lunch boxes etc. (at least for a day or two)
   • Take a group selfie!
5. At your normal time, ‘leave’ for work or school:
   • use the commute time to do some exercise together
6. Finish back at your designated desks, where have chosen to focus your #WFH activities
7. Take breaks (recess, tea breaks) as normal.
   • Put a timer on your oven if you need a prompt to stand up and move
   • Each time you get up, drink water ***
   • Check in with each other to offer support, technical help, discuss what can be tweaked to work better
8. Eat meals as a family
   • Especially lunch
   • Wash your hands *** – get in the habit of washing hands before  and after every meal
   • Talk about ‘how this is the same, and how this is different’
   • More topics available over the coming days
9. Before you end your day, set expectations
   • Review what has been effective in your work routine today, and what hasn’t
   • plan your work for tomorrow
   • If you need updated tech (a better headset for phone calls), figure out how to order it or buy it
   • Plan your menu for the next day
10. Create a hard end to your day
    • Especially today, negotiate with your ‘boss’ to finish on schedule or earlier
    • Use the time normally lost to commuting to do more exercise
    • Or play a simple game together
    • Or start dinner prep together
    • Ask each person at home to do a dot-jot journal of what happened today. Emoticon for attitude, emoticon for health and a few words on the experience.

Soon you will have established a new normal. These are the steps that keep your old routine intact while you feel your way into that new rhythm.

The Logic of transitions

Life in an age of Covid-19 can feel a little like a roller coaster ride. There are new developments each day.

This is the perfect time to talk about transitions – which are happening to us all the time:

• when we return to regular life after a vacation
• when we move into university for the first time after a life at home
• when we start a relationship
• when we retire, change jobs or switch careers

There will be a new normal

And those that figure out their own rhythm of making that transition are able to take advantage of the unavoidable changes ahead in life.

There are many schools of thought, but with these 10 steps the focus is on maintaining a basic routine – like a security blanket, that will provide a habit structure or rhythm by which you can run your day.

In the next post we will explore how to take advantage of this special pocket of breathing space.