Adapting (poorly) to the new flow of things.

A little over a week ago, I made the conversion to working from home because of the Coronavirus outbreak.* Of course, it’s not just me working from home, the whole family is home, too. I have three kids — high school, middle school and elementary — and they are doing school from home, too.** My wife, Liz, is a teacher and she needs a workspace, too.

We’ve somewhat divided the house into zones. My son has the dining room for most of the morning and then it becomes arts-and-crafts central. My high schooler has set up at the small table in the kitchen. My middle schooler has carved out a place to work in the family room. Liz and I have rearranged furniture to fit two desks our bedroom. Our house isn’t particularly large, but we’ve made it work and developed somewhat of a routine.

I’m fortunate that Liz and I have jobs were we can switch to working remotely. I’ve been able to connect with my coworkers through Microsoft Teams and even presented a paper virtually for a conference from my home “office.” Liz is conducting morning meetings and sharing them with her kindergartners via Youtube.

I am working from home.

I’m doing my grad school classwork from home.

But…

I’m struggling to think. In particular, writing has been a challenge. I can do task related things. I’ve baked a red velvet cake and I made some bread, but projects that truly require thinking… I’m struggling.

I guess this isn’t really a surprise. Uninterrupted time is limited because everyone is home. I can’t slide out to the coffee shop if I need to get away. My schedule and my routines are off. My good habits are disintegrating. Let’s be honest, there’s a freaking global pandemic. It’s scary. I’m paying more attention to the news and social media than I normally do, and that’s not always helpful.

In time, I hope I can develop and form better habits for working from home. I know it’s only been a week and a half, but this is going to be the new normal for a little while. There are definitely aspects of working from home that I enjoy — like not having a commute — and I think that after a little while, as I settle into to new rhythms and routines, I’ll become more productive and creative. But right now, just thinking is a challenge.

* I’ll be direct. If you can stay home, stay home.

** My two oldest go to schools where they are assigned their own Chromebooks and use Google Classroom for everything. Their transition has been relatively seamless.

Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, researcher, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create.