Working from Home as a Couple: How-to, Tips, and Tricks
The trend of working from home has many aspects and difficulties. Managing working from home as a couple might be one of them, as we know that every year more and more partners face this challenge. How to make this work? How to enjoy working together as a couple? This post brings many practical tips based on our experience that will help you to handle this new situation.
The idea of working from home is tempting. Being your own boss? Getting up late?
Wearing something comfortable? Taking breaks as much as you need? No disruptions from your colleagues?
It all sounds wonderful, but you cannot be surprised that working from home also has many negative aspects and challenges that you must face every day.
It is hard enough when you work from home on your own, but what if you must work from home as a couple?
It might have been your decision to start a business with your partner, or you might have had two separate jobs, but circumstances made you both to start working from home.
For some people, it sounds like a dream.
You can be with your partner all day long, discuss all the problems straight away, enjoy breaks together, have the same daily stereotype.
But in case you do not set boundaries and you do not figure out what you and your partner need, the joy of working remotely together might turn into a nightmare.
A nightmare that can easily destroy not only your working life but in the worst-case scenario your relationship as well.
That's why we have put together this post on working from home as a couple.
We want to share our tips and tricks and help you to make this work.
Because no matter how challenging sometimes being together 24/7 can be, it is at the same time rewarding, or it is at least how we feel about it.
Personally, there is no other person in the world with who I would like to spend my time with, so being able to work together, on the same project, is a true blessing, with all the ups and downs.
What is important to say, every person is different, and there is not one general approach, especially if you and your spouse or partner have different jobs.
But there is one tip we think should work for everyone.
You should not look only for tips on how to survive to work from home as a couple.
We perceive the word survive somehow negatively, and to make this work, we think it is important to erase this word in this context from your vocabulary.
Working remotely together as a couple is not about surviving, it is about finding ways how to make it work, so both individuals in this relationship are happy, and both your personal and work life will thrive.
Yes, you must work on it hard, and this journey requires you to be proactive, but the result is worth it.
WORKING FROM HOME AS A COUPLE
Working from home with your partner has many nuances, and it is for sure not possible to put them all together and simply tell you, ‘here you have the manual on how to manage this situation’.
If it worked like this, we think the world would be way too boring.
The person you know well might be a bit different from a person-professional.
But we believe that by implementing a few things, even by thinking about all the possible things that can go wrong, and forestalling likely scenarios, you make a very important step against failure.
Here's the list of tips and tricks that will make working from home as a couple smoother, painless, and efficient.
CREATE A DAILY ROUTINE THAT WORKS FOR BOTH OF US
When you work from home as a couple, it does not mean you have to do everything together.
Sure, it is easier when you wake up and then finish work at the same time, but it does not have to be this way.
The most important thing is not to annoy your partner in case your daily routine is different.
Do you want to sleep in because you worked late at night, but your partner has an early morning skype call?
It is essential to communicate it thoroughly, discuss your schedules for the next day every evening, and make sure that the one won't disturb the other.
Surely, no one wants to hear a vacuum cleaner in the background during an important call.
Communication is the key.
We actually believe that having a routine is a positive thing, even though many people work hard to spice their life up.
Yes, we agree it is necessary not to have an annoying routine in your relationship, but this is what evenings, weekends, or holidays are for.
The routine at work makes you more productive, and if you know from the very beginning what your partner needs, you will avoid exchanging arguments.
On the other hand, the beauty of working as a couple is, that from time to time you can break that routine, especially if you work on the same project.
Remote work has been so popular lately as it gives people the sought-after freedom, and we certainly appreciate the possibility to work hard on the days when we are in the 'zone' and take it more leisurely when the morale is not so high.
There's only one thing you must always pay attention to.
Your laziness cannot win.
HAVE DESIGNATED WORKSPACE
Having a designated workspace and well-organized desk is super-important for every person working from home, and it is twice as important when you share the space with your significant other.
Each of you should have your own desk, computer, simply space where you feel comfortable, and where you can fully focus.
Even those of you living in a small flat can create a motivating environment, and we really do not think it is compulsory to have separated rooms.
Sure, it is better if you make many phone calls a day, but it is not a rule.
Create your workspace wherever you feel comfortable; you do not have to furnish your flat with a professional office desk and chair, just make sure your environment is healthy and inspirational.
Even if you and your partner have different demands, you can make this work, you just need to vocalize what you need.
For example, I prefer a bright room when working, while Martin needs curtains shut most of the day because he's editing photos.
That's why it works for us to be in separate rooms, but we keep our door open to be able to hear each other in case there's something we want to say to each other.
DISTINGUISH BETWEEN FREE TIME AND WORK TIME
Working from home has many challenges, and one of the cons is that you get absorbed by work that you don't know when to stop.
In the end, it can happen that you will see your partner less than when doing the classic 9-5 job.
If you work as a couple, the biggest mistake you can make is not to distinguish between free time and work.
In case your job is seasonal, it is possible to live this way for a while and work hard for a certain period of time, but to avoid burn out syndrome, you should always know when it is time to finish.
We've never said how many hours a day we want to work (yet), but I feel that I do not function well after more than ten hours of sitting behind the desk and writing travel stories all over again.
In order to stay motivated when working from home and not to become irritated with one another, always make sure you have enough free time for your hobbies.
Again, it does not mean you have to spend your free time entirely together but to avoid feeling at your home like in a cage, it is super-important to know when work ends and when free time begins.
If you sit all day staring at the computer, we do not think that searching the internet is the best time how to spend your free time - to feel relaxed, it should be something different from what you normally do at home during business hours.
DO NOT OVERWORK
This paragraph goes hand in hand with the previous one. If you work from home as a couple, you should set ground rules and make sure you do not overwork on daily basis.
Many people think (as many influencers like to pretend it) that freelancers work only a couple of hours per day, but the reality is completely different, at least when you are at the first stage of your career.
To be completely genuine with you, we've never worked so hard as employees than we work on this blog.
The first six months when we decided to start a blog and make a legit living out online blogging, we worked almost non-stop, creating one or two posts a day, but the unhealthy approach soon took its toll.
Today, we are (hopefully) one year smarter.
Knowing that ten hours working a day is the limit and that we are not able to create anything useful beyond this point, definitely helped.
By the way, make sure to read Things to Know Before Starting a Blog where we share our experience.
Also, when you overwork, you are grumpy, feel a lack of energy, and as the environment is still the same (there is even no daily commute), it is much easier to get discouraged.
And the first person who is going to deal with your bad mood is your partner.
When you work as a couple, according to our opinion, it is much better to watch over each other and catch up signs of overwork before it gets too far.
When you feel that your partner has pushed too far, simply suggest a sports activity or a walk around the block.
SET RULES IF YOU WORK ON THE SAME PROJECT
Those of you who work with your spouse not only from one apartment but also on the same project, have many more challenges to deal with.
Sometimes it is not easy to tell a stranger that his or her idea is not to your likings, and it is even more complicated when you have to deliver this message to your loved one.
What always helps us a lot is to realize that even when we have different opinions, we still have the same goal, and we never let this work disagreement grow into the personal side of our relationship.
Another thing you must take into account when working as a couple is your different pace and work habits.
I knew that Martin's work pace is a bit more relaxed than mine because we already worked together in a hotel in New Zealand, but that does not mean it is wrong, because at the end of the day we both get our work done.
I am more responsible for writing the content, while he edits photos and takes care of the technical side of the business.
The goal is to meet half way and get a tangible result, which is in our case a brand new post.
Make sure you have those rules set so no one thinks that the one works harder or better than the other one.
Write down your responsibilities, and do not get stressed about things that are not in your competence.
RESPECT YOUR PARTNER'S JOB
On the other hand, if you both work from home, but both of you have own job, the key to success is to respect your partner's job.
Ask questions to really understand the essence of your partner's job, and do not make fun of tasks that might seem silly to you - you probably do not understand what should be the outcome and what is behind the scene.
Working remotely as a couple won't work without taking your partner's job seriously.
Working from home does not have only perks, but it can be very demanding at times, so if your partner has to work late, do not make it even harder, and find your own program.
Only this way you can make this lifestyle (because we think remote work is a lifestyle) sustainable.
COORDINATE YOUR BREAKS
To be a successful work-from-home couple, we recommend you to coordinate your breaks.
We usually have breakfast, then work until 11 AM.
After that, we go jogging, have lunch together, then we work until five or six, and later in the evening go for a walk that we usually connect with shopping for dinner.
This routine works for us the best, but it took us a while to figure it out.
It is, of course, possible to have breaks at different times.
But since it is hardly possible to avoid each other unless you have a large apartment, we think it is much better to enjoy these pauses and spend some quality time together.
Simply put, staying organized when working from home is the key to success.
HOUSEHOLD RESPONSIBILITIES
Sharing and taking care of a household is never too easy, and it gets harder when your home is also your workspace.
While someone cannot work with dirty dishes in the sink or with the unvacuumed floor, the other one can be absolutely resistant to such details.
As one of the rules on how to stay productive when working from home is to have your workspace organized, make sure that you and your partner are on the same page when it comes to cleanliness and tidiness of your apartment.
Tidy your flat together, before you go to bed, if possible, so you can start a new day in a place with no disturbance.
When it comes to cooking, make sure you both know what your role is - we prefer cooking together, but if one of us has unfinished work, it comes without saying that the other one takes care of it.
Cooking meals should not become a problem, that's why opt for quick meals during the week that do not require too much preparation.
We like to cook four portions, so we have to cook only every other day, which makes our day much easier.
RESOURCES
So what programs we use to keep Laidbacktrip running?
The absolutely necessary expense is purchasing the domain and paying for hosting.
We opted for Squarespace, an all-in-one solution as we like it is clean and straightforward.
But the most popular option among bloggers is Bluehost because you can install Wordpress.org on it.
In the beginning, we were reluctant to pay more for external services.
But we later found that some of them are necessary, and some of them make our work much more comfortable.
We use a professional email, Tailwind that helps us schedule pins for Pinterest and Instagram.
As we use only our own photos, Adobe Creative Cloud that is an excellent tool for editing photos in Lightroom and Photoshop is a must-have.
To improve our writing skills we use Grammarly Premium.
It all costs several hundred dollars per year, but it helps us with our business.
