Making time and space for yourself when working from home
The alarm goes off. Get up. Wake up the kids. Get dressed. Brush teeth. Breakfast. Homework. Lunches. “Have you got a drink?” “Where are your shoes?” “Where’s George’s Coat?” The dogs been sick at the bottom of the stairs. Clean it up. “What do you mean you still haven’t got your shoes on?” “Come on we are so late.” “You need a poo, now!?”
This was a typical morning at our house before the lockdown and it’s really not exaggerated or embellished. If anything that’s one of the better days. I definitely don’t miss those mornings.
what I do miss is the sense of relief and escape you get when the kids have finally got out the car, had their temperature checked and have been successfully admitted into school for the next 8 hours. I now have a ten minute drive, looking out over the channel as the sun rises over a steely cold sea. Sometimes it is flat, foggy and monotone, other times it is bright, colourful and I can see the white cliffs at Calais. It’s the small moments of quite and calm I miss. A bit of time for myself to process my thoughts. I even miss going into my empty, quiet, classroom and waiting for my computer to load up.
Now there is no escape. Trying to work. Three kids doing zoom lessons, one in the kitchen one in the study, wife and Lucy upstairs. The dog barking every time a car drives past. “What’s a determiner?” Wife doing zoom meetings in the bedroom. Trying to do snatches of work in 37 second chunks, between being, a teacher, dinner lady, break supervisor, caretaker, after school club supervisor.
Don’t get me wrong, it is nice to be at home with everyone, but it is also very tiring and hard to make time and space for yourself. It’s really important to take care of yourself in these times, especially if you have a family who depend on you. It will help you be more patient and calm and in turn help the rest of your house hold deal with the stresses of lockdown.
Imagine you had one extra room. A sanctuary where you could take 10 minutes to do a workout, listen to some music, paint a picture or to just be and gather your thoughts. A garden room might be just what you need. A space slightly separated and insulated from the hustle and bustle of lockdown life.
A garden room is an affordable and unobtrusive way to give everyone in your household a bit of extra space and quiet. Space to work, space to exercise, space to play.
