Does it really matter where you work in your house?!?

Where you work must inspire you. You must work only in one designated area. You must have the proper lighting and seating and everything else, otherwise you cannot work there.  

Or does it? I have many places that I work all around my house. Some more inspiring than others. The only thing they all have in common, is being comfortable. My office is filled with colours and textures that I love, and make me feel inspired. I need pretty and relaxing and organized (chaotic organization) to be the most productive…. But, as I am writing this, I am sitting in my bed, with pillows and blankets all around, laptop in front of me with the window slightly open so I can smell that smell of fresh cool air, and a tea. And like always, I have my Ipad watching, as my husband calls it, “cheesy” tv. I know, some of you reading this may be gasping that I don’t have a dedicated work space. The answer though is that I do, and I don’t. My photo editing is always done at my desktop with proper lighting that does not change. My crafting is always done in my office at my desk. My staining and making of most crafts happens in my garage in front of our wood burning fireplace.

Most of my other work is done where I “feel” like doing it, depending on the time of day, and what is going on. 

I am most productive at different times of the day, depending what I have going on. I have become very aware of our schedule nowadays, and now that we are mostly always at home, my kids have different times of the days where they get along the best, are more willing to learn, play, and all those other things as well. 

It is a delicate balance of when to work, and when to be present with my kids. That is why I have many different work stations. I will take a moment whenever I can to work, and not feel any guilt about it. Because let’s face it, we all feel guilt when working at home. We want to spend all the time with our kids, and be able to help with all their requests when they ask, but the reality is, we can’t. I have learnt I can be most productive with writing when doing micro moments of work throughout the day.

Batch creating really is the most productive way to work, which is what I used to always do, and still try to, but during these times, I am taking my productivity where I can, and right now, it is micro work times. This means, that as long as I have an idea in my mind what I want or need to create, I can get a great amount accomplished in just 10 minutes or so. These minutes are completely dedicated to my work, and when I complete those minutes, I go back to helping, working, and playing with my kids. When they are having independent play time, or are playing nicely together, or in the back yard, that is when I take another 10 minutes, and this goes on each day. 

Now I know you are thinking, how can this work? But it works amazing!! For us. 

And it is the reason that I have many work stations throughout my house. If the kids are playing outside, and it is nice outside, I will grab a drink, grab my laptop, and work outside.  I can type at my desk, while they are playing lego in front of me,  our basement is very big and open, and I have one section as my office, but we did this so I can still be around my girls. My office was in a dedicated space before with a door and everything, but I found I was coming out of there too much checking on everything, that it was too unproductive, so this is what works for us. 

We are all struggling right now to find a work/life balance. But I am here to let you know that it can be done. Don’t let the reason of not having a space dedicated to work be the reason to not work. It takes some time to figure out everyones most productive time and place to work, and I do understand not everyone has a job that has that flexibility, but if you do, just take the time when you need it, wherever it is.