What I’ve Learned From Working At Home With My Significant Other (+ Tips To Doing It!)

As much as we love ’em, it ain’t easy being with your partner  24/7. Especially when it comes to working.

As if working from home isn’t stressful enough (and my company just announced we’ll be working from home through August), many of us have another wrench to throw into the mix: Our relationship with our partners.

To give you a little bit of a background: No, Nick and I don’t live together. However, we started this whole quarantine thing together, so we’re riding it out together. I’ve been at his apartment for a little over two months now (whoa). At first, I thought it was cool and fun to spend every moment doing the same activity together. That quickly became unrealistic and created tension between us. Naturally, we’ve gotten on each other’s nerves. Which I think is kind of normal. Like, there is NOT ONE PERSON YOU’VE EVER SPENT 24/7 WITH……..UNTIL NOW. So it was a lot, and it was hard. I think most people who are doing this with their partner can agree with that.

Now, 8 weeks in, I think we’ve both learned what works for us, our jobs, and our relationship.

find your own space

This was probably the hardest adjustment.

First, I was working from the other room on the couch so that we could have our own space while on calls and whatnot. But then I was tired of not having a desk, it wasn’t a good set up for my back at all. So Nick set up a desk for me…but we were in the same room. This was fine for a bit, but it became difficult to coordinate phone calls and meetings. Granted, I did enjoy being in his company and we had a good playlist that we liked listening to together (Elton John Radio, DUH). After a few weeks of this, and getting to a point at work that I needed to be in meetings from 9-to-5, I headed upstairs to the kitchen table to work. I made a little space for myself at the table, clean up my work space after the day is over.

work hours are work hours

We didn’t see each other from 9-to-5, Monday-Friday pre-Covid, so why should we be seeing each other during Covid (you know what I mean)? Now that I’m upstairs and he’s downstairs, we are definitely seeing less of each other unless it’s breakfast or lunch time. Before we got into a groove, we were kind of just doing things during work hours: Rearranging this room, talking about this project, etc. But now, we’re both pretty busy with work, so we decided that work hours are work hours, and we’ll do things after work (unless urgent help is needed, ya know).

decide on routines that work

Obviously, work days look different for both of us each day. I have more of a “routine 9-to-5”, and Nick pretty much has a bunch of business calls throughout the day on top of the yoga classes he teaches and other projects he’s working on. If it were up to Nick, he’d be up at 6AM every day. Luckily, it’s more like 7-7:30. Pre-Covid, most days he’d be out by 6:45 to teach his classes. So that meant I slept in and woke up around 8:15 to get ready for work. Not gonna lie, I’ve been “sleeping in”, hitting the snooze button more often than not, and hopping out of bed to immediately get to work. I actually just told Nick I want to start waking up around 7AM when he usually gets up to allow myself to do a coffee run, spend some quality time together, and prep for the work day ahead.

We have a pretty decent routine at night and have it down: Nick teaches yoga on IG Live at 5:30, then we shower, make dinner, (sometimes take a walk), get any additional work done, and then put our phones away for the night and try to go to bed together. I don’t know, maybe I’m needy, but I like going to bed at the same time.

sneak in some hugs or kisses

On the flipside, I’m so thankful to be able to have Nick to do this quarantine thing with. I really do enjoy the time we get to spend together, so why not sneak in a hug or kiss between meetings? Instant mood booster.

What are some of your tips from working at home with your significant other?