Work and Home While Working from Home

When I entered the ministry, there was a new reality and a new set of skills to be learned. I’m not talking about all the various things new pastors learn in their first call or a call to a new parish. I’m talking about the practical stuff that you simply end up learning on the fly. The biggest challenge was how I might keep work and home distinct. How do you create boundaries so that your family doesn’t end up despising the church because I did do a poor job of managing my time, my duties, and my attention and focus?

It occurred to me this past week while talking with a few members of my parish that this is now not just a pastor or a business owner’s issue, but also a regular employees’ issue. With the advent of the pandemic, many businesses are restructuring and shifting their employees to working at home, either full-time or part-time. So whether you’re a pastor, business owner, or regular employee, we all have to be mindful of creating boundaries to make work and home distinct, so that both may flourish.

Here’s my caveat: I don’t any of this perfectly, and I am constantly reevaluating what I should stop doing, keep on doing, or start doing. I don’t plan that evaluation, but it probably happens once a quarter.

First, I divide the day into three shifts: morning, afternoon, evening. And I seek to work two out of the three shifts. For most days I probably work the morning and afternoon shifts. However, if I know that I have to work the evening shift due to meetings, services, or Bible classes, I will take off either morning or afternoon shift. Which shift I take off depends on what I have scheduled for that particular day. Mostly I try to take the mornings off because I like working without a long break in between and doing that makes it easier to get in work mode or home mode (let the reader understand). Whatever shift would put you at home with family is best or to take care of household items.

Second, when I’m at home, I don’t answer my mobile phone. I let go to voicemail. If it’s an emergency they leave a message or call back immediately on the house phone. My caveat here is that I will answer the call if it’s a call that I’m expecting because I called them.

Third, when I’m at home, I don’t respond to texts. I wait till I’m back in the office. In fact, I typically silence my text notifications from non-family and friends altogether. I also have deleted my e-mail app from my phone. I never reply from my phone anyway, and the only thing looking at my e-mail will do is put me in work mode. So, I treat e-mail and text messages the same way. I respond in the office. And I do it at specific times of the day (first coming in and sometimes thirty-minutes before leaving).

Fourth, I always spend the first ten minutes or so mentally planning out what I want to get done that day, like a mental road map. What I can fit in here or there. Often this doesn’t happen exactly to plan. Unexpected visitors or other things arise that demand my immediate attention. But getting a mental plan gives the day a bit of order so that I know where to focus my attention and when.

Fifth, I mark thirty minutes before I go home and stop what I’m doing to work on something that I enjoy. I live in a parsonage. And so I need to make a little time to decompress, especially if there were unpleasant things that happened in the day. I don’t have a drive home to do that. So, I stop thirty minutes prior to going home, and usually read something that is work-related but something that I really want to delve into. This sets the stage by ending on something good. And ending on something good and enjoyable makes the transition from home to work a bit easier.

Sixth, I try to make the only work that I do at home reading. Everything else can wait. In fact, I don’t have a laptop for this very reason. If I need a computer for it, I do it at the office.

Seventh, meals and days off are sacrosanct. Only emergencies will pull me away from these. I turn my mobile phone off during meals.

The goal in all of this is to make home and work distinct. It has taken a lot of trial and error to arrive at this, and I’m sure the future holds more additions. For those who are just learning the skill of working from home due to the pandemic, try some of these out. There are lots of tips out there for you to google. This isn’t exhaustive. It’s just what I’ve found to be helpful for me. I’m sure there are lifehacks that others have found to be proven useful. I’d like to know what those are. Let us know in the comments.