Balancing home & office work during lockdown

We cannot deny the fact that staying home to combat the spread of COVID-19 is a privilege, while frontline work force is out fighting to curtail the spread of deadly infectious pandemic.

But as a working mother, this means an extra responsibility handling family and work with limited domestic help. We are multi-tasking most of the times and this is somewhat exhausting. We have learned to be productive in our professional domain while handling the household chores.

Shweta, who hails from Telangana, co-founder of Simply Fresh India Pvt Ltd, says, "This quarantine has taught me to balance between office work and managing home." She says, "The priority is my constant attention on my son nonstop play time and round -the-clock food requirements are keeping me on my toes. Juggling conference calls, important emails, and tight deadlines and full time parenting has become the order of the day."

"My husband Sachin Darbarwar is helping me with laundry, cooking and many other household tasks to ease the load. We both are splitting work as we don't have domestic help right now and also taking shifts, for example while my husband takes care of my son and house hold chores, I work and vice versa, so that we can focus better on work," says Shweta.

"This lockdown taught us many things. I have learnt to keep roles separate. I have scheduled time for both personal and professional work. I am mostly confined to my workspace set up in a specific area in my home so that my job doesn't intrude into others and I can concentrate better. I think this is very important when we need to balance things in this challenging period," she adds.

Stating that this is the right time when we need that extra diligence to balance work and family, Shweta shares some useful mom hacks for staying productive while working from home.

l Designating workspace: To separate household chores and office work, it is necessary to set up an office area where you can remain detached from the family during your working hours. This helps in better concentration and productivity.

l Keeping children engaged: If you scheduled for a long meeting or a call, ensure that you assign some fun task to your children during those hours to avoid interruption.

l Do not work beyond your limits: Children deserve our much needed attention. This quarantine is also quite challenging for kids too as they have to adapt to lockdown norms. From doing online tuitions to restrictive outdoor movements, it takes time for children to getting used to these new normal. We must give them their deserved time and attention to make them feel comfortable. Though we are working in a flexible schedule model, still adhering to fixed working hours is necessary.

I have scheduled time for both personal and professional work. I'm mostly confined to my workspace set up in a specific area in my home, so that my job doesn't intrude into others and I can concentrate better. I think this is very important when we need to balance things in this challenging period"

— Shweta Darbarwar