How is everyone doing? I hope you’re all staying safe & healthy! Now that we’re 4 months deep into social distancing (with no end in sight TBH) I thought it’d be funny idea to document what’s happening around here in the Lee/Kundu household.
Today’s topic is one that has been a big point of contention as of late: habits while working from home with a significant other. Akash & I have pretty different work styles, so it took quite a bit of adjusting to get to a point where we’re not ticked off constantly while in the office (LOL.)
We are extremely fortunate in that we have a home office in our apartment, which I most definitely do not take for granted because I have a ton of friends who don’t have this luxury. However, working daily in the home office has bubbled up some things that we normally don’t have under normal circumstances when we both are at our respective offices.
Noise level
This one’s a bit of a *sensy* topic around here…. I, for one, LOVE to have music playing in the background 24/7. I love that feeling of walking through every room in my apartment, just bumping to some good tunes and singing/dancing along. Even when I’m doing something that requires focus (even as I’m writing this right now) I love having background noise. Besides music, I always like having something playing – the TV on as I’m online shopping, podcasts on while I clean, Youtube videos while I cook, etc. Akash, on the other hand, needs absolute silence to work, and even when he’s not working he prefers not to hear whatever media I have on. Hence, our new headphones rule. Bleh.
Obviously I know that’s the most reasonable and fair decision, but I do get annoyed sometimes that I can’t play my music out as loud as I’d like. To be totally fair though, it’s become more half/half – he usually doesn’t mind when I have things playing if he’s not doing something important. But let’s be honest, if it was up to me I’d have something on 10/10 volume at all times if I could, LOL.
Distractions + Random Convos
If we’re being honest, Akash & I are a couple of Chatty Cathy’s, LOL. That’s one of my favorite parts of our relationship, that we never run out of things to talk about. However, when you’re trying to be productive and get sh*t done, it doesn’t make for the most conducive environment. On some days that either one of us gets distracted, we set ‘quiet times’ in the apartment so that we’re able to work without distractions. As much as we’d both love to chit chat all day long, work is an important priority to both of us, so that means creating an environment that allows us to be our most productive selves.
“Conference Rooms”
Again, thankfully we have separate rooms in our apartment, so this isn’t a huge issue. Sometimes I think about if we were living together in my last studio apartment, and I shudder at the thought. We both share the office space, so we’ve had to set some ground rules for when either of us have to take meetings or calls. Obviously since our desk setups are situated in the office, we’d both prefer to take calls in there, but that’s not always possible. We’ve made the rule that whoever has a meeting has to go into a ‘conference room’ aka the living room or dining room.
I’ve actually come to enjoy this, and sometimes opt to work all day in the dining room, just because I feel like it’s great to have a change of scenery! Unfortunately though, this isn’t a perfect solution just because apartment walls tend to be pretty thin. All in all though, it works for us for now, so no complaints here.
In conclusion, these are definitely pretty first world problems. We’re both extremely thankful to have things to work on, given everything going on, but I just thought it’d be a fun post to share in case any of you guys are going through the same things with your S/O! Are you working in close quarters with someone else? How are y’all handling it?