If you only recently started working from home, you know the challenge of finding enough work space and the right environment for you to focus and stay productive. The ideal work space has physical requirements – i.e., enough room for your computer equipment and other supplies, enough light, the right temperature. Your environment should also support the way you work and think – maybe you like music in the background, or maybe your work involves lots of phone and video, so you need quiet all around you.
If you have a significant other in the same household, now you need room for two – the physical space, the environment that supports how each of you individually prefers to work — and you need to fit this all into a location whose primary purpose was not built for work. When the work-from-home requirement was initially given, it would be understandable if you just cobbled together a haphazard solution to get back to work quickly. However, now that the prospect of working from home may extend longer, maybe even months, you want to optimize your work-from-home set-up for both of your careers.
Here are five ways to stay productive for dual career couples working from home:
1 – Carve out dedicated work space for each of you
Ideally, you each have a specific place to use for the duration of the work-from-home period that essentially becomes your desk outside of the office. You can then outfit your space with the supplies you specifically need and even decorate it the way you like to work.
If you only have one desk, you could take turns using it, but then you would have the switching costs of moving your things every time you rotated with your partner. In that case, keep the switching to a minimum by setting up time blocks for the desk – say, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. for one person and then 2 p.m.-6 p.m. for the other. Or, you can create a second “desk” from part of your dining table or with a tray table set in front of the couch.
2 – Carve out dedicated meeting space – so you don’t walk into each other’s webcams
In addition to your solo work, many professionals have phone calls or video meetings throughout the day.
Identify quiet space in your home that is suitable for meetings. If both of your desks are in the living area, you may need to set up a portable table and chair in the bedroom or some other room to hold quiet meetings. A quiet space is especially important for video meetings that show the space around you.
Let each other know when your webcams will be on, so the other person doesn’t walk into your background and distract a video meeting.
3 – Create do-not-disturb or distraction-free guidelines
When you have a concentration-heavy task or an urgent deadline, let your partner know. If you have ongoing tasks that require a distraction-free zone, put these in your partner’s calendar so you don’t have to keep reminding them.
For ad hoc times, create a do-not-disturb signal – it could be a physical Do Not Disturb sign that you put up on your wall or a fun hat that you wear (as long as it’s not during one of your video meetings!). Your partner might not think to let you know when they don’t want to be disturbed, so be proactive and ask what guidelines work for them.
4 – Decide when and how you’ll interrupt each other
Since you’re working in close quarters, there will be times when you’ll interrupt each other. Let’s say your partner gets called into an unexpected meeting, needs the quiet space and wants to ask you if you’ll be using it. Sure, they can just drop by your desk (like a colleague typically would) but since you’re setting up your work space for maximum productivity, specify the ideal way they should interrupt.
Would you prefer them to stop by, send an email or text you? What would they prefer when you need to interrupt them?
People work differently so don’t assume that what works for you or what was customary in your office will work just as well at home.
5 – Sync your schedules to find bonus together time
One of the benefits of working from home together as a couple is that you could eat lunch together, share a coffee break or even brainstorm on ideas.
Consider blocking out time when you can rest or work together. Use each other as accountability partners – if there are tasks you both normally procrastinate on, check up on each other so you have built-in motivation to get started. You might even sit together while you work on dreaded tasks to make the work more enjoyable.
Your home was not set up to be an office, so you have to proactively optimize your work space
Dual-career couples can both stay productive even with two people suddenly working from home.
However, since your home was not set up to be an office from the start, you have to customize it for productivity. Part of this is physically dedicating space and setting it up in a way that supports your work. In addition, there are process guidelines to set up so that you minimize distractions and maximize collaboration.
A version of this post originally appeared in my column for Forbes.com.
