While all of us here at Lifehacker are excited about Work From Home Week, it really hits home (ha) for four of us. Here’s a peek at workspaces and routines from Claire, Michelle, Patrick, and myself.
Food and Beverage Editor Claire Lower (Portland, OR)
I usually wake up around 9 am and pull my laptop into bed with me to check Slack and my email. Once I make sure nothing urgent needs my attention, I throw on shoes and walk my dog real quick, then make a cup of coffee and move to the couch, where I write my first article of the day. (Sometimes I need to cook something in the morning, but this is rare.) Once I have the first thing written, I either write the next (if it’s due soon), edit a freelancer piece, or take a shower and eat something.
Once everything that’s scheduled to run that day has been written, I cook whatever food thing or cocktail I need to make for the next day’s stories. This usually involves going to the grocery store, sometimes more than once, because I forget things. I try to get all food cooked and photographed before the sun goes down, which is getting easier as we get closer to Spring. Once I have the photos and recipes I need for the next post, I either write it up, or go to the gym for a bit, then write it up when I get back.
My only real variation from this is Thursday nights, when I work on my casserole or sous-vide projects. I usually have a friend come over to help me eat whatever I’m making. If I have a large amount of very cheesy casserole leftover, I take a portion of it to my ex boyfriend (who works right down the street), because my current boyfriend is lactose intolerant, and I don’t want him to eat it in his sleep (sleep eating is crazy, my friends).
Staff Writer Patrick Allan (Pasadena, CA)
My daily routine is pretty simple. I wake up around 7 a.m., drink a large glass of water while I make some coffee, check in with work for a couple minutes, then walk the dog. After that, I make a quick breakfast (usually oatmeal and an egg), work all morning, then grab lunch around 1 p.m. I work the rest of the afternoon and take a shower after I workout and before I go see people in the evening.
I always have several sticky note pads on my desk, usually of different colors. I use them for everything: making notes, creating to-do lists, marking pages in books, etc. Also, I pretty much have Spotify open all day. I’m either blasting tunes on my surround sound speakers or listening on my noise-cancelling headphones. Items of note on my desk include a velociraptor mug that I keep all of my pens in, a real bone cup that I keep various small office supplies and whatnot in, a digital voice recorder for making quick voice notes/recording calls, both pairs of my blue blocking glasses (nerd alert), a copy of Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations, some Super Mario gachapon toys I got in Japan, and a Nendoroid figure of Mei from Overwatch.
Parenting Editor Michelle Woo (Los Angeles, CA)
I live on the west coast, but on the days when my husband takes our daughter to school, I work on east coast time along with my colleagues in NYC. We’re generally allowed to set our own hours, but when it’s noon in New York and I’ve just gotten to my computer, I feel like I’m playing catch up. When I start earlier, I feel more on top of things. And it gives me a little more time in the late afternoon to hang out with my kid.
I use Post-Its to create a large-scale Trello-like board. There is one story/project per Post-It. It gives me a glance of my week, and I can easily rearrange stories and projects as needed. I’m finding, though, that a tactile weekly calendar isn’t enough, so I’ll be adding a large monthly calendar to show me the three months ahead.
I mainly work at the desk in my home office but from time to time, I like to move around the house. Right now, I’m working at my kitchen table. Sometimes, a new environment gives me a new frame of mind.
My favorite workspace in the house is on a Lovesac, which is a massive bean bag chair. I’ve mentioned before that I like to handwrite rough drafts in a room without any distracting devices. After I’ve gathered my research, I’ll plop down with a notebook, and start writing.
Health Editor Beth Skwarecki (Pittsburgh, PA)
I drag myself out of bed at 7 every morning, and curl up on the couch half-asleep, before my kids wake up, to do some morning pages. Then I get them ready, drop them off at day care, and basically sit in my office all day. I try to make my office a nice place to be, and in fact I called dibs on this attic space before we started assigning bedrooms because I love the slanted ceilings and the wood paneling. It really helps your attitude when you enjoy your surroundings. My office is kind of a mess (I tidied up before I took the photo), but I’ve promised myself that when I finish dealing with all the junk that’s built up over the years, I get to install built-in bookshelves along one whole wall. Like this.
I’ve always got a notebook by my right hand, which I use for to-do lists, interview notes, brainstorming, and more. There’s usually a Diet Coke on my desk too, or sometimes a coffee or a seltzer. I keep useful information posted to the wall in front of me. The ones I use the most are Health News Review’s checklist for best practices for writing about studies, and a cheat sheet for title-casing headlines. I also have a nicely formatted copy of Roy Peter Clark’s Quick 50 Writing Tools.
I try to get up a couple times a day, for snacks or whatever, and aim for at least one major outing: maybe to the gym, or a sandwich shop, or just to run an errand that gets me out of the house. When my husband comes home with the kids at the end of the day, I hear them downstairs and I know it’s time to start wrapping up.