Hey guys! Welcome back to the podcast. I’m so excited about today’s episode because it’s a pretty personal one to me. If this is your first episode, come on in. You are going to get a front row seat to my life today! I’m so glad you found your way here.

I’m gonna start this one off by celebrating some of my students inside Studio Secrets. I talked about one last week & she gave us an update in our community that I’m super excited to share with you too.

All of this is possible for you too. If you’re listening & are doubting yourself, stop it right now. If they can do it, you can do it. If I can do it, you can do it. I am not special. I put my pants on just like you do. I came from absolutely nothing & crawled my way here because it was that important & I knew I was meant for more. You are too.

Here’s where you start - my free training, Booked Solid Without The Burnout. Go to www.seniorstudiosuccess.com/bookedsolid & soak up what I am sharing with you there. I don’t share that stuff publicly. And let me tell you, if you sign up, but just let it be another email in your inbox, it’s not going to do you any good. You’ll be stuck in the same place you are the next time you’re cleaning out your inbox. Sign up. Set aside 2 hours. You owe it to yourself to see what is possible for you.

There are people who will sign up & never watch the training. There are people who will watch & not apply what I’m sharing. And there are people who will watch it & be massive action takers. Those are the ones who will get results like this!

Alright, let’s get into today’s topic: A survival guide for working from home with your spouse - this should be a fun one. Here we go!

I couldn’t take it anymore. So, before things got ugly & I lost my everloving mind, I asked Brian & the boys to help me move my office upstairs. It’s so funny that this episode was in the queue for me to record because the timing couldn’t have been any better on this one.

Merging families has been amazing. Our boys love each other & it has been a blast! But you can probably imagine that it’s quite a bit different around here now.

My office worked beautifully downstairs before we got married & it definitely before the boys graduated. They are home more now & are actually working on learning about real estate investing with Brian. So let’s just say that the house isn’t as quiet as it used to be.

Y’all know that I preach boundaries & getting rid of distractions. But since I can’t get rid of all the distractions that I absolutely adore, I created a pretty good boundary to help me stay focused & get work done! So now, my office is upstairs away from the chaos.

And that has definitely been one big survival tip - creating a space all your own!

But let’s get into this topic & I’ll give you some inside tips on how Brian & I work together at home, along with some advice we’ve rounded up from business friends who are in the same boat as we are.

Whether you work from home or in a studio together full time or part time, this tips are going to help you. And a lot of them will apply even if you don’t work with your spouse or partner. So stick with me today, even if it doesn’t sound like it would be helpful in your situation. I bet you’ll hear something that will be.

1. Establish a routine

Try to create a routine that works for both of you. Set regular working hours, breaks, and mealtimes, and try to stick to them as much as possible. This is not as easy as it sounds & it takes good communication & flexibility.

Here’s what we do: I get up early, like 5:30am. Brian likes to sleep in a little bit. I get at least an hour of quiet time in the morning. He gets up, feeds the dogs & gets his day started. Then I’m off to work out either in the garage, hop on the treadmill or go for a run. He works out after me, so he gets his quiet time in while I’m doing mine & getting ready for the day.

Then we’ll come back together midmorning to go through what’s on our plates for the day. We already sort of know this the night before, but it helps to revisit anything that may have changed.

He makes me stop to eat lunch because I really do have an issue with forgetting & working right through it. And then we get back into afternoon meetings & calls. We try to wrap up by 5 or 6pm & the rest of the evening is just downtime. Of course, we’ll talk about all the things that evening too that we need to catch up on, but it’s usually hanging around the kitchen, out by the fire pit or laid out on the couch if it’s been a really long day.

2. Define your workspaces

We’ve sort of discussed this one, but we no longer share an office space. It was just too much with both of us in there & the boys needing one of us at different times. It felt like a revolving door & that just wasn’t good for anyone.

So, now I have my office & he has his. If this isn’t possible for you, create some sort of dedicated space for each of you - a desk in the master bedroom, a spare bedroom, a bonus room, the dining room - whatever you can find to just call it your own space. Try to stay away from working from the bed or couch. Those are the least productive places to work (for obvious reasons).

In the past, I’ve even had a little mobile office where all of my things were in a file box with this organizer tray on top for pens & post-its. I had that & my laptop bag & just made it work, but all of my things were in one place so that I could set up shop super fast.

Work with what you’ve got & build up to it. Thankfully now, most things can be done online, so you really don’t need much space. But the quiet time is important. So you may need to rearrange schedules a bit & create that routine that works for you both so that you can both have time that is just yours.

3. Communicate clearly

Ok, the only way this works is if you are open & talking things through. The minute you start to resent each other is the minute it starts to fall apart. When I saw things going south, I immediately opened up to Brian about how I felt & about what I needed. If I had just dealt with it for the next few months, it probably would not have gone as smoothly as it did.

This goes for all the things though. Let your spouse know about deadlines, schedules and what is a priority right now. Be clear about what you actually need from each other in order to be productive.

One of the easiest ways to do this without having to discuss everything is to share a calendar. We share a google calendar that has all of the studio dates on it, all of my coaching calls, his coaching calls, time blocked off to work on big projects, the kids’ work & sports schedules - all of it! So we both know what’s going on & when it’s happening without having to constantly ask each other. Now, it took a little bit to get him on board, but now he’s a google calendar champ!

He also knows my schedule in general - Mondays & Wednesdays for coaching, Tuesdays & Thursdays for photography clients & Fridays off! His schedule is a little more flexible with real estate, but he’s starting to take on some coaching clients too, but it flows really nice during the week.

I’ll give you an example. The other day he needed to set up an appointment with an attorney or investor & I was on a call. He didn’t have to ask me when I was available in order to schedule it. He looked at the calendar, saw what I had open & because he knows when I work with clients & that those are income producing blocks of time, he scheduled around it. He was so proud & I was so proud of him. It was a good moment! Haha!

4. Take breaks together

We do this! There’s nothing like coming together for even 10 minutes just standing around the kitchen island or on the back porch watching the dogs play outside! In the middle of the day! It’s a great way to recharge and reconnect. And it’s a good time to discuss anything that’s going on that we might need an opinion or input on. It’s good stuff & kind of like a mini date in the middle of the afternoon.

5. Respect each other's work time

This is super important. We don’t get paid if we don’t do our work, right? And we can’t work if we are constantly interrupted. So respecting each other enough to not walk in every 5 minutes when you need something is huge. If you work with your spouse, try to minimize distractions as much as you possibly can. Let your honey get his or her work done faster so y’all can get done & sit on the couch tonight watching your favorite show! Unless it’s crazy urgent, avoid interrupting each other. Save it for the breaks that I know you’ll be taking together now, right?

6. Share household chores

Ok, we rock this one! Most days. Running a house full of kids & multiple businesses is not the easiest thing in the world. But it is easier when the house is clean & organized. Thankfully it’s just as important to Brian as it is to me, so this wasn’t a hard sell. We just worked it out. He cooks most of the time while I finish up afternoon meetings or we have something in the crockpot. I do the dishes at night & he empties the dishwasher in the morning. He’ll put a load of laundry in while I’m working out in the morning. Sometimes we fold it together on one of our midday breaks because it’s just easy to do it together. And laundry is way more fun together!

This all comes back to communication and respecting each other’s time. Talk it out. Create a plan together. Don’t over complicate things because it doesn’t work. Ask me how I know! Haha! But staying on top of things really can reduce stress all around and it helps you stay productive too - which means, more time on the couch watching your favorite show!

7. Stay active

Sometimes on our break we’ll take a walk around the neighborhood. I love getting out of my office & getting some sunshine on my face on days where I’m on the computer a lot. Sometimes we just have time to walk to the mailbox. We don’t have traditional mailboxes at the end of our driveway. But our community mailbox isn’t too far, so we just get out to stretch our legs & get some movement in.

And if you’re down for it, do a workout together! We were doing these out in the garage at night together with the boys & we need to get back into that routine, but we just got out of it with all the craziness of graduations, wedding, and travel. I’m sure we’ll get back into it now that life is settling down a bit.

Working out with your spouse is awesome though. You have a built-in accountability partner at home! Take advantage of it!

8. Create boundaries

It's so important to create boundaries between work and personal time. You just have to be able to shut it off. I do not discuss client stuff after 6pm. My lights are off in my office. I walk out & it’s done. The thing with working from home is that work is always there, but only if you let it be.

It takes a lot of discipline to turn it off. It also takes remembering why you started that business in the first place. If you’re like me, it was probably for your family and so that you could have the freedom to work whenever you wanted. The problem is the actual freedom and letting work creep into time where it doesn’t need to be.

Have a talk with your spouse if this is an issue. Decide together what time you will both commit to not discussing work things during non-work hours. You have to separate it to protect your relationship & yourself - mentally & emotionally.

9. Embrace the benefits

Working from home together can be tough, but it can have its benefits too. Enjoy the extra time you get to spend with each other. Not many couples get to do this! And find ways to make it fun and productive. Remember Reese Witherspoon’s line in the movie Sweet Home Alabama - “so I can kiss you whenever I want”? Yeah, that! Go sneak in a little kiss. If that doesn’t make him want to stop interrupting you & get things done faster during the day, I don’t know what will!

Have fun working with your spouse! Be patient. Be flexible and be supportive of each other. You can do this!

Ok, that’s it for today. If you are craving more work-life balance, if you’d love to bring your spouse home, if you’d love to contribute more to your family - get your booty inside my free training, Booked Solid Without The Burnout. You won’t regret it!

Please share this episode with a friend if you learned something today. Your sharing and your podcast reviews is how I’m able to keep giving back to you guys here on the podcast. Thank you so much for that! My goal is to help you build a more profitable, productive & purposeful business so that you can spend more time doing what you love with the ones you love. So let’s keep making that happen. Have a great week y’all!

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