We know a couple that is lucky enough to both be able work from home. Wait, did we say "lucky?" Oops. We mean that they're miserable. Well, they were miserable, until they created this home office "door code." It's a relationship- and life-saver that you can practice yourself, whether or not you or your S.O. work from home.
If you're struggling to separate the "home" from the "office," you can use this door code to communicate with friends, family or roommates about your, um, availability. We'll call it availability because it sounds better than "likelihood of cursing you out when you walk through the doorway."
By just taking a glance at your home office door, any would-be distractors can figure out whether or not you're open to interruption. Here's how our friends do it:
- DOOR OPEN: It means that you can be interrupted at any time for any reason. Whether somebody needs help opening a jar or just wants to chat about dinner plans.
- DOOR AJAR: It means that you're busy. But if there's something extremely pressing, you can be interrupted. You can set your own house rules to say what "extemely pressing" means.
- DOOR CLOSED: Don't. Even. Breathe. In. This. Direction. Open this door only if there's a fire in the house.
What do you think? Is this something you might use at home?
Of course, this only works if you have a dedicated home office with a door separating it from the rest of the house. If your home office is a multi-purpose room, how do you communicate your availability to housemates? Tell us in the comments!
(Images: Rebecca's Loving Living Small Home Office, Room Architecture: The Blog)
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It only works if the residents of the home respect it. My wifes mother-in-law would constantly interupt her conference calls even when her door was closed. She would just walk right in and start talking. Needless to say her boss and her clients on other side of the speaker phone were not amused. Thank goodness her in-laws moved out.
We have an open floor plan and unfortunately my partner likes to listen to TV when I'm trying to get work done. My solution?: do work at night and keep days free to play (or sleep in). Sigh.
I didn't know this was a code! Cool. This is approximately what my grad-student-husband uses to keep me and the kids in or out when he's working at home. Though it's usually closed :-)
@Khurt.... that would be your mother, right?
Who makes that carpet? It is stunning!
my Husband and I have been using this 'code' for years without ever discussing it really. It was just kind of common sense for us :)
What do you do when your desks are beside each other AND they are both in the living room? Ideas?