When Calm Meets Chaos
Home improvement challenges when your workplace is home, noise cancelling headphones and lists to cover lists of jobs to do
Usually I pick an article or business nugget to share of my experience or something that’s topical to write about but this week it’s a little different. Different because we’re currently having work done in our home and I work from home.
It’s okay (this is what I keep telling myself), it’ll be lovely when it’s all complete but that bit between starting and finishing is where the chaos looms. It’s true to say you can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs but my mind can find itself feeling a little scrambled to say the least.
Luckily, I have some winning noise cancelling headphones. And whilst they don’t completely cut out all noise, they do a pretty good job at giving me some headspace. They also allow me to shut out the world around me — relieving the charged feeling of a somewhat chaotic space with builders in and out of the house.
I created some house rules for the builders – for my sanity as much as theirs, as no one wants to hear me reminding them to close the front door as we have a dog, to use the Portaloo facilities provided, to cut on the drive and not the grass, or even to use the perfectly good kettle we bought them.
I have to say, I think the chaos can whirl around in my mind as I don’t do mess very well. I do, however, like to be organised and have cocooned myself in my office with the dog (best work buddy ever). The door is shut, I can brew my own coffee and I can see the blue sky through the blinds.
You see, it’s the blue sky and sunshine that breaks through the clouds that brings us joy and if you apply that mindset approach in business, it brings about the same sense of feeling. It’s through the challenges, the tough days and the times of uncertainty that it can feel as if a dark cloud with persistent rain is pounding down upon you. But when you come out the other side, there’s a break in that dark and heavy cloud where sunshine powers through and better days ensue.
It’s that blue sky and sunshine that I’m clinging onto. That and my lists, my diary and my post it notes. (I did say I love to be organised). It’s the one thing that creates freedom of mind when I write it down and the computer system that is my brain can file it away to free up more memory for other tasks and duties.
Change doesn’t just affect us personally, there are our other team members, our colleagues, our clients and for me it’s also my family that are equally impacted too. Disruption can have a varying degree of impact on different people. For my autistic son, it’s unsettling, as environment and stability is a big thing for him, along with routine, and a big trigger should this change.
The one thing I have found that works well to alleviate some of the unsettled feelings, is communication. Communication of change, how long it’s expected to last and how you can adapt to run with the change even if it’s a temporary state.
So that’s me. I’m rolling with the change with the builders, running my business as usual, engaging in hiring some additional help to take some pressure off and keeping everyone, I know, work with and my family in the loop of what’s happening each day. I feel it’s as a team that we push through, talk it through, plan it through and work it through until the point of when it is eventually behind you.
Change is after all a state that evolves and shifts and as described by Oxford Dictionaries is, ‘an act or process through which something becomes different.’ Different is certainly coming in our home environment, but on the whole change applied to a wider perspective, can bring about positive outcomes and better solutions.
NB: All artistic works are carried out by my creative, autistic son as part of his work experience connected to his college course.
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About Simply Amber Lou
Simply Amber Lou business copywriting services was founded by Amber Smith and is the home of business copywriting, content writing, course creation, copy power hours, copy packages, bespoke & bolt on services and copy audits, guided business copy teaching programmes, notebook designs and writing consultancy.
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