Many of us have had the added excitement of work-from-home guests (i.e. significant others, family members, pets… the list can go on). I would venture to guess you’ve been trying to figure out the best way for those WFH mates to pass the time so you can stay productive and distraction-free during the workday.

I am also speaking to filling time on the weekends in order to accomplish other non-work-related tasks. Be it through additional schoolwork or art projects, to-do-lists around the house, spring cleaning or even promoting the art of catnapping. Now I know I do not have children constantly vying for my attention, but my personal experience with perpetual distractions comes with the same lesson… What we thought we knew about our personal working style has been tested to the max and hopefully from this, we’ll have adapted to be better people!

This realization stems from working on a puzzle of the Sistine Chapel with my husband. I attempted it once before (when he first brought it home from Italy 6 years ago), but I quickly found out this thousand-plus piece puzzle would require a lot more time, focus, and patience… Well, what better time to give it another go than now?!

We each work on this beast separately and occasionally together, but from this experience I am even more aware of my personal working style and the stylistic differences of my partner. I believe, this recognition will help me when I am able to fully return to my “day-job.” Our current working relationship with our family members will translate back to office life in one way or the other.

Thanks to the Myers-Briggs personality test, we have a decent understanding of what we individually need to go about our day-to-day tasks. The way we think, structure, organize and complete work is something we have all been striving to perfect, starting when we are young, but real-world work experience really brought those specific styles to the surface.

Because of these new environments, a discovery of new working styles within us will transpire. What I truly need to work through these different distractions is beginning to create a more effective communication style, possibly because patience runs at a minimum these days. It may be aggravating when family members, colleagues and even clients do not work the same as you, but promoting diversity in work styles, both at home and with team members and clients are what creates innovation and growth.

Ask yourself, what has challenged you over the past two months? What have you been able to work through and come to master versus what is still a struggle for you? Identify any new behaviors and methods you can bring with you into the new normal of professional life. How you typically work with a bride, mother of the bride, corporate or a non-profit client may benefit from these new identified styles.

While you may have a strong grip on your working style, learning to adapt to each “client” (professionally or personally) will benefit the relationship overall. Everyone needs something different, whether that be the nitty gritty details or the big-picture; identify what that is and use it to your advantage!

Beyond personality characteristics, I would venture to guess you have also been able to develop a new approach to doing more with less! How can your experience with the current lack of resources available to you, translate into creating more with less through creativity?

…. As for the aforementioned puzzle in my home office, it is a work in progress! Much like all of us, no?