👋 Hey Reader!

Here’s what I’ve got for you in today’s issue of WFH Dads:

→ Home office vs kitchen table

→ Recommendation of the week - car seat towel for you heavy gym sweaters

Let's get into it.

Home office vs kitchen table

One of my favorite Instagram accounts is called Minimal Setups. It's these beautiful photos of incredibly minimal home offices. Everything is always so perfectly arranged and simple.

I sometimes wonder how functional some of these setups are as my desk isn't nearly as simple, but I do appreciate the intentionality behind each of the setups.

I really love my home office (you can check out a video tour of it here). 95% of my work gets done in the office. It helps me to have a separate space in the home where WORK happens, even though occasionally I'll take a call from the couch or sit in on a meeting while eating lunch at my dining room table.

Anthony's dilemma

I was talking to one WFH dad, who I'll call Anthony, who also loved his office, but had to turn it into a bedroom when he and his partner had a new child. So his new home office became the kitchen table.

At first, it wasn't bad. He felt working at the kitchen table would allow him to help out with the kids when necessary.

But he quickly found out that trying to work and be around to help resulted him doing both things poorly.

As he put it to me:

A potential solution

So I asked him if there was anywhere in the house that he could potentially have as a dedicated workspace, and he told me:

He even sent a couple photos of the attic:

So in order to create time and space to get the attic cleaned up, he implemented The Weekly Map and Daily MITs strategies (both found in my WFH Dads Productivity Playbook, click here and I'll send it to you).

The result

Anthony got the attic cleaned up and turned into a proper home office!

He said it’s just been so great to just have that dedicated space, separate from the main parts of the house, so he's able to focus and lock in at work. Being out of sight from the family also helps his kids understand “dad’s at work right now.”

It's even created a mental boundary for himself. This office is where work happens. Work isn’t happening where he's eating dinner or where he sits and lounges with the family in the living room.

Create the boundary

If you CAN create a dedicated space, it's well worth it, not only for you, but for your family as well.

If that is not possible, then I highly consider making the investment in a co-working space that you go to a couple times a week, so that way you can have at least a few days of that dedicated workspace.

Where do you typically get your work done?

Recommendation of the week

​Post-workout car seat towel​

Another boundary I keep is making time to workout, and this thing has been super helpful.

I used to drive home from my jiu jitsu class completely drenched in sweat and my car started to smell pretty rank. I'd end up having to leave the windows of the car open in the garage just to let it air out overnight.

I started bringing a normal towel but the back of it kept falling down so it was really only protecting the bottom of my seat from sweat; the back of the seat still got pretty wet with sweat.

Was telling my buddy KC about this (who has a fitness newsletter for dads), and he told me these car seat towels exist! It's more of a waterproof fabric so the sweat doesn't leak through and it's designed to fit over the seat so it doesn't fall down.

Now I put it on my seat whenever I go to jiu jitsu or if I go for a run w/ my son before I take him to school and don't have time to shower beforehand.

Get it if your car seat is soaked with your disgusting sweat!

What about you?

Where do you typically get your work done?

Home office?
Dining room table?
Coffee house?
Co-working space?

Let me know, and send a picture if you're inclined! Would love to see it.

Thom Gibson Founder of WFH Dads ​​​

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600 1st Ave, Ste 330 PMB 92768, Seattle, WA 98104-2246
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