VIDEO: Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez On How To Work With Your Spouse Without Killing Each Other

From Rodgers and Hart to Comden and Green to Marcy and Zina, being a songwriting team has often been described as a kind of a marriage. So what happens when your collaborator in art is also your collaborator in life?

Married since 2003, Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez "met cute" Broadway style, at the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. That's also where Robert met Jeff Marx, his collaborator for the score of the Tony-winner, AVENUE Q. The Lopez/Anderson professional partnership began by writing songs for the Disney Channel's BEAR IN THE BIG BLUE HOUSE and hit its highest peak so far with the 2014 Oscar-winning Best Song "Let It Go," from their score for FROZEN.

Shortly afterwards, they explain for Motto, from the editors of Time, how they get any work done "without killing each other."

1. Know that roadblocks are inevitable-and communicate to get past them.

"As with a love relationship, a professional collaboration requires tons of talking and airing of issues. The same skills that serve one also serve the other."

2. Make at least some effort to leave work at work.

"We do like to believe that our kids (we have two daughters, ages 6 and 10) are getting parents who pay attention to them and who aren't always working. So we try our best to keep work contained in workland, a.k.a. our basement."

3. Put down your phones from time to time.

"We have to really work hard to put the screens down so we can connect-whether it's about a new song we're writing or something going on in our home life. We don't set rules limiting the technology; we just gently nag one another if we notice the other person spending too much time on their devices. Sometimes it's helpful to throw a wad of something soft at your partner's head."

4. Have a sense of humor.

"We've been known to say things to each other like, 'Well, I was having a tough time getting started on a lyric, and every time I pitched my jerk coworker a draft of a first line, he said 'no' with a really sour look on his face. It's hard to want to work with his big sour face in my head.' To which the other might respond, 'I know exactly how you feel-I was trying to get started on a song, and this talkative, over-eager spazz kept interrupting my train of thought to pitch her ideas.'"

5. Ask for help when you need it.

"Sometimes, we feel kind of like a single parent since work-related stresses are more likely to happen at the same time when you work together. Once we realized this was an issue, we started asking for as much help as possible from family members and sitters during these tense times."

6. Celebrate the perks.

"Working from home together in your shared basement means that, every once in a while, you can take an afternoon break-an afternoon delight break-and blow off some steam. We have a whiteboard that folds down into a Murphy bed. And maybe this is a good place to stop the article."

Click photo below for video and full article.