How I work from home with two homeschooling kids- Part 2
Do you work from home? I've worked from home way before COVID made it trendy. I've been working full time from for 2 years now. Before that it was part time. I’m so passionate about women being able to work from home with their kids. It's fine if you enjoy working outside of the home too. You do you. But for me, I always wanted to be at home with them and then when they became school aged, we decided to homeschool. It's definitely the road less traveled but I'm a believer that you can have it all. You can have the career and be at home.
When I decided to do full time, my kids were 12 and 10. I won't lie, there was an adjustment period for everyone involved. As a mom, I had to set some work boundaries with the kids. “No, I can't make you a PB sandwich just now and SHHHH, I'm on a call. All jokes aside, they learned pretty quick when they could and could not disturb mom and they also learned to be a little more independent and they are now pretty good problem solvers too.
While I do have a dedicated office space in our home for client calls, video conferencing, etc, most days you will find me sitting to our dining room or if I'm working late (which I try not to do) you can find me on the sofa with a movie on in the background.
Working from home is an adjustment if you have been used to “going” to work.
I have watched my husband adjust to this over the past year. It's easy to get distracted and go do other things and before you know it, it's noon!
So how do I manage to show up for my business and have two children homeschooling. BTW, we were homeschooling long before COVID made it a household word too.
Wake up early
...well not too early as I've had to train myself to become a morning person. What has helped me to do this is I go to bed at a decent hour every night, even on weekends and I wake up the same time every morning, again even on weekends. And I don't have to set an alarm. I hate waking up to an alarm.
Do not do housework during your office hours.
No social media or checking of messages before my morning tea (even better if made by my husband before he takes off to work) along whatever book I'm reading. I will do this for 30-45 minutes. Then I will jump in the shower, dress, apply make up and make my breakfast.
It’s not easy but what worked for us is when the kids got up early, I let them play for a couple of hours in the am, eat breakfast, etc and during this time I did my social media posting for the day ( most of this is now scheduled) and check my email. Around 10 we would start school. The younger grades only need 60-90 minutes a day, less for kindergarten. We would have lunch and then play for a couple of hours so I could work and then late afternoon, head outside. Then I tried to not work too many evenings cuz well mama doesn’t need to burn herself out.
Two years ago I did one of Racheal Cook’s business coaching classes and that totally changed my work from home life that allowed me to have better balance. If you want to test the waters. Racheal offers a Free fired up and focused challenge. I cannot recommend this enough. She talks about running a profitable business and avoiding the burnout and provides you with strategies that you can implement into your own business right away. She is the coach empowering women entrepreneurs and championing our successes.
Essentially Mondays are my CEO date day where I plan my week.
I also have a VA who handles a lot of admin tasks for me and also helped me set up systems to automate a lot of things like my client on-boarding process. Monday I set aside a couple of hours for discovery calls.
Tuesdays-Thursdays are my design days and I try to work between 8-3.
Friday’s are online consults, on-site visits, online design presentations, etc and I stop work at 2.
I do not work weekends and do not check emails. I only work if my contractor is on site and may need me.
It’s hard but automate what you can, consider a Virtual Assistant ( I have one for 2-3 hours a week) I consider it not an expense but an investment into my business and nail down your process.
I work most days from my dining table so I’m accessible to the kids. When they were younger a lot of my client calls happened in the evenings when either they were in bed or my husband was home. He’s self employed as well.
What’s worked for me is I’m a list maker.
Make a list of things you want to tackle for your business each week and try and do 2-3 things a day. Just keep being consistent and keep moving forward. And don’t beat yourself up if you have a day or even a week when you’re too exhausted to do anything. Give yourself some grace. ❤️
Oh google Rachel cook Pomodoro method. It’s genius for being productive in a short frame of time. She says to set your timer for 30 minutes and do focused work during that time. No phones/distractions and then take a 15 minute break. Get up, walk away, share a snack with the kids and then do that 2 more times for a total of three.
Commit. Show up consistently. Set your work hours.
For me it's 8-2 (with a two 15 minute breaks and a 30 minute lunch)
When doing focused work, my marketing, client design work, etc, I have my phone on do not disturb. I also only check my messages twice a day- once around mid morning and again before I close things down for the afternoon.
Do you work from home? Is your space organized and inspiring. Are you at ease with your space when doing video conferencing? I can help bring calm to the chaos. Check out my home office consultation package.
xo,
