As a work and stay at home mom, I’ve had to juggle lots of different tasks. The laundry. The dinner. The screaming children. The screaming children jumping in the laundry at dinner. Seriously, I’ve seen it all and juggled it all. But for some reason doing a sit-down, have to go to virtual meetings, need to keep my head in the game while writing these presentations mindset is extra hard. With all of the crazy things happing in the world at the moment, many of us (my husband included) have found ourselves in the position of needing to perform our corporate or other daily jobs at home while trying to make sure the kiddos (who aren’t currently enjoying their daily lives at school) aren’t burning the house down as the run amuck like crazy rascals.
After a month of my husband working his Big Company Tech job at home, this is what we have learned:
- Set a daily routine.
- Make a ritual to help you set your “Get Stuff Done” mindset.
- Have a dedicated work spot.
- Plan both physical breaks and mental breaks throughout the day. My Apple Watch likes to remind me to stand up when it thinks I’ve been sitting too long.
- Don’t forget to eat and drink. Everything seems harder when you are hangry. If you have a tendency to forget what time it is, set alarms for when to eat or remind yourself to drink some water. Keeping a water bottle by your workspace is also very helpful.
- Enable children to help themselves (when possible). Obviously if your 18 month old needs their diaper changed, we won’t make them do that themselves. This one is really about encouraging you to plan ways to help enable your children to do things that are developmentally appropriate to do themselves. I learned this one from my son’s Montessori preschool and my experience as a preschool teacher as well. Some examples which have worked well are 1) pre-printing school worksheets and a printable plan/checklist for your school aged kids to work through 2) Putting prepared snacks and drinks on the counter so that they are easily available to avoid the “Dad, I’m hungry!!” moments during work calls. 3) Make activities like workbooks, puzzles, and art supplies easy to grab in a basket or an art cart (I love these ones from Michaels and they come in a ton of colors).
