Today is the first day of summer break for us and at nearly 7am both kids are still sound asleep (miraculous for our house!). We don’t have a single thing scheduled on the calendar today and what a joy it is not having to get out the door to catch the 7:10 am middle school bus.
However, that doesn’t mean that my client calendar is empty and as I remember well from last summer, this 11 week break is tough when it comes to balancing work and family. That’s why I’ve decided to try out some new time management tips to keep both my clients and my kids happy.
Let me just say that time management is not easy for me. While both girls were at school I had 7 full hours of uninterrupted time to work but do you think I actually billed 7 hours a day? No way. As any WAHM will tell you the distractions of working from home are many. Add to that the appeal of social media (Twitter is my fave!) and you’ve got a multitude of things all vying for your attention.
But my husband suggested that I break up my days into sessions, such as 3 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the afternoon/evening. Brilliant man! It sounds so easy but as I know from experience, putting time management into practice is challenging enough when school is in session, never mind when the kids are at home all day. However, self imposed breaks actually help to regain your focus and it will make the kids happy that you have time to spend with them.
For some reason I work better under deadline pressure so this short-session strategy might actually work. Knowing that a deadline is looming helps me to focus and complete the project more quickly. I’ve also told the kids that television viewing will be significantly decreased this summer so maybe my morning work session will be their chance to watch tv.
So for today, I’m testing out the 2 hour work session theory. I started at 7am and will work til 9am. After lunch I’ll work from 1pm to 3pm and if necessary I’ll work from 8pm to 10pm tonight. Sounds easy enough, right? As they say, it takes 3 weeks to form a new habit so if this works (fingers crossed) maybe this can carry over to when school starts.
Hold on a second…I need to take this one day at a time…
Working from home during the summer months requires some flexibility because not every day will be the same. Kids will have different needs, camp schedules might be different, surprise playdates might be scheduled. But it IS possible to keep your family and your clients happy with some planning, flexibility, and communication.
What’s YOUR strategy for working at home this summer?
About Christina Lemmey
Christina is a Virtual Assistant and Owner of Multimedia VA. She specializes in creating written, audio and video content for businesses who need an online presence. Christina was a call-in guest on The Dave Ramsey Show and is currently in the process of creating a super secret training course for other do-it-yourself-ers.