I have been a homeschooling and work-from-home mom over the past four years. It’s not easy to do both, but I am proof that it is doable. Here are a few tips that I have learned along the way and my hope is that they help you!
Tips on working from home + homeschooling
Figure out when you are your most productive
I’m most productive between 4 am-7 am. It’s quiet, my coffee is warm and I am usually well-rested. I know this doesn’t work for everyone, but my energy drops hardcore once the kids are up. That is the time when I’m most productive so I do my best to make the most of it. My second most productive time is 9-11 pm. I try to get the bulk work of my work done around those two-time frames. During the day, I try to answer emails, record blog posts as voice memos and edit pictures on my iPad during my kid’s quiet time.
GET MY FREE DAILY SCHEDULE PRINTABLE
to help navigate your homeschool/ work from home schedule
Set priorities
Something I have learned from Alex is how to set a priority list. He’s set three different lists. “DO, DELEGATE, DELAY, DELETE” I take my entire to-do list and break it up into those three categories. Now I have to be super honest with myself and do the best I can to add things to the delegate and don’t do categories. My personality bends towards wanting to do everything on my own, which leads me to feeling super stressed and burnt out.
After you’ve set this list up, pick the TOP THREE must-do priorities and focus all of your attention on getting those three things completed. For me, it looks like, write content for a brand partnership or edit images from the last photo shoot, or have captions ready to go for IG. Once those are done, then I can move on to the next thing on the list. But here’s the thing, you have to work as if your computer is at 20% battery and you left your charger in your husband’s car. This is not leisure work time, this is serious productive, put your head down and get it done time!
Here’s a FREE printable to help you organize your to-do list
Set email boundaries
Not every email is a priority, but nothing is more distracting than having an alert on my phone telling me there’s something in my inbox and it’s “hot off the press.” I ignore ALL emails when I’ve set up my “laser-focused work time” and don’t look at them until I come up for air. Mainly because an email is usually another thing I have to add to my to-do list and I want to be sure to give it it’s proper attention. This, of course, doesn’t count if there’s a super important email that I’m waiting for.
Communicate with your kids what you do and why
If your kids are old enough to understand, let them know what you do and what the expectation is. I tell my kids that mommy works from home on my computer, my phone and sometimes on my headphones. So if they see me on my phone, they know that I am not ignoring them, rather, I am working from home.
Organize your day
Kids are very unpredictable, but having a set schedule, really helps me to organize my work time, their school time, all of the snack times and naps. Schedules help me to foresee my kid’s needs, it helps me stay one step ahead, and it allows them to be a part of the rhythm of our home. This is also another way to keep them from asking for food 30x a day. When they know when their food is coming, the questions for food usually stop.
GET MY FREE DAILY SCHEDULE PRINTABLE
to help navigate your homeschool/ work from home schedule
It’s not always easy, but with a little practice from your part and theirs, you’ll begin to develop a rhythm.
Be present and realistic
It’s not realistic for me to schedule work calls at 10 am on a Tuesday. This is prime school time for my kids and they are loud and require my undivided attention. So, I opt for scheduling calls during nap time (usually 12-3 pm), early mornings (before 7 am) or after hours. I communicate with the companies that I work for that I am a homeschooling mom and we usually come up with a good time to have a conference call or video chat. Sometimes this means I’m on a call at 6 am and sometimes it means I take a call in my closet at 2 pm so I don’t wake up the kids from their nap. Being clear and realistic about my time helps me to stay on top of my work while devoting prime school hours to my kids.
This also works the other way around. When I’ve scheduled school or playtime, I am present. The phone is down (unless I’m taking a picture of how cute they are) and I am not answering emails, taking calls or doing anything that would take my attention away from them. I already have so much on my plate and I know everything will light on fire if I try to multitask.
So I don’t. I focus on them.
No mom guilt
I wrote about being present and realist first because that is a preface to this topic. When I am giving my all to my kids and to my work, there is no room for me to feel like I am selling my kid’s short. It is a privilege to be able to homeschool and to help financially and I don’t take it for granted. This means that I may miss out on play dates, or taking them to all the activities, but that’s something that we (as a family) are choosing and there is no room to feel sorry or bad about it. I work as onto the Lord and do everything I can to point my kid’s eyes towards Christ.
Ok. That’s it for now. Sweet friends, you can do this!
There will be challenges at time but I wholeheartedly believe that you can do this!
