Here we are a year (I still can't believe it's been a year!) into the pandemic, and I've been working from home with my now 3 year old for the past year. Some days are definitely harder than others, but I thought I'd share the tips that help me to stay somewhat sane and productive during the workweek.
Adjust Your Productivity Expectations
This was huge for me, and something I struggled a lot with at the beginning of the pandemic. I'm used to being very productive. Not being able to match my previous productivity was a really hard adjustment for me. I felt super guilty and would beat myself up over it constantly. The reality right now is - we're in the middle of a year long pandemic, as of today, more than 500,000 people in the United States have died from Covid-19, millions are unemployed or underemployed, and so many of us are struggling with depression, not being able to see our friends and family, and just the loss of our day to day lives - so with all that being said, please give yourself grace if you're not as productive as you normally are. There is nothing 'normal' about what we're all collectively going through, and it's just unreasonable to expect your productivity to be normal right now.
Plan Everything Out
I am an admitted over-planner, but this is definitely one skill that's helped me out over the past year. I literally plan EVERYTHING. If I didn't there would be no way I'd ever be able to get any work done. Generally, I plan out my weeks and days like so:
- On Friday afternoons, I send a weekly recap email to my boss. I use this time to not only put together a list of tasks and projects that I've completed for the week, but to look ahead to the upcoming week to prioritize what I need to work on and get done.
- Everything is on my calendar. I use my Outlook calendar for work, and my personal Gmail calendar for everything else. I don't just use my calendar for meetings - I add reminders on it of when my monthly reports or other tasks are due, and I block out time on my calendar to work on projects or tasks - this way I ensure that I'll not only remember to work on them, but am setting aside the time to get them done.
- I keep an ongoing to-do list. I use, and highly recommend the Todoist app to keep up with your to-do list, but you can use whatever works best for you. I have my to-do's broken down by category in the app - just one of the features that I love about it! - so I can keep track of, but separate my personal and work to-do lists. You can also set different priority levels for to-do's, which helps with prioritizing, and due dates to stay on track.
Plan Out Your Child's Day Too
Admittedly, this is one area that I've struggled with that I want to do better at. It's been so hard trying to stay on top of work, and parent at the same time, that I've really been challenged to stick to a daily routine with Sebastian. A classmate mentioned to me that they created a visual schedule for their child, which helped them out a lot. I'm thinking of doing the same thing for Bash, and sharing it with his father and grandparents so that he can stick to the same schedule during his time with them as well.
Focus on your Most Important Tasks
This has been a game changer for me. Everyday I take the time out to plan the top 3 things I need to get accomplished for that day. I focus on getting those done first, before I begin working on anything else. Let's face it, when you're working from home with kids, more often than not your day will indeed go to shit at some point. At least you'll have gotten the most important things on your list done when this happens, which always leaves me feeling at least somewhat content and accomplished.
Be Flexible
Kids will be kids. My toddler could care less that I'm working from home, or if I'm on a Zoom meeting. Inevitably, I won't be able to get things done exactly when and how I planned, and that's ok. If you can be more flexible with your WFH schedule, try working a bit earlier or later if your day gets derailed a little bit. Maybe even let your little one sleep in later than usual, while you get some work done (uninterrupted) in the mornings. Flexibility may not exactly look like this for you, but the point here is to be flexible enough with your day to day routine, to be able to think outside of the box and creatively utilize your time to get shit done.
Feel free to send any other tips + suggestions my way! After an entire year of dong this - I'm open to all of the extra help I can get!