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?
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Christina Lemmey is the mother of two school-aged girls, a wife, and the owner of 
Your husband has good insight!
My kids have been on summer break since May 22nd and since then I’ve worked in roughly 2-hour segments too. Since each of my kids are involved in a couple of extra-curricular activities throughout the week, I also squeeze in work while I’m waiting for them.
The first few weeks were rough as I adjusted to having kids around while I worked and they adjusted to keeping themselves busy without my direct input – ALL the time. For example, my kids are involved in a bunch of summer reading programs (at library, local book retailers, etc.), so they have an incentive to read *quietly*. They also each have Summer Bridge workbooks, and love working in them! It helps that after they complete a certain # of pages, there is a reward at the end.
Michele @ The Integrated Mothers last blog post..Claim it girl!
hey guys, I swear we already talked about this! but I am lucky in that my hubs has a reduced summer schedule, so we just trade off. Then, add in summer camps and VOILA!
Summer is only a little different for me, as two of my kiddos aren’t even in school yet, and frankly I find it helpful to have the 7yo home to help keep the 4yo busy! They play so well together (when they aren’t fighting anyway!) and spend most of the day outside. The hardest part of summer for me is the lure of the sunshine and the desire to spend time out with the boys going for long walks or hanging out at the sprinkler park. I build in the necessary time for side trips at least once per week or work really hard in the mornings so we can have the afternoons, after baby’s nap, free to just hang together.
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Thank you for the timely post! I’ve been wondering too how to get through the summer with my four at home. I like the 2-hours-at-a-time idea, and the early morning work. I’m also purposefully keeping it low-key, and leading up to the summer I wasn’t trying to win new clients. One idea might be too arrange reciprocal plays with other freelancers’ kids. I’ve done this with another mom throughout the school year. Also, if you have a laptop and one of those new Internet sticks, you can take your work on the road. On a related note, I’d like to hear from other writers how they divvy up their day to deal with email, social media, blogging/commenting on blogs, marketing, and oh yeah, client work.
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If you’d like a tool for managing your time and projects, you can use this application inspired by David Allen’s GTD:
http://www.Gtdagenda.com
You can use it to manage and prioritize your goals, projects and tasks, set next actions and contexts, use checklists, schedules and a calendar.
A mobile version is available too.
When my girls were little, I used mother’s helpers and traded babysitting with neighbors. My husband is a night-owl and he’d often keep the girls up late, which resulted in them sleeping really late. I get my best work done early in the morning.