Time Management and Me
This was actually supposed to be a different blog, but I’ll save it for next time. As it’s now 2 AM in the morning, and I can’t shake this idea, I decided to just write it down 🙂
A very smart person, one who I admire and respect greatly, was the one to give me the idea.
Daily routine and Me, or, work-at-home mom versus my super-sweet and awesome office colleagues. So, take a look at my typical day 🙂
| Office | Home office | Unforeseeable breaks with a child at home |
| You start at your pace with a cup of coffee 🙂 | I kick off the day with a nice cup of tea and the Teletubbies in the background. | My daughter falls and needs comforting 🙂 |
| You work on your set goals per day or per hour, per week or per year 🙂 | I work on my set goals with an unforeseeable interruption 🙂 | Oops… that infamous five-minute-silence 🙂 Time to spend two hours cleaning nail polish from all my furniture |
| In the meantime you grab some more coffee. 🙂 | Taking a relaxed breath, I continue working. | Oh no… duckies are coming into the backyard. Time to feed them. 🙂 |
| You keep working on your goals… | Small break for a game, why not. | Moooooom… the dog ate my ice cream. Back to comforting 🙂 |
| Cue the lunch break. 🙂 | Lunch time 🙂 | Yeeees group lunch, me and mini me |
| Afterwards, you adjust your goals and set tomorrow’s schedule | I can do two things at once 🙂 working and listening | Enter the oldest daughter with her teenage story 🙂 |
| End of the working day and you go home | What should I do first. Send that email or make a groceries list or read my kid a book 🙂 let’s do all three at once, “power mom” | That time already? Let’s hurry for some groceries and cook |
| Dinner is finished, back to working on my goals and tasks | And we shouldn’t forget about laundry 🙂 | |
| Bedtime? Oh joy! The kids are asleep, so I have some more time to work 🙂 The day was fun and full of surprises | Lullabies are soooo sleepy 🙂 |
It should be obvious that this is a day where my 2-year old is running around the house 🙂 If she spends two days at her grandmother, my days actually sort of look like the days of my dear office colleagues. I believe that the days of my “type” and the days of the office “type” can’t be compared. In terms of performance, yes, but schedule, no. Looking at the days like this, it is impossible for me to plan per hour. I can plan per day, but then I am still facing unexpected events 🙂 But I like it. No day is the same and at the end of the day, when everything has worked out, I feel happy, until I find that the dishes still need doing…ppfffff can wait until tomorrow.
I must confess that for me as a single mom raising 2 kids (and a therapy on the background), it is challenging to keep all the balls in the air at the same time. Work, household, raising children, private life… of course sometimes a ball falls on the ground, but I try to pick it up again and throw it in the air.
I think all moms who run a home office know as no one all about Time Management. So I would like to ask everyone to be understanding and accept and respect working days like mine. A home office has a different schedule than a regular office, but the work is the same!
Let me stress one final point. To all mothers with a home office, be proud of yourself!. I am also proud of myself! 🙂 and keep juggling with all balls…..yeeeeeees!
PS Working moms are the hardest working ladies who are tackling everything!
Ludmila