With the school holidays almost over (yes, that was apparently summer) and most of us thinking about going back to the office, albeit for a couple of days a week, our minds shy away from the dreaded thought of juggling. You know what I mean, the day-to-day process of plate spinning where work and family (not to mention cooking meals or indulging in a spot of hoovering) blurs into madness from sunup to sundown.
Working from home and looking after the family too takes every skill known to man and woman. You need to be a natural strategic thinker, a divinity in the culinary department (and goodness knows, chips are every parent’s bete noire) a wizard for your boss, and have mastered the ability to take a Zoom call, write a report, and email a client whilst reciting ‘the wheels on the bus.’ It’s hard work and I feel for every parent out there who wishes the nanny fairy would descend on them and make the world a better place. Sadly, for most of us, she fails to bring her fairy dust to our door, so we are left to go it alone.
In today’s post, I am going to share with you how, with just a little planning magic, you can keep those plates spinning beautifully, and your sanity, with very little effort at all.
- Make life as easy as possible by planning meals and break-out activities each week so that every member of your family knows when it’s time to work and when it’s time to play (and make sure they take part in the planning process too to avoid any arguments). Also, be stringent about electronic toys and games. Teaching your children to understand when schoolwork needs to be done and when they can play should help them understand boundaries and look forward to downtime.
- Set up your own workspace. With more than one adult at home, workspaces can be fraught with all sorts of issues including who gets what desk/space/work surface so make sure everyone is aware in the home on who needs what to get the work done. Encourage your kids to understand that when mum or dad are working, they need to let you get on with it.
- Of course, there are going to be times when your plan will require some flexibility. Dentist appointments, after-school clubs, and external activities will mean that you might not be able to stick to your schedule rigidly. If there is anything coming up for the week ahead, plan in an hour or two where needed so you can still stick to the schedule.
- Be realistic about working time and give yourself enough time to focus your core working hours on what you need to get done for work. Be clear with your family times and make sure that when you switch off from work for the day, you really do switch off! Your family time is just as important.
- Don’t be too hard on yourself if things go astray. It’s ok to be late sometimes and piling on stress if you’re running behind schedule actually causes more damage than you might realise. Bear this in mind when you plan your schedule and prioritise your workload around your tasks at home. If it doesn’t really need doing, don’t do it.
- Understand how you like to work. In other words, are you an integrator or a segmenter? Integrators are wizards at multitasking and can switch tasks effortlessly at the drop of a hat. On the other hand, segmentors like to work on tasks separately, finish them, and then move on to something else. They like to have firm parameters on what they do first and what can wait.
- Share and share alike – the home never runs itself and while there is work to be done and school work to be completed, essential things like washing and cooking also have to get done too. Encourage everyone in the family to do a little bit of their own so it doesn’t just come down to one person to cook and clean. It will ease the burden on the adults and encourage the kids to feel more independent (and turn out to be useful human beings further down the line!)
- A plan needs to be flexible! Nothing is set in stone so every weekend when you are planning the following week’s schedule, sit down with the rest of the family and reflect on the past week and talk about areas of improvement in the plan and air your views. That way, no one ends up feeling resentful and frustrated and things will feel more harmonious.
Still, feeling that it’s all too much of a juggle? Why not try out the course “Juggling Work and Children’ to help you find some ‘you’ time during the new normal working world.
Sophia is the co-founder of Learned.Live along with partner and co-founder Johnathan Reynolds. Learned.Live offers a wide range of courses in resilience, mindfulness as well as classes in yoga and meditation and pilates, all designed to help you return to the outside world with confidence. Start searching for classes at a time to suit you. Sophia and Johnathan live in Brighton with their family.