I really love my job. I love blogging and social media with all my heart. There is no way I would be half as happy nor fulfilled if I quit, turned off my internet and sold my iPhone and focused 100% on just being at home. I am sorry, it is not going to happen.
I would get depressed. I’d feel like I lost a limb – I would certainly be losing my creative expression and lose touch with tons of friends.
But there is one slight problem with working at home and being a mom of small children: the balance. When I focus on my blog, the house chores suffer. Dishes pile up, laundry overtakes my room. So then I attack my house and then I miss deadlines or I don’t interact with my followers on facebook and twitter.
It is very difficult. Very.
I started to implement of schedule during the day. I only spend 5-10 minute spurts online – a facebook comment here, a tweet there, a blog comment or two – then I am off and doing chores and playing with kids. It worked fabulously until somebody started to work 80 hours a week. I lost my evening work time. The blog started to suffer.
Then, so did the house.
Cycle continued.
Finally, he began to come home early one night a week and I pre-wrote posts, scheduling them to publish throughout the week.
This works really well for me. But what else can I do to balance life more?
Here is a video I made asking this same thing, I’d love your tips!
Some nights it’s ok to let the dishes and laundry pile up in order to read one more bedtime story or play a little longer with the kiddos!
As far as my online time? I try and spend one night a week dedicated to writing/scheduling for a while. It’s ok to set aside that time occasionally to get things done. It’s a part of you and you deserve to nurture yourself too!
I totally agree with you Sam! And I can totally put off chores if I am snuggling with my kids. But it is when I put of dishes in order to work on my blog that I feel stress.
I love the one night a week idea. For me, that is tonight LOL.
I’ve done the pre-posting thing, I think you should keep that up. Also maybe one day a week actually set yourself an alarm (phone vibrate?) that will wake you up an hour earlier and knock out some of the quieter chores that you can do without interruption, including things that take ‘a long time’ and things that take ‘a short time’, so putting in a load of laundry while your coffee is brewing, unload the dryer if needed, and sit and fold as much laundry as you can while you sip your coffee. I am not sure how much you can get by with, but maybe also unload/reload the dishwasher or wash dishes if that’s not too loud, and making up things like drinks for the week/day? (lemonade in a pitcher?) and putting out ALL the breakfast stuff on the table — like glasses of milk or juice (which won’t be hurt in an hour), dry bowls of cereal, pre-buttered or ‘jammed’ toast, all the dishes, etc. at the end of the hour the wash should be done and you can put it in the dryer. You’ve gained several chores, and hopefully not woken any kids up. I’m always a big fan of the 15 minute clean as well, which the kids can help with (picking up their toys, taking laundry to their rooms, folding washcloths, etc).. and if any of them still take a nap, make the naps at the same time and the ones that don’t nap– then they get a ‘rest’ time with a book (maybe give a timer so they know when to come out of their rooms), and do the SAME thing as earlier–except do media time during rest time for the kids.
I wake up at 5am now, so earlier is NOT an option LOL!! 🙂
Seriously though? I really do like your idea of getting lots done in those early hours. Folding laundry is such a quiet chore that can be done while everyone sleeps.
a good bedtime routine would help a lot. Set an alarm for a little earlier then they usually go to bed. Make it loud so they can all hear it. Then teeth, potty, pj’s. Do all the kids at once so your not going back and forth, and if your right there with them its harder for them to get distracted.
Then as a reward for thier cooperation, Let them read or look at books by a dim light. I tell them they can read books for 30 min as long as they are quiet and stay in bed. So if that takes you 30 min to get them all situated, that should give you a good hour and a half to focus on other things. Put on a load of laundry, then write a post. Do a load of dishes, then write another. Maybe set a timer for things that eat up more time then they are supposed to. Like me blog commenting. 😉 you can do it!
Our bedtime routine kicks butt. The kids are asleep by 8:30 and I love it. I usually fall asleep around 9:30/10pm nowadays so I can have the energy to wake up at 5:30 to go workout.
I just need to use my time during the day better so I get chores AND blog work done. LOL
Wow, that is a rough. I don’t do mornings! I cam stay up later that way, but I’m usually too tires to think.
I used to stay up until 1am and sleep in until 8/8:30am. But ever since Lucy was born my life has become even more crazy and working out keeps my sanity. I need to write a post about that…..(I am always saying that about everything)
It is so hard to work from home. Sometimes I feel like a crazy mess when it comes to everything that needs to get done. Plus you want to spend time with the kids. It is a never ending cycle for me.
Exactly!! Working from home is ridiculous. It is so much harder to accomplish everything and be every thing for everybody. Eventually something has to give 🙂
I had to let go of my OCD tendencies to make it work. If the beds don’t get made and the dishes don’t put away in the morning, no one will DIE!
I am not a blogger, but an online administrator, and I find the same challenges with trying to balance work and kids and chores. I have not found the solution that works for me…yet. I have of course tried to not clean so much for one day, just focusing on work and kids only, but that backfires for me! I can not believe how bad one house can get form Mom taking one day off from cleaning! OUCH! Still trying to find the solution that works out the best for me and my family. 🙂