How to Make the Most of a Flexible Work Schedule During the Holiday Season

Somehow the semester flew by, and somewhere around the beginning of November I started realizing that for the past few months I hadn’t fully taken advantage of the fact that I work from home, make my own hours, and can go do fun things with my little one whenever I want. I was working a good bit every single day, and not fully appreciating this amazing opportunity that I have.

As great as it is to work on the days that I choose (with the exception of checking emails regularly, of course), life started falling into a more normal routine. The routine I’d fallen into wasn’t bad at all, I was spending time with my baby in the morning until nap time (kind of going through the motions), and then working at my computer from 1-5 pm every day.

I just wasn’t doing anything special. I had the option to, but I wasn’t working smart enough to make that happen.

Then at the beginning of November I decided I’d set aside one to two dedicated ‘mommy-daughter’ weekdays each week for the next month, to jolt myself out of the ordinary and remind myself that I have this job teaching online for a reason: to make the most of the time I have with my family, whenever I want.

So I started working smarter, and I changed the routine- at least for the month of November.

Here’s what I did:

•       Made real, solid plans to leave the house. Sometimes, in the past, I would think to myself ‘maybe we’ll go on a walk today,’ or ‘maybe we can meet up with so and so at this place,’ but I hadn’t been deliberate about it- they were just passing thoughts. In November I actually scheduled specific times and days each week to hang out with friends who had kids- playdates at their house, weekly zoo dates with friends, etc. It meant that even if I felt tired or discouraged about leaving the house for the day with my little one, someone was waiting for me, so I had to show up, and it was completely worth the outing every time!
•       Did a quick email check right when I woke up (so it wasn’t hanging over my head all day, and to be sure nothing urgent had popped up in the last few hours) before the little lady and I went out and about for the day. During the month, I did actually start checking email in the evening, after my toddler went to bed, since that made the most sense on the days that we were out of the house. The email situation wasn’t ideal, but definitely something I could work with to spend some quality time with my favorite girl.
•      Found a way to have fun and bond even when I wasn’t feeling ambitious. My toddler is not one to sit still for more than a few minutes at a time, but I really wanted to find 30 minutes each day that she would sit quietly with me, since this is something I would probably enjoy more than any other activity (I’m sure other moms can relate!). I managed to ‘train’ her to do this, at least to some degree. After she woke up from her early afternoon nap, we would sit and watch Hallmark Christmas movies on the DVR for 30 minutes (and I soaked up every second of it!). After that nap she was relaxed just enough that she didn’t mind sitting on my lap, snacking on an animal cracker for a little while (success!).

By the end of November, I felt like supermom. I spent plenty of quality time with my little during the week (not to mention the evenings and weekends!), and I was still getting my work done pretty easily during her naps and in the evening.

Admittedly, it was a little bit exhausting trying to do it all, so the crazy amount of work I have to do at my laptop now in December (finals week is hard for teachers, too!) with a little more time away from my little one is okay with me. In the future, I might keep our ‘mommy-daughter’ days to only one day a week, and I’ll probably just try to have us get out of the house to do something fun a few mornings each week before I head into my office for the day.

The point is, so many of us out there are working remotely or in some untraditional way, and it’s easy to fall into a more regular routine and stop being deliberate about our time (especially when you’re a tired mom!). However, you don’t have to! Make it a point to break the routine once in a while, and remind yourself why you pursued a flexible job to begin with.

I know my one month experiment gave me a renewed appreciation for the fact that I can stay at home with my baby while making an income from the luxury of my own home office.

Happy living, working, and parenting!