What does your week look like?

I'd like to walk you through my current week and would love to hear about yours.

Variables

1. 2 small children, a toddler and a student which is now being homeschooled.
2. Part-time Development Manager due to scheduling conflicts with variable #1 and company budget.
3. Freelancing to make up for the loss of salary due to variable #2.

Daily Morning Routine

Most days start the same, hitting snooze 2 or 3 times and finally rolling out of bed at 07:55. I open the blinds in my "office", which was once the guest room, and I start the coffee machine. While I sip away at the fresh cup of joe ☕, I get the laptop booted and start clearing out the inbox.

Monday - Friday

I start the week by planning and setting the goals to achieve for the week. I’ll check in on the team, answer any questions, update Jira tickets and handle the occasional support requests. The rest of the work week is providing guidance, making sure tasks are on track and executing on my action items.

After clocking out around noon we have a family lunch and afterwards we prepare for homeschool. We’ll browse through the class schedule and assignments, so my wife and I can be prepared to guide our child. Luckily our school district is proactive and has provided the necessary resources to help guide us through this new world. Depending on the daily chaos of having 2 children at home, my wife and I take turns on homeschooling and entertaining our toddler to not distract the other 😛.

On a good day, before sunset, we go on a walk around the neighborhood to help relax and wear down the kids 😉.

In the evenings, once the kids are in bed, it’s time to clock in for the 3rd shift 🕗; freelancing and prospecting. Sites like Upwork and Moonlight Work have made this possible and I’m grateful to have a skill set that has decent freelance pay.

Weekend

Saturdays are reserved for family, 🚫 no work allowed 🚫! Sundays are for freelancing/prospecting and winding down. If we are lucky enough, we will watch a show or movie together as a family.

Conclusion

For better or worse, things have changed in our lives during the Covid-19 pandemic. For me it’s brought family unity and the chance to work on freelance projects. Stay safe out there and take care of each other.

Comments

[Matthew Poer]

Thanks for sharing @claro. My wife and I consider ourselves very lucky that our daughter is 14 and just last year was able to really level-up from needing a lot of help with homework to being very self-sufficient. I can only imagine doing this with two smaller children. COVID-19 has actually not changed my day-to-day since I already work from home full-time. Only exception that comes to mind is that my father also works from home now and we get to see each other pace around the house when we have conference calls :)

We do go out to the grocery stores with less frequency, and of course malls, movies, etc. are out of bounds. So, we've also found that afternoon walks are pretty much mandatory 5/7 days a week or so. We need the sunshine and a little exercise.

One aspect of working from home that I want to emphasize for you and anyone else that might read this. It took me years to figure this out: don't look at your phone or computer for the first ~20 minutes when you start your day. Take a minute to wash your face, get dressed, sip coffee with the news on, do something that isn't work. It feels like you're kind-of claiming the day for yourself. Then dive in, get stuff done, and don't forget to step away for a few minutes for lunch :)

edit I just walked through the living room and remembered one other thing we did for COVID: we bought a Nintendo Switch and a few games, including the latest Just Dance. My daughter loves it and has been playing different versions of the game all her live, so was really excited to get this. It's a little indoor exercise for her, and I understand there's also a Just Dance Kids variant, which just might catch your kiddos' attention for a little while and get them moving around the living room (move the coffee table and floor lamps!)

[Claro A Briones]

Thanks for the great tips Matthew!

I've been working on waking up earlier so I can get a quick jog around the block and then get the day started. I've thought about the Nintendo Switch, but we already do a lot of screen time. However, it might not be a bad idea for the indoor exercise on rainy days.