A guide to working in the school holidays
It’s the second week of the school holidays and as much as I love having a break from the school routine and spending extra time with the kids, on the work front I’m regretting my decision to not book the children in for at least a few days of vacation care.
It has been an extremely busy week with new clients coming on board and the extra work of preparing contracts, having phone meetings and client ‘on boarding’ on top of the usual client workload. I’m extremely grateful and excited as this is a time of growth for my biz, but I’m acknowledging that I didn’t plan the holidays as well as I could have this time around.
I thought I’d share a few tips that have helped me to stay calm and get through these stressful couple of weeks. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!
Keep Organised
The first thing that I’ve done is to stay extremely organised with my schedule and to do lists. And I mean extremely organised. As boring as it is, I am a prolific list maker and in those frantic times it does help. The simple act of writing down everything that I need to get done is enough to make me feel like I can take a break from work to spend time with the kids without having a million thoughts swirling around in my head about what I have or have not done. If I start to think about work, I can easily ‘switch off’ because I know I’m organised and that when I go back to my desk, I’ll be ready to hit the ground running and get some work done.
Take Breaks
This one is really important for me, as my two boys are at home with me through the day and it’s not fair on them if I’m in front of the computer working all the time. I make sure I take regular breaks throughout the day to hang out with the kids and take them out for a ride on the scooter, or to the park for a little picnic lunch. I keep the balance by making sure we have a day off every few days to go and do something fun or have a play date with a school buddy.
Hustle When You Need To
When it’s time to work, there’s really no other way to get through a huge workload than to hustle. Sure, there will be things that you can delete or delegate from your list, so of course do that when you’re planning your work, but when it comes to doing those things you HAVE to do, then it’s time to hustle. Shut down your email, phone, Facebook or whatever else distracts you and just go for it and work as fast as you can. Be mindful about what you’re doing. If you find your mind wandering, then work in shorter bursts. Turn it in to a game and set a kitchen timer for 20 minutes at a time and just GO! This is not the way I prefer to work every day, but in those times when I feel myself slipping behind or when I have limited time this works well for me.
Systemise
As I mentioned, I did have some new clients coming on board this week and one thing that helped me to easily manage this was having a good ‘on-boarding’ system set up. It was a little extra work with more emails and phone calls than usual but having a system already set up and ready to go helped immensely. What can you systemise in your business to avoid repetition and help reduce your workload?
Get Your Zen On
Yesterday I was actually having a mini-freak out about what I had to get done. It was a gorgeous sunny day and the neighbourhood kids (all boys) were coming in and out of the house and there was lots of chatter and bouncing around and NOISE! After a long phone call with a client I felt my tank was just empty, so I tidied up my desk and to do list and then decided to switch off for a few hours. I allowed that feeling of “oh my god I have so much to do” to melt away and I took myself out on my front porch and set up camp on my day bed. I took out a crystal, my angel cards, my music and some textas and a mandala. And I sat there in the sun getting my Zen on for a few hours. Yes, I did say hours. I totally needed it and it was BLISS! The kids were happily amusing themselves running around, jumping on the tramp, playing Xbox and riding scooters.
We had an easy, early dinner (ahh, another sanity tip – cook larger batches and save half for leftovers) and then at around 7pm I got back to work feeling refreshed, recharged and I got a big job completed 3 days ahead of the deadline. I even had time after that to watch an encore of Shark Tank (totally loving that show!)
So, there you have it. In addition to those little tips above, for me, the secret to surviving the school holidays with my sanity intact is to BE FLEXIBLE. Instead of pushing myself to the point of exhaustion I’ve actually acknowledged that yes it is a stressful time and I’ve worked out ways to manage it.
Over to you …
Do you have kids at home during the school holidays? How do you keep them occupied while keeping your biz running (and staying sane)? Share your tips below, I’d love to hear what works for you.
