I love working from home, in fact, I don’t think I could go back to working in an office for someone else. While I love what I do, it isn’t all peaches and cream. It’s like the things that I absolutely love about the lifestyle of a work at home mom are the same things that are the detractors.
Here’s an average day for me… and your average day, depending on your business model will of course look different. 🙂
6:30am: Mon, Wed, Fri morning, up to workout.
7am: check and respond to email
7:20am: hear Hanna’s alarm go off, and make sure she’s getting ready for school on school days. (she’s usually already been awake for an hour having a snack and watching a movie)
7:45am: head to school (they serve breakfast at her preschool so she eats a snack here and then eats breakfast there)
8:15am back home. Get coffee, put the dishes away and start writing. Well… try to start writing, then get interrupted by the hubs who shares my desk and doesn’t go to work until 9am. Tues and Thurs I try to get in a bike ride in this time, since it’s not very productive work time with Ryan around. 😉
9am: Really get writing. I write and publish a blog post for one blog or another every day. I also write an article to do some backlinking, and if it’s Thursday or Friday I write my newsletter and send it out to my list. If I’m working on a product I do some writing on that in the morning as well.
10am: Tuesdays I co-host a radio show (Around the Kitchen Table) at this time… otherwise I continue writing. Once the writing is done I do some backlinking for my niche sites.
11:15am: go pick up Hanna at school. Some days I’ll run errands when I pick her up, but most days we just come straight home.
11:45am: back home. Get her settled in with an activity, maybe a movie, maybe practicing letters, maybe a craft project, whatever she wants to do for the next couple hours.
12pm: back to work… in this time I’ll continue to do backlinking for my niche sites. I also make sure I go in and post to my social media sites during this time. I also tend to the forum I run during this time… so I’m a bit all over the place in the afternoon.
12:05: Hanna needs/wants something. I have to get up and help her get it, or at least respond to her in some way.
12:10: refocus on work.
12:15: The dog needs to go outside. Get up and take her out.
12: 25: refocus on work.
12: 45: Hanna needs something…
12:50: refocus on work.
1pm: realize I haven’t eaten yet and grab some lunch, sit at my computer and work while I eat.
1:15: Hanna needs something, I start to get frustrated because I’m right in the middle of something and want to stay focused here… but get up and deal with whatever it is she needs.
1: 25: refocus on work.
1:45: dog needs out…
2pm: recognize this is the time I’ve designated to quit working. See how Hanna’s doing with whatever it is she’s been doing. Most days, if it’s nice we’ll head outside. If she’s going to play outside I’ll bring the laptop and do some work while she’s playing. If she’s not playing, I’ll really quit working for a while and we’ll do something together. Sometimes we go for a walk, or work in the garden, or do a craft project together… whatever fun and exciting thing I can find on other blogs. lol.
4pm: notice it’s getting close to dinner time and wonder what thing from our menu plan I’m going to fix tonight.
4:30pm: Hanna takes a bath. She LOVES taking a bath, and will stay in there for an hour. This means I can watch Oprah in peace for 30 minutes, or I can work in peace for 30 minutes. Work usually wins… with Oprah in the background.
5:30pm: Get Hanna out of the tub dry her hair and get her in her pjs.
6pm: start making dinner, let Hanna help with the things she can do. Try to keep the dog out of the kitchen and off the counter, put dishes in the dishwasher.
6:30pm: eat dinner… sometimes Ryan’s home, sometimes he’s not. Depends on the time of year and where things are with the farming.
7pm: Hanna goes to bed. Read 2 books, pick out clothes for the morning, loves and snuggles.
7:45-8pm: Probably back on the computer answering emails, participating in the forum, commenting on other blogs, talking on twitter, watching TV in the background. Take the dog out…
10pm: I go to bed. Read for a bit.
10:30pm: watch Nightline.
11pm: Go to sleep and get ready to start it all over again in a few hours.
And of course through this entire day there are little things that come up, the phone rings, people call, Hanna talks incessantly while she’s home, the dog chews on paper towels ~ I hear “Bella’s got something” from Hanna at least once or twice an hour. (this dog is a HOOVER!!).
It’s a crazy crazy schedule… however, and here’s the great thing about it. When there’s something going on at school, I can shift things around and participate. When Hanna’s sick, I am here. When the dog has to be taken to the vet, I’m here. When I feel like shit and don’t want to work… I don’t. When the day is gorgeous and screams for us to be outside… we are. When it’s harvest time I’m here to harvest my vegetables, and can them and care for them. When it’s harvest time on the farm I’m here to take Hanna to ride on the combine with her Dad.
I soooo wish sometimes I could just have my own space, and work when I need to work and then turn it off when the work day is over… that NEVER happens, but the flexibility that’s built into my work is completely worth it.
oh wait… I forgot, at 2:15pm I sit and eat Bon Bons while I watch General Hospital. NOT. (although some days I surely wish I could ~ and I think some days my husband thinks I do!)
So there you have it… an inside look at the lifestyle of a work at home mom… is it everything you thought it’d be?
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