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When Your Home Becomes Your Office — And Daycare
I’m a single mom. I’ve been there.
Hi. I hope you are doing okay. What a time we are in. Godspeed. Okay, to business.
I’m a single mom to an almost-five year old. I work for myself — I run an online professional network for women and am a writer, lyricist and consultant — so not only do I work from home, but I often do so at odd hours depending on when news breaks or the need otherwise arises. The bottom line: I have done LOTS of work while being distracted by my child. That work has frequently taken much longer than it should have. But for those of you coming off of a harrowing first few days of trying to work while also being a putative full-time homeschooler, I promise you — it is possible.
Here are a few thoughts on how to make this work, with the caveat that I am hours late on this story because of [gestures broadly]. I am no one’s productivity expert! But I’ve written stanzas from the playground and sent edits back and forth while pushing a stroller and done a live TV segment while breastfeeding and, just today, led a very professional Zoom call with a child climbing on my head. So in this very unique and weird set of circumstances in which we now find ourselves, I’m kind of an expert.
Here are some tips.