PODCAST: Work from Home Productivity Tips for Struggling Parents + Kids

Four Productivity Tips for Struggling Parents Working from Home with Kids

WHY WE AREN’T STRUGGLING ANYMORE

Like many, my family is navigating this complete life from home thing. My wife (LOLA) and I work full-time from home, and our children are full-time online students. And guess what else? 

Remote life is NOT controlling our family.

The Smoking Prophet

Remote life is NOT controlling us. We’re managing, maintaining, and excelling at home. 

NOW that does NOT mean every day is easy, or I wasn’t kicking and screaming some part of the way.

These changes are challenging. But at the same time, being at home with my family, learning more about them and myself is a blessing. 

So let me tell you what’s helping my family and me — and what is not.

NUMBER 1. Create a schedule to organize your daily routine.

Look, our life changed drastically. I went from only worrying about my daily schedule to NOW being aware of five different people’s plans. With conference calls, my daily workload, online classrooms, and school assignments — it’s a whole lot. So the first thing we did to help TAKE CONTROL is to make a family plan. It includes our individual schedules and helps me stay on top of things.

NUMBER 2. Customize your ringtone for work calls.

I set up a unique ringtone for my work calls. Then I told my children about it, let them hear it, and explained that ringtone meant to be quiet. 

Customizing my ringtone was probably one of the easiest and most effective things I’ve done to make working from home with children smoother.

The Smoking Prophet

NUMBER 3. Organize weekly assignments in one place. 

At the start of the week, our children add their upcoming assignments for the next seven days to a Google Doc and share it with their mom.

From there, Lola helps them organize their tasks so they can quickly see what’s due and when it’s due.

After she does this, we help our child ID what to prioritize.

You’d be surprised how much children enjoy taking responsibility for their work.

The Smoking Prophet

At the end of each day, our children pre-plan what to work on the next day. Doing this helps them start their day off in a more intentional way!

NUMBER 4. Set reminders for yourself and your children. 

I know you think you can remember everything, and maybe you can — but why should you when you can set up an alert?

Help your day run smoother—set up calendar reminders or alerts for your children’s breaks and lunches. They need time away from their computer screens, and you do too. So don’t forget to add your breaks!

Now that I got that out the way – let me tell you what did NOT work. 

Not monitoring our children’s online schooling was a BIG NO. Our children are awesome, energetic, creative, silly beings that sometimes need help with things like:

✓ Organizing their work

✓ Prioritizing assignments

✓ Taking breaks

✓ Switching tasks 

Our kids needing help does not make them any less amazing. And the same applies to your children too.

Another BIG NO was taking over for our children when we needed to guide them instead. Initially, we did everything for our kids, AND it didn’t work. Now we teach our children how to organize their work, find answers they need, and create solutions themselves! Together, we make it work. 

YOU CAN DO THIS!

So there you are — four work from home tips for families. Use them to empower yourself and your family to make the best of your work from home life. 

I know you can do it!

You are capable, resourceful, and equipped to handle anything that comes your way. So don’t stress this. You got it!

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