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April 12, 2021

Ready, Set, Sizzle! How to Plan Your Summer of Fun and Relaxation Now

Summer is around the corner. If you’re a working mom–especially a work-from-home mom, it’s time to make a plan. 

The prospect of planning a summer’s worth of activities is always daunting. But, let’s take a minute to acknowledge that it’s more complicated than usual this year. In many parts of the country, COVID-19 led to school disruptions for all or part of the school year. What’s more, many locations remain in restricted mode due to COVID infections. So, some typical summer activities, like in-person camps, are still up-in-the-air in many places. Understandably, different families have different perspectives on what activities are safe or will be in June. 

All that said, summer is still coming. And, if we ever needed a collective chance to exhale and have fun, it’s this summer. Here are my best tips for considering your options for work and play and making a plan that works for you and your family. 

 

Grab Your Calendar

When you work at home, a summer plan is the key to success, and the first step is mastering the calendar. Map out your summer by:

  • Confirming school start and end dates.
  • Crossing off any dates that you know are already taken with family commitments, vacations, visits, or sports. 
  • Identifying weeks that are likely to be extra busy based on professional obligations, personal commitments, or deadlines. 

 

Think About What You Want

Next, it’s time to think about your desires for the summer. It’s been a long road, and prioritizing yourself now can pay dividends in the long run. There’s no shame in carving out some personal time. Consider:

  • How are you feeling after this crazy pandemic year?
  • What are your goals for the summer?
  • Do you want to work more to make up lost ground? Or are you interested in working less? If so, is it feasible?
  • How do you want your schedule to work? 
  • What are your child care needs?

 

Talk With Your Family

Start by checking-in with your spouse to set goals and discuss summer plans more fully. Then, ask your kids how they’d like to spend the summer. Creating a summer bucket list is a fun way to start this conversation. Identify the “must-do” items you all agree that want to fit in this summer. 

As you generate the list, include a wide variety of experiences that range from big goals, like going on vacation, to smaller goals, like having family game nights. If you expect to have child care for the summer, mix in some options that take advantage of that help. For example, a goal to visit each park in your town or visiting six different parks in one day can make for fun and focused activities for your child care provider.

 

Find Child Care

Now that you have a better sense of how the summer may unfold, it’s time to source the proper child care. Luckily, summer can offer a wide variety of options, from private care to camps. Here are some ideas to consider.

  • Enlist family members to help. If you have local family members who are willing to step in and help with child care, reach out and sign them up now. The sooner, the better to get on other people’s calendar. This is a low-cost way to know that your kids are in good hands. However, some people find it stressful to have family members managing child care. So, weigh the pros and cons before you commit to this approach to child care, especially if you need a lot of help this summer. 
  • Hire a high school or college student to work as a nanny. Many students are looking for summer jobs, and taking care of younger kids is often a popular option. While this may be more expensive than some other options, it can be economical if you have several children. In addition, it tends to offer the most flexibility and gives you the most control over virus exposure since your child care bubble is small.
  • Form a co-op with other families. If you have schedule flexibility and are willing to share child-care duties with another family, a co-op arrangement may be right for you. In this scenario, you and like-minded families will trade-off child care duties based on an agreed-upon schedule. This keeps costs down and provides built-in playmates for your kids. However, it does require you to do some extra work in coordinating and caring for additional children for a portion of the summer. 
  • Sign up for summer day camp. Day camps are a tried and true part of summer child care. They are often offered locally by a wide variety of groups. In many cases, the kids stay outside and busy or are deeply engaged in activities they enjoy. It also creates large blocks of the day for you to work. On the flip side, availability can be limited, prices vary, and getting out the door each day can create some crazy mornings.
  • Send the kids to a trustworthy overnight camp. A week (or more) of summer camp can be the perfect solution for some families. Going away to camp offers a great experience for kids, lets them build new social muscles (vital after a year with limited or interrupted school), and meet new friends. It also gives you and your spouse a short vacation from active parenting so you can pause and get refreshed and maybe even take a real couple’s vacation. Or, if you have a week that looks extra busy at work, an overnight camp can help make that week easier for you. However, it can be an expensive option, and some camps may be operating on a limited basis. 
  • Consider summer school. After a crazy COVID year, summer school might be an excellent way to stem learning loss. It can also be a low-cost way to keep kids busy while you work. Check with your local school district to determine what they are planning for the summer term and who is eligible to attend. Many schools plan to offer expanded summer school options this year, and the sessions are often free or very low-cost. Many children may welcome the break from Zoom school and the sense of normalcy that comes from going to school, even if the season seems out-of-sync.

Share Your Ideas!

The long days and warm nights of summer will be here before you know it. Enjoy the process of planning for your summer. Please drop me a line and let me know how you will enjoy summer this year.

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April 7, 2021

5 Ways Moms Can Delegate to Get More Done

Guest post by: Michelle Laurey

Work-at-home moms often face the unique challenge of balancing work needs with household management. Childcare, meal preparation, and household chores can eat into your work time if you are not careful.

If you postpone chores to finally get some work done, then the house is in disarray.

It doesn’t have to be like this!

Next time you’re struggling to balance your work and home life, try these five tips to delegate your workload.

 

1. Split Up the Chores

Your spouse and older children can each take on their own responsibilities around the house.

Delegating the household workload helps you focus more time and energy on your business.

Use the following tips to successfully delegate chores:

  • Assign one task to one person. Whether it’s loading the dishwasher, putting away laundry, or writing out a shopping list, designate a single person to be in charge. Sharing tasks can cause confusion about who is doing what and when.
  • Set goals and deadlines. Assign different tasks to different days of the week so everyone knows when they need to finish their chores. Plan errands and shopping around your schedule, and choose times when fewer people are out.
    Soon your family will adjust to your routine and won’t have to keep asking when you’re picking up groceries or mailing that package.
  • Go through the task list with each person. Sometimes a spouse or child doesn’t know how you want a chore accomplished. Maybe they are unfamiliar with the right settings for the washing machine or where pots and pans are stored.
    Walk them through the task so they can learn to do it without you around.
  • Put it in writing. Whether you use a smartphone app or a piece of paper on the refrigerator, keep a list of what needs to get done and whose job it is. Having a visual plan helps everyone stay on track.

Delegating chores will also reduce the stress that often affects your productivity.

 

2. Arrange for Childcare

First-time work-from-home parents often assume they can care for their young children while working. Unfortunately, they quickly found out that is not the case!

Childcare is a full-time job all on its own.

If you can’t afford a babysitter or daycare, consider asking a retired family member if they can watch your children a few days a week.

If no family members are available, reach out to other work-from-home moms in your neighborhood. You may be able to take turns watching each other’s children on days you’re not working.

Alternatively, you can hire a young adult in your neighborhood to watch your children while you work from home.

You can typically pay a cheaper rate, and you’re available in case of emergencies while still being able to shut the door to your home office while you work.

 

3. Consider Extended Family and Friends

Your immediate family members aren’t the only ones who can help you out.

When someone offers to lend a hand, take them up on their offer!

Some easy tasks you can delegate to others outside your house include:

  • Driving children to and from school. Coordinate with other moms in the neighborhood to take turns dropping off and picking up children from school. This provides extra time in the mornings and afternoons for you to work.
  • Helping with housework. If you have a close friend nearby, ask if they want to arrange dates to help each other with cleaning. One weekend you help clean their house and the next they help with yours.
    This is a great way single parents can stay on top of the household workload without being overwhelmed.
  • Assisting with meal prep. Consider arranging weekly meetups with friends or other moms in your neighborhood to prep meals for the upcoming week. You can buy in bulk to save money and split the costs among the group.

In return, you can step in to help when they are feeling overwhelmed.

 

4. Simplify Scheduling and Organization

The best way to ensure everyone completes their tasks is to organize and schedule everything.

There are numerous apps that can help you make lists and remind family members of their chores.

By taking advantage of these, your family can add items to the shopping list, create reminders on the family calendar for upcoming appointments, and check off tasks they’ve completed.

This helps everyone stay on track without you needing to lift a finger.

There’s a number of apps available to help create family lists and chore charts to digitally divide up the workload and set important reminders.

 

5. Don’t Be Afraid to Hire a Professional

If the workload is too much and you don’t have enough people to help out, consider hiring a professional.

Many services offer cheap task-based help, such as mowing the lawn, cleaning the house, and doing other odd jobs.

Several grocery stores offer pickup and delivery options to save time without spending a lot of money.

You can also purchase box meal kits with pre-measured ingredients ready to throw together quickly for a healthy dinner.

Meal delivery is another way you can get a quick lunch or dinner on the table without leaving the house.

 

Final Thoughts

Whether you need help with meal planning or could use an extra hand on the laundry, work-at-home moms have plenty of options.

You can outsource your chores to professionals or delegate responsibilities to other family members.

Mobile apps make it easy to create everything from chore charts to grocery lists so each person can do their part around the house.

Once your household is running smoothly, your business will too.  If you need to delegate some of your work, consider posting your job on HireMyMom where virtual professionals in a variety of fields are ready to take on new jobs and projects! Or if you need more work, we can help with that too!

 

–

Michelle Laurey is a telecommuting wordsmith who especially enjoys writing on a cloudy day at Assignyourwriter UK. Always interested in ways that can help individuals reach their full potential in life, she enjoys producing stories on entrepreneurship, productivity, lifestyle, and health. Outside her keyboard, she enjoys visiting cozy coffee shops and taking long urban strolls with her partner. Reach out to her on Twitter.

 

–

 

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March 31, 2021

How to Outsource Like a Boss for Home and Work

Have you ever looked at your to-do list and realized you need about 30 hours to accomplish everything you outlined as critical for the day? If so, you aren’t alone. Caring for a family and working are both hugely satisfying undertakings. But, let’s face it, it’s also a tremendous amount of work. 

Here’s some good news–you don’t need to tackle it alone. By strategically outsourcing some tasks, you can find more time and energy to put toward the people and projects that mean the most to you. Here’s a round up of the tasks–work and personal–that are great candidates for outsourcing.

Business Tasks

When you run a small business, it’s tempting to want to do it all. You became an entrepreneur because you’re motivated and hardworking.This combination makes it tough to let go of the reins, even for a task you don’t enjoy or could easily outsource. It helps to have a framework for considering what tasks/jobs make sense for outsourcing. When considering outsourcing, think about:

  • What are you great at doing?
  • What do you like to do?
  • Where would you like to grow professionally?

If a task doesn’t fall into one of those categories, it’s a good candidate for outsourcing. 

 

Quickly Find Virtual Help 

When you are looking for outsourcing help for a business task, consider a virtual team member. With remote employees, you don’t need to provide office space and you aren’t limited by geography. You can find and hire a team member who’s located anywhere with good internet access. 

Using a platform like HireMyMom is a great way to source qualified candidates who are specifically looking for remote work. You can save time and money by turning to a site dedicated to connecting driven mom professionals with small businesses. 

If the prospect of a nationwide search daunts you, consider our concierge service to help reduce the amount of leg work you need to do. HireMyMom’s Concierge service was created for busy entrepreneurs and small business owners, like you, who need to hire help but don’t have the time or desire to go through the time-consuming process. With our full service Concierge service, our HR Specialists will do it all for you start to finish and present you with the top candidate(s). 

 

Build a Remote Team 

Here’s a list of jobs that are often outsourced:

  • Bookkeeping
  • Social Media management
  • Graphic Design
  • Writing/Editing
  • Marketing/Email Marketing
  • Project Management
  • Customer Service
  • Facebook Ad Manager
  • Online Business Manager
  • Virtual Assistant (VA)

 

Consider a Virtual Assistant

In some cases, a virtual assistant (VA) may be the right fit for you. A VA can take care of many tasks, including email response, appointment setting, travel planning, and calendar management. You can find a general VA, who does a wide variety of tasks or one with a speciality in your industry or need. 

 

Personal Tasks

Personal tasks can easily add up and cause stress, making it more difficult to manage the day-to-day workings of life. What’s more, many of them are urgent and important and time sensitive. (For example, dinner must be served every night.) Tasks that can wait tend to grow in time commitment and urgency if you put them off. (I’m looking at you, piles of dirty laundry.) Here are some ideas to help relieve some of the steam:

 

Put Meal Prep and Grocery Shopping on Auto Pilot

Planning, serving and cleaning up multiple meals a day takes a huge time investment. (Especially if your whole family is home all the time.) But outsourcing some meal-prep tasks can make every day easier.

  •  A weekly menu hanging on the fridge takes the guesswork out of each meal. If you don’t enjoy menu planning or just need a break from it, consider using an online meal planning service. Several are available and they allow you to quickly select a week’s worth of meals based on your health goals, family preferences, and budget. Once you select your meals, you can automatically create a shopping list for the meals selected.
  •  We all need groceries every week (sometimes more). But driving to the store to collect them is a major time commitment. You can regain that time by signing up for grocery delivery. Several companies such as Amazon Fresh, Peapod, Shipt, and Instacart, are ready to make it easier for you to fill your pantry. 

While it takes some time to initially get set up with these services, it’s well worth the initial time investment. Chances are you make many of the same purchases each week, so many items will stay on your list for each order. You can even use a menu planner that automatically creates a grocery list and sends it to your preferred delivery service. 

  • If you don’t have grocery delivery available locally, consider the pick up service offered by many large grocery store chains. You submit your order online, pull up at the appointed time, and drive off with a car full of groceries. Both pick up and delivery help you save money by limiting impulse purchases.

Cut Down on Cooking

There are several ways to lighten the cooking load through outsourcing. Consider:

  • Sharing the load by finding four like-minded families and forming a cooking co-op. Each family makes four, family-sized servings of one dish. Meet to swap meals and go home knowing that you have five homemade dinners ready to roll–even though you only had to make one. Keep your circle of chefs small until the COVID-19 situation is resolved.
  • Ordering a meal delivery kit to take away the prepping, planning and chopping.
  • Finding a local chef who offers pre-prepped meals for pick up or delivery. 

 

Find Help with Child Care

You choose to work at home to spend more time with your kids and avoid the expense and hassle of day care. But, that doesn’t mean you wouldn’t benefit from some help with the kids. Finding a good babysitter, even if it’s only for a few hours a week, can really change the flow of your day. Having a few hours set aside without interruption makes it easier to power through your work. Also, depending on the age of your kids, the sitter can help with other tasks, such as:

  • Driving a carpool route for you.
  • Running errands with your kids–think the post office or picking up dry cleaning. This gives you a few hours of peace and quiet, keeps the kids busy, and eliminates tasks from your to-do list.
  • Working with the kids to go through their toys or books to find things they have outgrown.
  • Picking up the stray items you forgot to add to your online grocery order.
  • Walking the dog or other pet care needs.
  • Putting laundry away.
  • Supervising homework/online school instruction.

 

Clean with Ease

Everyone loves a clean house, but the work to get it sparkling can take all day. The easiest way to keep the house spic and span is to hire a cleaning service. If that’s not practical based on your budget or circumstances, these ideas can help lighten the load:

  • Buy a Roomba or other automatic vacuum or mop so you wake up to fresh floors every morning.
  • Drop your dirty laundry off at the laundromat for wash and fold service each week. This frees up an enormous amount of time and cuts down on the anxiety created by looking at baskets full of clothes–some clean, some dirty, and inevitably, one that’s mixed between clean and dirty clothes. 
  • Hire a service for big jobs that can really nag at you. For example, window washing or other seasonal jobs.

 

Reduce Yard Work

Many people find yard work relaxing, but elements of it can be outsourced to free you up to focus on the things you like most. For example, mowing and weeding are good candidates to outsource. With that out of the way, you are free to focus on tending to flowers or other things that truly bring you joy.

 

Don’t Wait to Reclaim Your Time

Outsourcing tasks is a great way to focus your time and energy on the things that matter most to you. Don’t delay–identify the things that someone else could do for you and start enjoying the increased time and energy it provides. 

Tell us what you’ve outsourced and how it changed the game for you.

 

 

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March 15, 2021

Work and Family Colliding? Top Tips to Set Boundaries Like a Pro

When you love your work and have a family, it can be challenging to set the boundaries that help you succeed in both realms, especially when you work at home and the lines can easily blur. With more and more people working from home and with online and hybrid learning in full swing (and sometimes in flux by the week), the question of setting boundaries for personal and professional obligations has never been more critical. 

After years of working from home and learning to set boundaries between the work I love and the family I adore, here are my tips for successful boundary setting.

 

Accept that Every Week will be Different

Recognize that your highest priority for any given week (or day) will vary, and that’s normal.

Sometimes work obligations will be front and center. Enjoy those times and the feeling of your throwing yourself into professional work. Try not to let guilt about what you might be missing weigh you down. Enlist help from family and friends to help you free up space and time to work as effectively as possible.

Likewise, sometimes family obligations will outweigh professional work. Enjoy those times, too.

Try to be present in the moment and not distracted by what you might be missing at work. If it helps ease your mind, ask a trusted co-worker to alert you to any emergencies that may occur when you’re focused on your family. 

Balancing the day-to-day and week-to-week flow of work and life will help you find greater equilibrium between your dual roles as a mom and a professional.

 

Know Your Priorities 

Setting priorities is an essential part of establishing boundaries and working effectively. Thinking of your priorities over different time horizons helps to balance workload. Here’s how to do it:

  • Create a list at the beginning of each month. 
    • Think about the large commitments you know are on the horizon in each area of your life.
    • Write them down along with the week they are due.
    • Consider if you need to call in extra help for any upcoming week.
  • Review the list at the start of each week.
    •  Cross off things that are complete.
    •  Identify the most important things for that week to make sure your priorities don’t take a back seat.
  • Look at your weekly list to find your daily priorities. 
    • Consider if any tasks or meetings can slide, if needed.
    • Juggle your day to make things work.

Overall, be realistic about what you can accomplish in a specific time frame. If you have a big project due one week, avoid volunteer commitments that overlap during the same timeframe. If you have school-aged kids, keep an eye on the school calendar as you pace your work. 

 

Plan and schedule! 

When managing personal and professional obligations, planning is critical. Armed with your priority list, work your to-do list or planning app to its maximum capacity.

If you use a paper-based to-do list, draw a line down the center of the page and label one column personal and one column work. Then, list your commitments side-by-side. A comprehensive list in one place makes it easier to see what’s cooking for any given day and see your obligations at-a-glance.

Once you have a to-do list, schedule your time to know when you will be managing personal vs. professional obligations. The schedule is a key to more freedom. When you know when you’ll be working, it makes it easier to say yes (or no) to personal opportunities that pop up. Likewise, it can help you assess what professional work you might want to add or decline, based on the schedule.

As you make your schedule, embrace odd hours, if needed. If you’re a morning person, set aside some early morning time to get work done. If burning the midnight oil works for you, maximize those hours. Fitting work into corners of your day can help you maximize your time and feel more in control.

 

Get Help and Silence your Inner Critic

When you’re managing personal and professional obligations, help and support matter. Sometimes it comes from family, friends, and coworkers. But sometimes it comes from your phone and the wonders of technology. Outsource as much as you can. Check out the Five Awesome Ways for the Exhausted Mom to Save Time and Sanity blog for tips to make life easier through apps and services.

As you go through your days, remember that you aren’t alone. All working moms are in the same boat, managing a large number of personal and professional obligations. Asking for help and extending a hand to others can help create a supportive culture. Ask your partner, children, and coworkers for help. Also consider joining our free community here. 

Above all, be kind to yourself as you manage an impressive portfolio of work and family commitments. You can do it!

 

Tell me how you do it! 

I’d love to hear your best tips for managing personal and professional obligations. Drop me a line with your ideas and share your success stories.

 

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February 22, 2021

From Chaos to Harmony: Focusing on Opportunities for Growth

Whether your kids are at school as normal, attending on a hybrid schedule, or doing full remote learning, chances are this has been quite a school year.  A few weeks ago, we published tips to help parents thrive. With winter coming to a close and a load of collective experience under our belts, it’s time to revisit the topic and add a few tips. 

 

Tips for Managing School

With school attendance taking many new forms this year, the regular cadence of school days and afternoon practices and clubs is on hold for many families. This change from expectations can lead to a head-whipping range of feelings that range happiness for the opportunity to enjoy a slower pace to the stress as you try to squeeze work, school, and family life into one bucket with no real separation. 

If you had a chance to create a back-to-school plan, look at it, and see how the reality compares to your expectations. Consider:

  • Is school unfolding as you expected? 
  • How’s it going for you and your students? 
  • Are you still on the learning curve for the process, trying to master Zoom calls or turn-in procedures? 
  • What’s your daily time commitment to keep the kids on track?

If the plan still looks good,  re-ground yourself in the process now that you have more information about how school works. Consider small tweaks like adding treats to inject some fun into your days. Perhaps offer your kids an incentive to stay engaged as they move into more of a routine or surprise your family with treats to celebrate progress and dedication under new circumstances.

If you find that your reality is significantly different than the expectations you had over the summer, it may be time to toss that plan and start over. Shake it up if you need to find a new way. Talk to a trusted teacher about your struggles and see if options are available. Consider if other schooling options might work better right now. Let go of normal expectations and accept that grades may be lower than usual. Praise the effort your kids are putting in and look for ways to celebrate small victories.

 

Tips for Managing Relationships

If all this time together strains your family relationships, a few check-ins can help put things back on track. Start with your spouse to get a sense of how you can help each other now that you both have a good understanding of how your time and work responsibilities are shaping up for the next few months. Revisit any agreements you might have in place for housework and child care duties and explore if they still make sense or need to be tweaked. Discuss paid work responsibilities for the next few months and consider if you need to change your respective work/life balance loads. Circumstances can change quickly, and getting out ahead of potential issues can help make them easier to address.

Next, check-in with your kids to get their perspectives.

  • Ask how they feel about the current school situations. You might be surprised by their answers.
  • For older kids, ask if there are things you can do to help them be more successful.
  • Ask if they are satisfied with how they have adapted to their school year or if they’d change anything.

If you have older kids, share how you are doing. If you are struggling, let them know that and ask for help in ways that will be meaningful for you. Above all, share your faith in their ability to thrive under any circumstances. 

 

Take Care of Yourself

Remember, these times are complicated, and we must acknowledge that it’s ok to struggle. Finding ways to replenish your energy each day can help you keep moving and doing everything that keeps your family running. Make time to exercise, soak in the tub, or talk with a friend managing a similar load. 

Finally, remember the power of extending grace to your kids, your spouse, teachers, and yourself as we all continue to navigate new and unchartered territory. While we don’t know how or when life will return to normal, let’s be confident that it will.  Drop me a line sharing your tips for finding success and peace this fall.

 

 

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December 28, 2020

How to Get a Work-From-Home Job You Absolutely Love in Four Easy Steps

As we say goodbye to 2020 and hello to a new year full of opportunities, one of your goals may be to transition to a job that lets you work from home or offers more flexibility for you to work on your terms. If so, you are in the right place to find the resources you need to make this the year you transition to working from home or to life as a mompreneur. Let’s make a plan!

Get Started

Think About What You Want

As you think about working from home and your career goals for 2021, consider:

  • What type of work do I want to do? Am I looking to build on my existing skills and experiences or go in a new direction? Do I prefer being part of a virtual team or working solo? Is it time to start my own business? 
  • How do I want my workday to look? Do I want to be on the phone for a good portion of the day, or do I prefer solo work? Do I have concrete blocks of hours to do focused work, or do I need something that I can work on in short bursts of time? Can I work full time, or is part-time a better fit?
  • How does my budget look? Do I have a runway to start something new? Can I work on a project-by-project basis?  Do I need a job that offers a steady paycheck? How will my expenses change when I work from home? 

 

The questions above can be tough to answer. These resources can help:

  • Check out the Top 10 Work From Homes Jobs for Moms. This list can open you up to new possibilities you may not have considered in the past but could be an excellent fit for your skills, interests, and abilities. 
  • Read success stories of others who successfully made the transition to working from home.
  • Review these tips for finding at-home work without a lot of experience, if you’re new to the workforce, or returning after a long absence.

 

Consider Additional Training

As you narrow down the type of job that interests you, take a look at the training and credentials needed to get a job in this field. Online training is available for many at-home jobs. Several free training classes are available in the resources section on HireMyMom. You can find training on starting a virtual assistant business, work as a bookkeeper, a social media manager, a content creator, and more. 

 

Start Your Own Virtual Assistant Business                                                                                                                                                

If you’re ready to start your own business this year, consider becoming a virtual assistant (VA). As a VA, you take care of many tasks, including email response, appointment setting, travel planning, and calendar management. You can work as a general VA, who does a wide variety of tasks or become one with a specialty in a particular industry or need. 

VA work is catching on quickly. It’s a great business model because it solves a problem so many people have — squeezing more tasks into a day. It’s also an excellent lifestyle for moms who want to control their own time, skip the commute, and put family first while still keeping professional ambitions alive. 

At HireMyMom, we’ve partnered with four different training programs to help our members learn more about this business opportunity and acquire the skills needed to launch a VA business.

 

Find Job Opportunities

With a clear vision about your plans, it’s time to start looking for your work-from-home job. Having a plan to find job opportunities will make you more successful. Start by taking the Online Job Seeker 101 class available through HireMyMom.com for proven strategies to help you find and land jobs. Then, set aside an hour each day to find jobs that interest you, tailor your resume and cover letter, and apply. To find jobs:

  • Sign up as a Mom Professional on HireMyMom so you will have exclusive access to legit, work-from-home opportunities.
  • Research the types of employers that may need your skillset or offer the jobs you hope to land. 
  • Talk to friends, neighbors, and family members who may have leads.

 

Get Started!

Once you land your work-from-home job, it’s time to manage the logistics of working from home. 

  • Designate a quiet place to work and set it up with the tools you’ll need to work efficiently.
  • Identify your optimal work hours.
  • Talk with your spouse and kids (depending on their age), and ask for their support as you begin your new work journey.
  • Make a plan for your kids so you can find the time you need to work.
  • Consider ways to overcome the hurdles that are likely to pop up, such as internet outages, school holidays, and the general distractions that can come up when working at home.
  • Look at new options for managing day-to-day chores and household responsibilities that free up more work time for you.
  • Review my favorite productivity tips for moms who work at home.

 

 

Enjoy Your Success!                                                                                                                                                               

You’ve worked hard to get to this point, and I know that you will be successful in your pursuit of a job that lets you stay professionally engaged while working at home. I can’t wait to hear your success stories—best wishes for a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2021.

 

 

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December 7, 2020

It’s Time to Celebrate! How to Make the Holidays Special From Your Home Office

Whether you’re new to working from home or a veteran, the holidays can pose special considerations.  With work obligations and the focus on making the holidays magical for your family, how can you find the time and space to make the holidays fun and meaningful for you? And, what’s the best way to get into the holiday spirit without some of the office-based traditions that can make this season feel special? As a work-from-home veteran, here are my top tips for celebrating the holidays from your home office without missing a beat.

 

Create New Traditions     

 The first year I worked at home during the holidays, I missed the office holiday lunch and gift exchange. By the next year, I knew the key was to find a way to replace those traditions with new ones that made sense from my home office. Think about the office parties and activities that you cherished and how you might replace them this holiday season. For example:

  • Gather a few like-minded work-from-home moms and organize a holiday lunch at a local restaurant.
  • Organize a virtual gift swap or Secret Santa exchange with co-workers or remote team members.
  • Host an online cookie recipe swap or a Zoom cookie decorating party.
  • Invite your virtual co-workers to a Zoom-based holiday party — maybe even wearing your best ugly Christmas sweaters! Encourage everyone to enjoy hors d’oeuvres, snacks or toast with some bubbly for more festivity.
  • Choose a holiday-themed book and organize a Zoom call to discuss it or gather with your children and have someone read a children’s Christmas story.
  • Ask your virtual co-workers to join forces with you to adopt a needy child or family to shower with holiday gifts.
  • Launch a holiday scavenger hunt where co-workers or friends search for holiday-related items around their neighborhoods and share pictures. This tends to work best if you designate a specific time frame to conduct the search and host a Zoom party to share the images. Appoint one or two people to serve as judges. Provide virtual prizes ready at the end.

 

Bring the Holidays Into Your Office                           

One of the things you may miss by working from home is seeing holiday decorations around your office. Well who says you can’t decorate your home office with some fun decor, Christmas smells and music and maybe even a small tree? And wouldn’t it be fun to see how your remote teammates decorate and celebrate holidays? Here’s are some fun ideas to consider:

  • Decorate your home office space so that you can enjoy the visuals of the holidays. Even just a few lights or some greenery can change your desk enough to give you a merry holiday feeling.
  • Find a holiday-scented candle and burn it in your workspace.
  • Get a small Christmas tree for your desk or office.
  • Play carols in the background as you work.
  • Wear your holiday sweaters and clothes for Zoom calls.
  • Ask your co-workers to share pictures of their holiday decorations in a private online community or take turns on zoom to show your holiday decor and Christmas tree.

 

Schedule Time for Holiday Rituals

When you work at home, it’s easy to let work bleed into your personal time. For much of the year, that might be OK, but it’s essential to carve out time specifically to participate in holiday-related traditions at the end of the year. Planning is the solution to this dilemma.

Find a quiet moment well before the rush of holiday activities and think about the things you want to do this holiday season. Your regular roster of holiday parties and travel will likely be smaller than usual this year due to COVID. Think about how you want to spend that extra time. Make a few notes about holiday must do’s, things you’d like to squeeze in, and new ideas you want to add. Here are some items you might jot down:

  • Baking
  • Wrapping presents 
  • Completing your holiday cards
  • Watching special holiday movies
  • Making crafts with your kids

Next, grab your calendar and schedule a specific time to do the things that make the holidays feel special. When you set aside time, be generous in your time estimate. If you expect to need 90 minutes for baking, plan two or three hours, so you don’t feel rushed. When the time you designated for holiday activities rolls around, honor it. You’ll be glad you spent the time marking the holidays.

 

Make it a Merry Christmas! 

The extra time that comes from working at home is a gift that makes it easier to balance professional pursuits and family life. But, it can feel lonely during the holidays. Taking a few steps in advance can help you fill your holidays with cheer and make them memorable and meaningful.

Tell me what you do to make the holidays special from your home office.

 

 

 

 

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November 9, 2020

Moms (& Dads), This is How to Work Smarter (Not Harder) in the Kitchen

Are you running through groceries at an astonishing rate and finding dirty dishes in your sink every time you turn around? Like many people, I’m surprised by how many meals and snacks are pumping through my kitchen with so many of us home due to COVID 19. Here are our best tips for taming the associated workload.

 

Create and Post a Weekly Menu

If I could only do one thing to ease the cooking and kitchen clean up workload each week, it’s this: Create a weekly menu that covers all meals and snacks and hang it on the refrigerator. Direct your children to the menu when hunger strikes. (Make sure that some of the snacks can easily be grabbed and opened by young kids. For really young kids, include pictures of items they can select and make them easy to reach.) Having a posted menu reduces the discussion around what’s available to eat, eliminating a distraction for you as you work. Frankly, this one action will buy you untold peace of mind and help you reclaim time every day.

If creating a menu sounds like one more task to add to your already full to-do list, help is available through online meal planning services. Several options are available, and they all let you select a week (or more) of meals quickly and easily. They cover breakfast, lunch, and dinner, so it truly eliminates the scramble that accompanies menu planning and food preparation. You can choose meals based on your health goals, family preferences, and budget. Good options include eMeals, SideChef, Plan to Eat, and Recipe Keeper (my favorite). Once you choose your meals, you can automatically create a shopping list for the meals specified. A few additional tips:

  • Cross things off the menu as people eat them–you may find that the dinner you planned for Wednesday night gets moved to Monday, no problem–swaps are easy as long as you keep track.
  • Leave a blank space on the menu where family members can jot down meal and snack requests to incorporate into your planning.

 

Make it a Family Affair

There are many good reasons to share meal planning and clean up across your family and involve the kids. For starters, it gives you a break during a season that includes a lot of cooking. What’s more, your kids can develop valuable life skills in running a home, managing a budget, and healthy living. There are many ways to delegate responsibilities between family members. For example:

  • Put an older child in charge of generating a weekly menu using the menu planning app you prefer. Set a budget and provide goals to consider while planning. (Bonus if the kid is old enough to go to the store and get the groceries.)
  • Assign a day of responsibility for planning, sourcing, and preparing all food for one day each week to older kids. (For example, Connor owns Monday meals, Lindsay owns Tuesday, etc.)
  • Share duties by meal, with one person responsible for breakfast, lunch, or dinner all week. 
  • Ask younger kids to set the table, clear the dishes, or help prepare salads. 

Finally, create a task-specific cleanup calendar, so everyone shares in the clean-up load. Kitchen clean up goes a lot faster if everyone participates. Assign clean up duties to each family member on a rotating basis and agree on the standard of clean that counts as done. There’s nothing worse than having to call back a reluctant cleaning crew who forgot to wipe down the counters.

 

Master Lunch

Let’s talk about lunch. It’s smack in the middle of the day, and people eat on a rotating schedule with different meetings and classes ending at varying times. Let’s face it, stopping to prepare a meal in the middle of the day is disruptive when you are trying to work. A little planning can go a long way toward making lunch easier for you and more convenient for everyone. Try this:

  • Use school lunch services, if possible. Even if school is not in session, lunch is still available through many school districts. If your school district is offering lunch to-go, consider taking advantage of the service. Check with your school for details. 
  • Think leftovers. When you create your menu each week, plan for leftovers that family members can quickly reheat and eat for lunch. You can even have the cleanup crew package leftovers into single-serving lunch options that can efficiently serve each person when his/her lunch hour rolls around.
  • Go big. Prepare large pots of soups or chili and leave them simmering on the stovetop so people can self-serve when they are ready to eat. 

 

Inject Fun!

Last but not least, try to add some fun to mealtimes. When you cook all the time, it’s easy to fall into a rut making the same things over and over. But, thinking of themes can help bring the fun back to mealtime. Here are some ideas to get you started:

  • A week of Tex-Mex cuisine.
  • Italian dinners, including an old school pasta night and lighter options inspired by Italy’s different regions.
  • A retro week focused on popular menu items from decades past, such as meatloaf or Salisbury steak to celebrate the 1950s. Check out old recipe books to find some gems that your family will love.
  • Ask each family member to pick a number, turn to that page in a seldom-used cookbook, and ask the number chooser to prepare the item that appears there.

 

Please Share!

I’d love to hear what’s working for you and how you are managing mealtime. Send me a note with your best meal-time tips.

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October 12, 2020

5 Awesome Ways for the Exhausted Mom to Save Time and Sanity

Being a parent is a full-time job. For moms, it’s often a full-time job done on top of paid work. Autumn is generally an incredibly busy season with the return to school, sports, and many celebrations. Many moms are extra busy this fall– working, managing family life, caring for kids on limited school schedules, managing distance learning, or reacting to school protocol changes. All of those factors make this a perfect time to pull new tricks out of the bag to make life easier to manage. Technology to the rescue!

Here are our top suggestions for apps every working mom needs. 

 

A Menu Planning app 

What’s for dinner is a question asked every day, in virtually every home across America. An online meal planning service can make it easier to answer while saving you hours a week. 

Several options are available, and they all let you select a week (or more) of meals quickly and easily. They cover breakfast, lunch, and dinner, so it truly eliminates the scramble that accompanies menu planning and food preparation. You can choose meals based on your health goals, family preferences, and budget. Having a menu for each meal of the week ready to go saves you time, hassle, and money.

Good options include eMeals, SideChef, or Plan to Eat. Once you choose your meals, you can automatically create a shopping list for the meals specified. My personal favorite is Recipe Keeper — it’s an app that lets you add recipes from your collection using the camera on your phone, snap pictures of recipes in magazines, and search their database of recipes. I love that all my recipes are safe, available on every device, easily shared with family members, or social media. Best of all — it creates shopping lists by aisle and one for each store. And, it lets me quickly add ingredients from the recipes to the shopping list, which is a big time saver. 

 

Grocery Delivery or Pick Up

You know that feeling when you are exhausted but realize there’s nothing in the house to eat the next day? With grocery delivery or pick up, this feeling can be a thing of the past. 

Several companies, such as Peapod, Shipt, and Instacart, are ready to make it easier for you to fill your pantry by bringing groceries right to your door. And, many national grocery store chains now offer order pick up based on online orders. Your order is brought out to your car while you wait.

It takes some practice to master the ordering process through the app, so give yourself a grace period to get up to speed. (Pay particular attention to sizes. I once ordered almost a gallon of chocolate syrup.) Once you master the online process, you’ll save a lot of time and hassle. I’ve also found that I purchase many of the same things each week (think milk, eggs, bananas), and those items auto-populate after you buy them several times. That process, along with my menu planning app’s input, reduces the chore of grocery shopping to a quick and easy transaction, freeing up several hours a week. 

I’ve also found a bonus benefit: no impulse purchases. The money I save on unplanned purchases covers any increased costs of service fees or tips. Overall, grocery delivery/pick-up means hours and dollars saved.

 

A Photo Storage and Sharing app

The second half of the year is full of picture-taking opportunities. Between summer fun, park dates, the first day of school, a trip to the pumpkin patch, Halloween, and all the fall holidays, it’s easy to take several hundred photos. For many of us, those adorable photos to sit inside our phones, never to be seen or used again. 

But, several free apps make it easier to document the life you love with online photo storage, automatic memory books, and easy-to-order prints. Options include Shutterfly, Snapfish, and apps from local stores, like Walgreens, that allow for quick, local pick up. 

There are also compelling services like Mixbook, which comes with all sorts of stunning templates and designs that will bring your photos to life and make them easy to adapt for any occasion.

These apps let you keep your photos organized, autogenerate memory books, and order personalized cards and gifts. It’s easy to organize photos or make memory books right from your phone with just a few available minutes, like when you are riding as a passenger or waiting for the orthodontist. You’ll love the feeling of accomplishment that accompanies completing a memory book or ordering a photo mug showing off your family’s recent snaps.

 

Online Planner

Keeping track of every family member’s commitments, meetings, and zoom calls take a lot of organization, time, and commitment. When you organize school, work, sports, and social events in one place, it’s easier to get a sense of your total workload and identify competing commitments early. What’s more, knowing everything due with one glance makes it easier to decide where to funnel your energy.

Several apps exist to help solve this problem. Choose the one that best meets your needs and stage in life. Options include the Google calendar, Apple calendar, Timepage by Moleskine Studio, Planner Pro, Evernote, or Family Wall. These apps let you track commitments, manage to-do lists, take notes, and leverage templates for everyday tasks saving hassle and reducing stress. For me, I love using my Apple calendar to schedule and share events, meetings etc with my family but also including the address, things to bring, notes about the event, access codes and more. It’s all in one place for me or my family to access.  And all of these apps offer the basics of time management and scheduling with slightly different layouts and formats. Browse the options and choose the one that works best for you.

 

A Goal Tracker app

Setting goals is an integral part of the success equation. Tracking progress can help you stay on track, whether your goals are personal, professional, or both. You can find an app that helps you manage health and fitness, self-care, reading, budget, or practically anything you’d like to track. The right one for you depends on your stage in life and your specific goals. Strides, Done, and Fabulous as good options to investigate.

If your kids are school age, you can also look at tracking apps to help you help them. Check out Homework Pal, Pocket Schedule Planner, and the Power Planner for help tracking homework, chores, sleep, and more.

There are millions of apps available to make life easier and more productive. Finding the right ones can make all the difference. I’ve shared my favorites here. Drop me a line sharing the apps you can’t live without.

 

 

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September 28, 2020

This is How You Work from Home With Kids

When you work at home, carving out quiet time to do professional work is always challenging, especially when your kids are off school for a break or too young to attend school. This issue is now more acute than ever as many school-age children learn from home or attend school on partial schedules due to COVID-19.

Here are some ideas for keeping the kids busy so you can get work done each day.

Consider Child Care

I realize this is easier said than done. There’s often an expense associated with child care. What’s more, bringing new people into your bubble can open up health concerns. But, child care doesn’t have to be a full-time daycare or nanny situation. Several creative options are available for child care, which can be right for you and your kids.

 

Non-Traditional Sources of Child Care

Here are some out-of-the-box ways to find help:

  • Form a pod with another family and take turns on kid duty a few hours each day or every other day, giving each set of adults a chance to work kid-free.
  • Look for a local student who is home from college and could provide a few hours of support each week. Perhaps you can even find an education major who can tutor older children for college credit.
  • Ask a neighbor to consider swapping tasks with you–trading a few hours of child care for a service you’d be happy to provide like shopping, cooking, or organizing.

 

Nanny Sharing 

Consider sharing a nanny if you’d like a more traditional route but don’t need full-time care. Nannies can be very expensive, but sharing one with another family makes it more affordable. Partner with another family (or two) to share one nanny with each of you taking different days/hours. Or, have the nanny take all the kids to alternating houses throughout the week. This type of set up makes it easier to find a professional, full-time nanny without having to shoulder the expense on your own.

If you embark upon this path, here are some tips for success:

  • Agree on a general framework for hours and days at the outset. This type of arrangement works better when everyone is on the same page in terms of schedules. 
  • Be prepared to be flexible. Even the best-laid plans are bound to go awry occasionally, so enter into the arrangement knowing that you may need to make sacrifices based on the other family’s schedule and feel comfortable that they will do the same for you when the need arises.
  • Establish protocols for kid behavior and expectations. For example, will kids do school work with the nanny? What about watching television? Do you expect the nanny to supervise while the kids play or actively engage them in activities? Discussing these topics in advance can ensure a smoother partnership.
  • Make plans to address what you’ll all do if one of you is sick or exposed to COVID-19 and needs to quarantine. It’s best to partner with a family and a nanny who shares your perspective on the associated risk and right mitigation actions until the threat passes.

 

Encourage Your Kids to Play Independently

If child care isn’t in the cards for you, encourage your kids to play independently or with siblings. Many children can play quietly with a bit of guidance. Don’t feel bad about asking your kids to play alone. It’s a chance for them to develop essential skills and learn to be independent. But, be realistic about how long you expect them to play on their own. Here are some ideas:

  • Older babies can play happily in a pack-and-play or a stand-up activity center. 
  • If your kids are young, set up an area where they can quickly reach a few essential toys and play independently while you supervise from a distance.
  • If your kids are older, encourage them to use quiet toys, like puzzles or coloring books, while you work. Ask them to select ones that interest them and set a timer to help them manage the time on their own.
  • Books are a great pastime for kids, those who know how to read, and those just learning to read. Encourage 30 minutes of reading while you power through some emails or return calls.
  • Let older kids play outside in your yard — they will have a ball and come in tired.
  • Consider showing a kid-friendly matinee movie each afternoon, so you have a concrete block of time each day.

Need more ideas for independent playtime, check out this blog that contains 105 activities to keep kids entertained while you work. 

 

Consider Online Resources

Several online resources are available to help keep kids engaged and learning. A quick Google search for online learning will reveal a universe of online options to help your kids learn and grow. For example: 

  • Khan Academy is free and aimed at assisting K-12 students in learning specific subject matter. 
  • ABC Mouse is designed for younger kids and helps build fundamentals.
  • Outschool includes specialty classes that capture kids’ interests with a fun focus. Recent offerings include sharks, Godzilla, and Writers Workshops.

Although many moms feel a twinge of guilt by relying on screens, sometimes it’s the best option for finding the balance in work-at-home life. You can always enlist time monitoring apps like Kidslox and Bark to ensure that a little screen time doesn’t turn into a full-day affair. 

 

Know You Aren’t Alone

The combination of working from home and caring for children can feel like a lonely uphill slog. You aren’t alone, though. Millions of other moms are in the same boat and experiencing the same frustrations and challenges you are. Remember, it is challenging to work at home and keep kids occupied. Struggling is a normal part of the process. But, with some creativity and planning, it’s possible to survive and even thrive through this stage. 

It always helps to hear the stories of others. Join our Community of moms working from home and share your struggles, ideas or best tips for keeping kids busy while you take care of business.

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