My husband and I are both SO extremely blessed to be able to work from home. However, he does have to travel some. Which means our usual schedule of passing the baby off to one another takes a break and I’m full time care giver for a short period of time. Which is AWESOME. There’s some sarcasm in that comment, but there is also 100% truth. As I type this, I can hear my little girl baby talking through the baby monitor that’s perched a foot from me at all times when she isn’t on me. I never thought I would say this, but it is music to my ears. And while I may not get all 50 tasks on my daily to do list completed in 24 hours, I’m fine with dragging the incomplete tasks to the top of my list for the next day.
I was very naive in thinking running a quilting business AND being daycare manager to my little one would be a piece of cake. There are times when it’s trying and I’m not sure I’m going to make the deadlines I set for myself, but it always seems to work out. I’m no expert in time management, but I’d like to share some of the things I’ve implemented to still be able to work a minimum of a 40 hour work week.
1. Wake up at 3:30-4:00 AM…Luckily, (for now, anyway) baby girl sleeps in until 9:30. That gives me about 5 hours of UNINTERUPTED work time. Granted, I can’t always leave the house and walk out to the studio, but I can brainstorm and plan for upcoming projects, write invoices, and calculate estimates for customers.
2. NEVER sleep when the baby sleeps…If I got one piece of advice over and over again before and after I had this sweet baby, it was “Sleep when the baby sleeps”. I will say, I don’t enjoy naps. I lay there, thinking about how much time I am wasting not falling asleep and run through my list of things I could be getting done, instead of getting some shut-eye. I try to make the most of every tiny nap she takes and bust my hump to get some quality work done. And I can honestly say that was the worst advice I was given (that’s saying something!)
3. Basically, it’s just more of one and two. Early bed time for baby means more work time for me. For some reason, I thought I had all these great tips on how to run a business and be a stay at home mom, but all it boils down to is making the most of your time while the baby doesn’t need you. Also, don’t waste time on inconsequential tasks (IE makeup 😉 . Unless there are appointments with real people that day. Then, don’t skimp!
And finally, what do I really know??? My sweet little angel is only 4 months old. I’m sure someone is reading this, shaking their head, and saying…well wait another week and we’ll see how that works out for you.
So I’m going to end with…this parenting gig is much harder than anyone could ever explain. And the hard work really hasn’t started for us. So here’s to muscling through…and why do I want to add an emoji to every sentence I type (insert eye rolling emoji here)…? Have a great week and hopefully I’ll have some sewing goodness to share next week!