One thing that has brought me a lot of comfort lately has been reading other people’s daily schedules and lives right now. I started thinking of how I could contribute to the conversation; I work a non-essential job from home with a 4-year-old every single day. The last 6 weeks have been stressful and difficult; there has been so many decisions, so much to do.
But I feel like for others in similar positions to me (working from home, trying to care for children, trying to look forward without stress), it’s really helpful to see how others are handling it. How are we scheduling our time? How are we making things work?
This has felt like the most surreal 2 months of my life; I started a new freelance contract in late February and then, stay-at-home orders happened in Oregon. Everything has changed for that particular client and the work I’m doing!
I guess the main reason why I wrote this was to show you: what I do all day; how I’m helping Forrest adjust to this very weird, very isolated time; and to let you know that if you need help troubleshooting your day (or just need to talk!), I’m here.
Morning
I wake up at 5am to tackle some scheduling for a client. I live in a rural area, so I basically have 2 forms of internet: unlimited data from 2am-8am, then 15 gb of data for the month the rest of the day. For big data tasks like a lot of uploading, I try to get up early to get those done.
As I get my computer booted up, I make coffee for my husband. Then, I make an iced coffee from the leftover coffee I keep in the fridge for myself. (I use 1 cup of cold coffee, 3 tablespoons of oat milk, 1.5 tablespoons of almond milk creamer, and 1 packet of truvia, plus ice cubes. If you’re looking for a good, strong iced coffee recipe.)
Scheduling takes a few hours that I usually have to split up over a few days—but in about an hour and a half, I manage to get a big chunk done for all clients. By 7:30, my husband is up and getting ready to leave. He’s a teacher and while he’s not teaching students in person, due to our internet situation, he is still working from his classroom. This is nice because it gives us both a chance to get away from each other and have some room to breathe.
My son usually wakes up between 7:30 and 8. Once he’s up, I help him pick out clothes, get dressed, and comb his hair. Then I make breakfast. Today, I make him oatmeal, which is his new favorite. He has strawberries and raspberries on the side.
Once he’s eaten, I take him to my mom’s by 8:30; she watches him for me while I work for a few hours. For the first 5 weeks of stay-at-home orders, we quarantined away from my parents; my mom asked to start watching Forrest again and I couldn’t say no. It’s been a huge stress reliever for me and F’s behavior and mood has improved as well. He hadn’t been out of the house for 5 weeks and I don’t take him if I need to run errands.
At home, I take a shower, eat breakfast myself, and then jump into work for a client. I manage a Facebook community for a national brand via a local agency. I use time blocking to manage my day, so I dedicate 1-2 hours in the morning to this client. Then, I take a quick break to work out and clean up my bedroom; I make the bed, start my diffuser going so it smells good, and start any laundry. I also move the morning’s coffee from the coffee pot to my iced coffee container in the fridge.
Then, I spend an hour writing and I answer emails in all my various company emails.
By this time, it’s 11:30. I let my dog outside, make a second iced coffee, and then head back to my office to tackle an hour of client work, including writing.
Originally I was supposed to have client calls from 12:30-2, but they were canceled and moved to tomorrow, so I head to my mom’s to pick up Forrest. On Monday, we get McDonald’s as a treat; Forrest gets a Happy Meal and I get a large Diet Coke. At home, we have some TV time and I check my client’s Instagram accounts at the same time.
After about an hour, I return to my office and do a second round of community management for one of my client’s—this usually takes anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. Today it takes about an hour. I answer any emails or Slack messages from this client. I have so enjoyed the work I do in community management; right now, I’m a temp employee while their usual social media coordinator is on maternity leave. I’m so excited to see her return, but I’ll be sad to leave this work behind. (As an update: when I wrote this, I was planning to be done in mid-May with them, but I’ll actually be staying on to continue to do their scheduling and weekend community management! I’m very excited as I love this team.)
Once I get that done, I do some admin tasks for myself, primarily related to getting Forrest registered for preschool next year and accounting.
Admin work done, it’s almost 4pm. F is pretty good and doesn’t interrupt me a ton when I work; it helps that my office is separate and we’ve taught him that he doesn’t just walk into it (although I do catch him stealing paper from my printer fairly frequently). I turn off my computer and head to the kitchen.
We are having leftover chili from the weekend, so F helps me make a new batch of cornbread. Then, I get him a snack to eat until dinner is ready and/or my husband gets home. (It’s a tube of yogurt, his favorite thing.)
The TV goes off after 4pm, so we listen to an episode of Storytime, a story podcast for kids, or music. Each week we pick a new music artist and I make a kid-friendly playlist for Forrest. (I won’t take credit for this idea—it’s inspired by Elsie Larson of a Beautiful Mess!) This week is Leonard Cohen, which is a bit heavy for a 4-year-old. He much preferred Beatles week or Shania Twain week.
I usually pour myself a glass of wine during this; I have a Winc wine membership and I have enjoyed every single wine I’ve gotten from them. (Here is my referral link if anyone wants to try Winc!)
Close to 5, my husband gets home, washes his hands, and changes his clothes. I serve up dinner and we eat together as a family. Forrest helps us clean up afterward, then he heads to his room to play. My husband usually relaxes in his office upstairs during this time; it’s right next to Forrest’s room, so he gets to wrangle while I work uninterrupted for a while.
I finish up a blog post for my website, then double-check my to do list. I’ve pretty much gotten my work handled for the day, so I work on some writing. I’m currently planning my NaNoWriMo novel for November—it’s just something to do!
When I hit a stopping point during writing, I head upstairs to take a bath. Forrest is happily playing with my husband, so I light a candle, run a bath, and download a new book on my library app on my phone to read. I probably read 3-4 books a week, sometimes more. I wish I could tell you I was reading highbrow works of literature. The truth is, I’ve been reading through Lisa Kleypas’s library of Regency-era romances and have moved on to some of her contemporaries. I have an entire tag full of these books on my library app.
After my bath, I clean up the bathroom and do my skincare routine. It’s nearly 8pm by this time, so Forrest gets ready for bed (brushes his teeth, washes his face, puts on his pajamas). He’s been having trouble sleeping for a while, ever since we moved into our new house, and surprise, things were getting a lot better in February. Just in time for stay-at-home orders!
He watches Lego Movie 2 in bed beside me while I play Animal Crossing. He usually falls asleep during this and we move him to his bedroom. Sometimes, he stays there. Most days, I wake up around midnight to him asleep on the floor next to me in what we call his “nest”. I don’t particularly mind this.
Before I fall asleep, I check my email, Slack, and social media apps one last time, just to make sure I didn’t miss something urgent. I make a few notes on my phone of things to remember the next day, then turn on my heating pad.
That’s my day! That’s a pretty standard day for us, broken up occasionally by meetings. I’d love to see what your day is like! Let me know in the comments or link your own blog post.
