I earn a living from home doing a little bit of everything: writing, illustration, design, and culinary type stuff. I\u2019m often asked how I\u2019m able to do all of that with a toddler underfoot. Well I guess he\u2019s considered a preschooler now, but you get my drift.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s only way to do it and it\u2019s not some high tech secret answer. It\u2019s really all about time management, and the nice thing about being self-employed from home is that I can slate work in at any hour — from 4:30 am (it was ugly, but I was already up, so what the heck) or in the evening after Three-feet-of-fun goes to bed. The huge drawback is the motivation and to make sure when you slate the time to do it — you, in fact, do it. Let me show you.<\/p>\n
A rundown of my day:<\/p>\n
5:45 am<\/strong>\tMy thirty five pound alarm clock wakes me up. Instead of zoning on children\u2019s programming, I turn on the computer. By the time Three-feet has his snack and drink, the computer\u2019s waiting for me, raring to go. (I\u2019m hoping it\u2019s just a phase for Three-feet and he\u2019ll eventually learn to sleep in.) I\u2019ve found that a structured routine around your work and the child really helps the child understand that you\u2019re working. I also make sure that I intersperse mommy and Three-feet time because he is after all only three and can\u2019t go out and get a job yet (yeah, I know, what a little shirker).\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I earn a living from home doing a little bit of everything: writing, illustration, design, and culinary type stuff. I\u2019m often asked how I\u2019m able to do all of that with a toddler underfoot.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.familyresource.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.familyresource.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.familyresource.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.familyresource.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.familyresource.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.familyresource.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.familyresource.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.familyresource.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.familyresource.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n7:30 am<\/strong>\tBreakfast. I\u2019ve already gotten nearly two hours in on whatever project I have going. So I take a break and Three-feet and I sit down and have breakfast together.
\n8:15 am<\/strong>\tThe meal\u2019s been consumed, the table cleared off, and the dishes stacked in the dishwasher. That\u2019s when Three-feet and I play games of his choice for an hour.
\n9:15 am<\/strong> I sit down for another hour on the computer to work. We have a timer system in place at our house. I set it and tell Three-feet he needs to entertain himself until it goes off. So, he\u2019ll go off and read books, play blocks, color, whatever it is he wants to do. We have now built that up to an hour and a half of \u201cdon\u2019t bug mommy time.\u201d
\n10:45am<\/strong>\tThe timer buzzes reminding Three-feet that he can now \u201cbug\u201d me which he promptly does — it\u2019s like Pavlov\u2019s bell. It doesn\u2019t matter what that kids doing or how enthralled in the game, that buzzer goes off and he\u2019s all over me like bees on flowers. It\u2019s rather adorable. Since it\u2019s almost lunch, we play for a bit and then make lunch together.
\nNoon<\/strong> Three-feet of fun is allowed a movie of his choice and I work for the length of the movie, appropriately commenting when it\u2019s deemed necessary by my little tyrant (it\u2019s amazing what you can work through).
\n1:45 pm<\/strong> We do arts and crafts. So I get all our art supplies out and while he works on his masterpiece I work on my illustrations and designs. I\u2019m able to do this until he realizes I\u2019m actually \u201cworking\u201d then naturally he wants to play Play-Doh or something not drawing related. He\u2019s a clever one.
\n3:45 pm<\/strong>\tThe timer comes into play again so I can squeeze more work related stuff before dinner.
\n5:00 pm\t<\/strong>I stop working to make dinner and include Three-feet in the preparation. He loves helping me cook.
\n6:00 pm<\/strong>\tI\u2019m blessed with my husband, who takes Three-feet to the park for an hour and a half every weeknight. This is my creative time. I work on my novels and personal projects that aren\u2019t a paying gig yet. But, to be honest, sometimes I just veg out on a book or take a nap — you know have some mommy alone time.
\n7:30 pm<\/strong> Bedtime routine begins and we get Three-feet in bed by 8:30 at the latest.
\n8:30 pm<\/strong>\tIt\u2019s a toss up here. Sometimes I\u2019m actually the better person and put in more time on my personal projects, but I\u2019m also just as guilty as curling up in a blanket on the couch and watching a cheesy movie or playing video games. <\/p>\n