8 Top Tips For Working From Home During The School Holidays

The thought of working from home during the school holiday breaks for some people is pretty exciting, others will be having mild anxiety attacks and I hear you! It doesn't matter how long you have been in business, I can tell you first hand it can be one of the trickiest parts of WFH. It surely is a balancing act but I want to share 8 of my best tips to help you get through the school holiday breaks while still managing to work from home and let's be honest to help keep your sanity.

Plan ahead

*insert laugh out loud here*. In all seriousness, plan ahead as much as you can. Know when the school breaks are and schedule these into your annual calendar. At the same time try to include any teacher only days or events like cross-country or pet days.

Do not set high expectations

Do not set yourself up to fail. Be kind to yourself. By this I mean be realistic as to the work you are going to commit to while having children at home.

Have a voicemail set up and push back meetings

Zoom can be one of the most used home office tools. But I truly, utterly can not think of anything more stressful than trying to occupy two little kids right when I am going to jump on a client video call. It does'nt matter how many fingers or toes I cross, it never works. I did it once and never, ever, ever again, feel free to learn from my mistake. There is also nothing worse than answering a call just to have someone scream "MUM, I AM DONE" coming from your bathroom....also happened. Simple tips can be to change your voicemail or email autoreply to say you will be away but checking your emails and messaged periodically.

Prepare food and snacks

I swear some days kids just do not stop eating. Just like a typical school day, have a lunch box packed full of snacks that kids can help themselves to. It will save you the brainpower throughout the day and lessen the chance of 'hangry' kids. Don't forget to organise your own lunch and snacks!

Keep connected with the outside world

School holidays are a time to give our kids a break, a much-needed break. This little dudes and dudettes work pretty hard at school and Kindy, so why not set yourself this time to enjoy things like family walks or going to the park. This can also be a great time to take a break from social media? Trust me, it is great!

Create hours of work

Hello, early riser or night owl. You will be surprised at how much work you can get done from 5 - 7 am. Does'nt sound to appealing right, stick with me. Let's face it, it is not like you need to get dressed or showered either so win-win. Rolling out of bed, grabbing water and coffee can get the job done for some. Plus that is an entire 10 hours of work in one week.

Plan fun activities

There is a ton of fun activities that do not have to cost the earth to do. Depending on the age of the kiddies, there are a ton of ideas over on Pinterest. Simple treasure hunts, bush walk or beach 'adventures' or even creating a fun mess-making pizzas.

Do 'kid swap days'

Sounds a bit weird but hear me out. A great way to keep the kids amused as well as keeping your own sanity is to find a friend who can do 'swap days' and create play dates so you can set aside a few hours to work. They take your kids one day, you take theirs the next. There are another few hours up your sleeve.

*disclaimer, I wrote this blog post while making 2x lots of snacks and listening to Power Rangers as my background music, we are all human*