Did you enjoy your three day weekend? If you are a work-at-home parent, you probably didn’t even realize today was a holiday, did you?
I used to work for our state government. I used to love my “Friday Bonus Day” when I would show up to work on Friday and find out from my coworkers that a three-day weekend was coming up. Sadly, we had so many vacation days that I had a hard time remembering what we were supposed to be celebrating sometimes.
I didn’t realize that today was President’s Day until the mail lady failed to show up. Nowadays, that’s usually my first (and only) clue.
Since making a major career move, I’ve been trying to figure out a few different tricks to balance my career and home life. When I was involved in direct sales, my weekends were typically committed to vendor events and weekend parties. Saturdays and Sundays were often my busiest days of the week.
I talked with a friend of mine who is a successful work-at-home mom. She had a very simple solution. “Treat your weekends like you did before you started working from home”, she suggested. “Wow…why didn’t I think of that?” I thought.
When I worked full-time outside of my home, I devoted my Saturdays to housekeeping and Sundays to family activities. I remember finding great comfort while laying around on Sunday afternoons watching movies and football with my family knowing that I didn’t have to worry about laundry, dishes or vacuuming.
Have you struggled with finding balance? Have you considered allotting weekends for family time and housekeeping while reserving the rest of the week for working?
I am sitting here typing with a pile of laundry to do in the room next to me. I also have floors to mop and shelves to dust. I’ve found it much easier to concentrate on my work knowing that I have an entire day coming up that is going to be devoted to household chores and tasks.
If you are thinking about trying this simple little family-work balance trick, print off your local government holiday calendar and use it as a reference point. That way, you can enjoy a few “bonus-days” and three day weekends too!