November 16, 2010

Setting Office Hours

How do you set office hours when your office is the kitchen table?

First, you have to set the hours for yourself. What all do you need to get done in a day? When do you work best? Find the answers to those questions and base your office hours off them.

Personally I handle repetitive tasks such as housework better in the morning and more creative things like crafting better in the afternoon and evening. So, I wake up early with Hubby, so we can share breakfast and have a little quiet time in the morning. Then I take an hour or so to tend to the chores around the house and prepare the girls' breakfast around 8. Once all the morning chores are out of the way, the girls and I have the rest of the morning for lessons and play. (Considering both girls are currently in preschool, lessons and play are usually the same thing.) Then we all have lunch, and the girls lay down for their nap.

Once they are asleep, my work day begins about 1 p.m. If I need soaps, fizzies, or bath salts, I start out making those. Then I move to the computer to work on my current manuscript, blog, market, and network until the girls wake up. I settle them with a snack and pull out my felt or yarn and begin crafting at the kitchen table, and it isn't long before the girls want to get out their art supplies and work along side me until Hubby comes home.

After a break for dinner, we all usually settle in the living room. The girls play while Hubby and I watch the odd television show or a movie, and I knit or embroider in the chair. My workday ends with the girl's bedtime. Hubby and I tuck them in bed, and then it's our time to unwind and talk about the day before retiring ourselves.

This schedule works for us now, but I know I'll likely need to adjust my work hours once Boo Bear starts Kindergarten in the fall since the hours per day for homeschooling are more stringent with the start of grades.

So, that's what works for me, what about you?

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