How to Work from Home and Homeschool (Successfully)

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7 tips to help you successfully work from home and homeschool

Of all the questions I hear from new homeschool moms, a good majority of them want to know how to get it all done.

Here are some of the best tips I’ve learned over the years to help you maximize your time:

1. Delegate household tasks

Learning to delegate household tasks is a huge game-changer for many work from home and homeschool moms.

First, please accept the fact that the more household tasks you can delegate, the better.

If you can afford to hire a housekeeper, a chef, a chauffeur – just go ahead and do that, okay?!

But since that’s not real life for many of us, keep reading!

Here are some household tasks you may be able to delegate:

• Have your kids clean the house once a week. (Yes, I’m serious.) Little kids can dust, change trash cans, wipe appliances and doorknobs, and more. Older kids can clean bathrooms, wipe glass, sweep, vacuum, and mop. (More on this coming soon!)
• Involve your kids in daily chores. Young kids can set and clear the table, pick up toys, open and close blinds, and more. Older kids can load and unload the dishwasher, take out the trash, rinse the dishes, and sweep the floors.
• Start doing grocery pick up – or better yet, sign up for grocery delivery!  As a work from home and homeschool mom, you don’t need to be spending time every week to go to the grocery store. If you are concerned about the quality of your product, order everything else and make a quick 15 minute produce run once a week if absolutely necessary.
• Hire a lawn service. (And if you have tweens or teens, make them your new lawn care providers!)

2. Consolidate the rest of your household tasks

For the household tasks that you can’t delegate, you may consider the concept of time-blocking.

This means that you take a chunk of time to work on one thing at a time – and see it through until completion.

Some household tasks that you can consolidate are:

Meal prepping. Spend a few hours on the weekend getting your meals prepared for the week ahead.

You could cook meat or noodles in advance, combine spice mixture, marinades and dressings, put together casseroles, make soups, and more.

The beauty of this is that you’ll only make one giant mess in your kitchen instead of a smaller mess that you’ll need to clean up every single night!

Laundry. Now hear me on this – it is better to do all of your clothes laundry on one marathon day of the week than doing one small load everyday!

Why?

Because when you have one day a week for clothes laundry, you’re more likely to work hard to get it all done, folded and put away.

When you constantly have one unfolded load of laundry in front of you, your motivation to get it all done decreases.

Just imagine how amazing it will feel to have 6 laundry-free days a week! Amazing, right?

For more info on how to do your clothes laundry in one day a week, read this article here on my mom blog!

3. Have a definite plan for everyday

Because you have so much on your plate as a work from home and homeschool mom, you need to have a plan to get it all done!

It’s probably no surprise to you that the work isn’t just going to get done on its own! (Wouldn’t that be nice, though?)

I absolutely love the Spaces Planner to help me plan my days and weeks!

It is by far the most perfect planner for moms I’ve ever seen because it is so customizable!

Each weekly spread has 12 sections – 5 that are labeled with titles such as personal, housework, errands, health, and relationships. But there are also 7 unlabeled sections that you can customize as needed.

Say you’re in the middle of a big work project and need to keep your t0 do list for it in order – you can create a section for it!

Or maybe you’re planning a birthday party – make a section dedicated to the things you need to get done.

If you’re a goal setter, you can easily write your goals and create a habit tracker in another section.

And of course, you can also create a big section for homeschooling too!

The Spaces Planner is not only incredibly functional – it also happens to be beautiful and durable as well!

4. Wake up early

A hugely important habit for work from home and homeschool moms is waking up early.

My mentor, Darren Hardy, recommends having a 90-minute jam session in the morning BEFORE anyone else is awake.

And while that might not seem like a ton of time, I am always amazed at how much I can get done in an hour and half with absolutely no distractions!

Now, if your kids are super early risers, a 90-minute jam session may not sound achievable, but I encourage you to try it at least a few times a week.

Or you may try to have a 45 or 60-minute jam session until you are in the habit of waking up early.

For all the details on how to make waking up before your kids a habit, read this article on my mom blog too!

5. Create (and stick to!) office hours

Another really important tip for successfully working from home and homeschooling, is to create office hours for yourself.

I highly recommend trying to finish homeschool by lunchtime – with reasons why that’s okay in this article right here.

But even if you do have to spend sometime doing homeschool after lunch, still set yourself some office hours.

During an office hour, it’s a great idea to spend 45-50 minutes working on a specific task.

When the 45-50 minutes are up, get up and stretch, grab a drink or snack, etc. Taking a small break like this actually increases productivity – which is exactly what busy work from home and homeschool moms need, right?

You may want to aim to have 2 or 3 separate office hours everyday. Or the number of office hours you keep may depend on what you have scheduled for that day.

Finally, you may want to set aside another shorter office hour specifically for emails. Set a timer for 30 minutes and take care of the most important emails first!