I don’t think I’m alone when I say that I used to think working from home would be AMAZING. I used to work in an office and would often be drowning in housework that needed to get done, dinners that needed to be made, errands to be run, and so so much more. But then I started working from home and quickly realized- this isn’t as easy as I thought it would be to balance everything! I would start doing some housework and easily get pulled in and spend my entire day doing laundry, running errands, cleaning the floors, all the things. But then none of my actual work would end up getting done.
Or, the opposite, I would sit down in the morning to just answer a few emails and get sucked in to all the things on my to-do list and realized at the end of the day that I didn’t even eat lunch. And the house would be a disaster, laundry piled up, and dinner never made. I don’t know about you, but when I wanted to work for myself, I wanted to be able to work with balance. To have days off, and to not constantly feel stressed and behind. Now, there are busy seasons where things are more stressed and require a lot more work at my desk, but then there are also seasons of rest and days off.
There are always distractions, but I’ve found by planning my days out ahead of time, I can be more successful and balance keeping up with the house work, and working from home. It does take a little bit of prep-work ahead of time, but it’s so worth the sanity! During a slower season, like January and February for Virginia, I don’t schedule office hours everyday, so first off, I schedule which days are going to be days with office hours and which days aren’t. Then, I wrote out all the house chores that need to get done during the week & organize them by room. So things like, clean out the fridge, wash towels, change the sheets, etc. get divided out between kitchen, bedrooms, etc. From there, I divided out each room and groups of chores for a day. So, on Monday’s I clean the kitchen- including cleaning out the fridge, taking the trash out to the street, etc. I spend about an hour every morning after I drop Emerson off at school to accomplish the cleaning for this general area. From there, I already know if it’s a day that I need to sit at my desk to complete my office hour tasks, or run to the grocery store or other errands that need to get done.
I stop my office hours by 2:30pm so I can pick Emerson up from school, work on homework and reading practice with her, un-interrupted. I use this time to also start working on dinner, and any of things that may need to be picked up, laundry switched over, etc. After dinner, Michael and I spend a few minutes picking up and making sure the dishwasher is loaded and the sink is empty. Lunches are packed, and Emerson’s clothes are picked out for the next morning. By having this all written down and listed out for each day, I don’t have to keep all of this is my brain and I am able to focus on the other things that need to get done!
Ashley Eiban is a Wedding & Portrait Photographer based in Central Virginia. Serving the Lynchburg, Charlottesville, Richmond, and surrounding areas. Available for travel world-wide. Ashley is passionate about cultivating genuine relationships built on mutual understanding, trust and lasting friendship.
Currently booking a limited number of wedding and portrait sessions for 2018. Contact Ashley today for additional information!
