How To Juggle Working & Commitments From Home

Time management expert and author Kate Christie shares some timely advice

- Kate Christie

Without warning we have been thrust into a very new way of living and working. As parents, we are scrambling to navigate this new paradigm, with family in tow, while trying to stay calm and sane, and without freaking out. This virus isn’t going to be eliminated tomorrow, and we all want to keep our kids safe, anxiety free, and loved. But that does not mean we can’t have rules.

Call me crazy, but I am not a maid, my home is not a hotel, and my kids are required to contribute to the running of it. My mantra? Family is a team sport. And to be totally honest, now that you and your kids are almost completely contained, there has absolutely never been a better time for you to create a new normal for your family.

TIME TO ‘INSOURCE’

It’s time to ‘insource’ – and now that you have a captive audience, you can start today. Insourcing is the exact opposite of outsourcing (where you hire an expert to complete a task for you because they can do it faster, better and cheaper than you – eg: cleaning). Insourcing is where you identify everything you currently do for the people who you live with that they can do for themselves. Happily, the list of what your family can do for themselves is endless.

BREAK ‘INSOURCING’ INTO TWO TYPES OF TASKS

The ‘It’s your stuff, deal with it’ tasks: for example, cleaning up your bedroom, hanging up your towel, flushing the toilet, putting your rubbish in the bin. Regardless of their age, if your kids can walk they are capable of tidying up their own belongings.

The ‘Family is a team sport so let’s all help out’ tasks: for example, clearing the table, stacking the dishwasher, vacuuming the floor, putting the bins out.