🗓 Schedule Like a Pro: How to get work done while caring for kids this week.
Practicing extreme social distancing for the next 4+ weeks is going to be hard. Having a plan, a schedule and clear assignments makes it easier. Here's how.
📰 The Topic
📆Schedule Like a Pro
Every Sunday we work with busy working parents to proactively plan out their week - finding and filling any gaps and getting everyone on the same page.
Now, more than ever, we need to take some time on Sunday and plan out the week ahead. Here’s how. (Want us to do it all for you? Sign up here)
🤸🏼♀️Set the kids’ schedule. Here are some samples to help and a template to build your own. The point is, be excruciatingly detailed, using your existing routine as a guidepost.
🖥Be sure to add times for video playdates with friends or reading time with grandparents. Buy yourselves (and your parents) a Facebook Portal or Echo Show to make this easier.
👩🏻🏫Get the kids involved with building a mini classroom - my kids converted one of their rooms into a classroom, complete with whiteboard and poster boards with calendar, numbers, months etc.
👨🏻💻Set the parent work schedule. Based on your meetings, shifts, deadlines, each of you figures out your must-have coverage times (Don’t have a partner? While it’s not ultimately recommended for everyone, see if you can pair up with another family to be isolated with and still share the childcare load).
Eg. Avni Tues 8am-noon; Wed 10-1pm; Friday 2-5pm
Joe Mon 7am-noon; Wed 8am-noon; Thu noon-4pm📝Assign shifts. Depending on how many adults/caregivers are in your mix, assign out childcare shifts to follow the kids’ schedule. The most challenging will be if both of you are working and having to also cover childcare.
Two sample shift options:
Alternating 4hr shifts: 7am-11am; 11am-3pm; 3pm-7pm
Short shifts: 7am-9am; 9am-noon; noon-3pm; 3-5pm; (5-8pm together or addtl shift)
Other set-ups? Email us and let us know (hello@modernvillage.com).🧹Assign chores. Many of us are lucky to have outside help cleaning the house and with other daily chores. Make a list of all of those daily and weekly chores and divvy them up. This also means meals - eating at home for 3 meals/day is going to be a big adjustment.
Daily prepping + cooking meals -
Daily dishes + meal clean up -
Daily tidying -
Weekly laundry -
Weekly cleaning (bathrooms, surfaces, kitchen) -
Weekly garbage/recycling -
Kids baths/grooming -
🕺🏻Social time. We’re social beings. One of the hardest parts of extreme distancing is going to be the absence of socializing - from kids playdates to happy hour. Let’s find new ways to still be social.
🖍Kids playdates - schedule playdates over Facetime or Hangouts or by Facebook Portal. Have the kids do an activity like building blocks or just “hang out”.
🍷 Book clubs + happy hours - find an hour or two a week that you catch up with your friends. Just put it into your calendar and send out invites. Everyone will love and look forward to it, especially as we settle into this for a 4+ weeks.
Put the kids to bed tonight and then spend 20 minutes going through this and setting the plan. Use a paper calendar or our favorite, Google Calendar (which allows you to send invites - for chores to playdates).
Let’s do this. 💪🏽
🧰 The Tools.
🧐 Worth Reading
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