Creating the Best WFH Schedule This Summer (Part One)

Have you ever found yourself struggling to balance work and family life, especially during the unpredictable summer months? This episode is the answer for every working mom navigating the chaos of summer schedules. Discover the productivity strategies and mindset shifts that have kept me on track, from setting specific anchors and utilizing early morning hours for focused work to handling the inevitable guilt of not maximizing every moment of summer with the family. The goal? To close your laptop at a set time each day and be fully present with your loved ones.

In this episode, I cover the following:
1. Balancing work and family in the summer.
2. Adjusting work hours to fit in quality family time.
3. Releasing both internal and external expectations about summer.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Are you a woman who runs the world but know you need a little support too? Listen up. Through coaching clients and pursuing my own health and ambitions, I found getting to a goal takes more than just willpower. It takes a mindset restart and learning how to adjust and not quit. In this podcast, you'll hear from women out there leading the way in momentum and I'll be sharing impactful mindset strategies to help you. Women out there leading the way in momentum, and I'll be sharing impactful mindset strategies to help you get out of your own way.

Speaker 1: 0:28

Whether you're on a health journey, starting your life after a big change or trying to keep up momentum towards your passion project, with all the ups and downs, this is for you. It's time to decrease the things that hold you back and increase the things that move you forward towards a life that you want. That hold you back and increase the things that move you forward towards a life that you want. I'm Amber Biebelheimer and this is the Momentum Restart Podcast. This is Momentum Restart Podcast. I am your host, coach Amber B. It is officially summertime and we are in full swing over here at the Beebleheimer house, with kids being out of school the last two weeks and I am working from home. This summer is actually the first summer since the kids were born that I have had zero help, as in no babysitters or nannies scheduled so far, and it's actually been going really well and I've been trying to update and share in real time, be super authentic with the ups and downs of this and what it looks like on Instagram and I'll continue doing that too and in my newsletters to give you some of the behind the scenes. But it's actually gone really well and I really believe it's because of a few specific anchors that we've created and some specific productivity tools that I've implemented and trying to practice what I teach, and I'm going to be sharing that with you over the next three podcast episodes. So, if you're working from home this summer, we're going to talk about how to create the best work from home schedule for the summer.

Speaker 1: 2:03

And every working mom that I know every one of them I hear the same goal. I have this goal too. I totally get it, and it is to close the laptop at a certain time. They have a certain time in their head where they're like, if I can just close the laptop at 2 pm or 4 pm or 11 am, whatever it is and be fully present. That's the goal of every working mom that I hear, and I love hearing that goal because that's mine too, and I fully appreciate and understand the depth of that desire and I believe it's really possible. I've seen it be possible in my clients that I've helped with momentum restart in myself.

Speaker 1: 2:51

And it doesn't mean that it's perfect. Just because you have a great plan doesn't mean it's because you're doing something perfectly. It's because you are implementing a few of the mindset shifts and planning tools that I'm going to share with you today and over the next couple parts of this podcast series. So you have this goal where you want to close the laptop. Pick a time right now, just say it out loud. Pick the time that you wish you can close the laptop by.

Speaker 1: 3:12

For me, I am trying. This is actually the first day of the last two weeks that I've been trying to implement this, because I gave myself some grace and my work times are going to be early mornings. This worked really well during the school year and I'm hoping it works this summer as well. It's been a little trickier than I thought it was going to be because I would love to sleep in a little bit later with the kids this summer too. But doing early morning work has been really great for me because I love my creative time and that's when I feel the most creative is when I'm completely by myself, there's not a sound or anyone around me, and that was the only time I can find that is early morning or late at night. So I am implementing my time to be done and shutting the laptop actually by 830 am and already having a couple hours in, and then picking it up again for work that's more behind the scenes or distracted work that I can do while distracted in the afternoons. Once I've spent some really great quality time with the boys, or we've gone and gotten a workout in, or we've gone and done a little adventure somewhere in town, or maybe I had some calls that day and I had the boys. I had some calls that day and I had the boys playing outside or doing some sort of activity inside.

Speaker 1: 4:28

We all have different time that we want to close the laptop. So whatever time it is, whether it's morning, afternoon, evening maybe you work in the evenings and you're catching up on work, but you want to have your laptop closed by 9 pm or 10 pm so that you can have some screen free time and get some good night's sleep. Whatever that time is, name it and I know that our goal is to close the laptop at that time, be fully present. And the summer months can throw a little wrench in our plans in the best way. Summer months are really just a wild card, and the sooner we appreciate that and just learn to roll with it, the better. We have camps, we have sports, we might set a routine, we might set a schedule, but then us for next week is going to look 100% different because we're going to be gone for three hours every morning. We have vacations coming up, so you might get in a role, and then all of a sudden you have vacation and you have all the prep work and then it is the time for recovery after vacation, to get back in routine.

Speaker 1: 5:30

And then we also have the guilt that's put on us. If you've seen that reel or hear people say you only have 18 summers with your kids, make the most of it. If you have kids at home still, this can make you feel really guilty. Even if you don't have kids at home still and they're grown, you can feel that guilt of I should be outside enjoying the sunshine or the lake. Summer only happens a few months every year, especially if you live up north, like I do so with that guilt and that adjustments that are constantly needing to be made, it can feel even more challenging to close the laptop at that time. It is possible when we implement these tools, which are not restrictive, they're not rigid. These are really beautiful tools that you're going to be able to use this summer to have some freedom to close the laptop, be present and also in your whole life. These are tools that I teach all of my Momentum Restart students, all of my one-on-one clients.

Speaker 1: 6:34

And the very first step is to let go of expectations, and this means expectations for that you put on yourself, expectations that are put on you from the outside. Externally, it could be the expectation of what your summer has to look like. Your summer does not and should not look like someone else's that they're posting on Instagram or on Pinterest or anywhere, that you're looking, your friends or the way that you grew up. It does not have to look like that. You get to decide what you want your summer to look like. So some questions to really ask yourself and dig in deeper, and this is something that the 90-Day Planner and Journal is really helpful for is to figure out what you want. What do you want? What do you want these next 90 days, or however many days left of summer there are? What do you want them to look like? What is connecting to you? If you're saying I want to be present, what does that mean?

Speaker 1: 7:41

I had a friend I was talking with yesterday about the impending summer and kids getting out of school for her, and she was sharing that her oldest daughter was asking for just time together for the family at home, just like each of them reading, but being near each other. I thought it was so beautiful and so cool that she was recognizing and noticing what it was that would be fulfilling for her daughter, because every child is different, you are different, every mom is different, every person is different. So if you're wanting to be present while working from home in the summer, deciding what you want it to look like and then what is actually connecting for you and for the people you're trying to connect with, that's going to help you let go of the expectations. You do not have to create your summer based on someone's summer bucket list that they created or we follow. I follow a lot of people here in the Twin Cities who share all the different places to go and parks to go to or free things you can do with your kids, and I can get really caught up in that. I can get caught up with. We've got to do all these things. We've got to make sure we hit all this. And this really gets for me in the summer and in the holidays too, when I notice these bucket lists and I think that's the only way we're going to be able to celebrate summer if we do this entire list that these people told us to do, when in reality you have, and I have, your people and my people.

Speaker 1: 9:08

We each have a unique way that we are connected, that we connect with each other, way that we are connected, that we connect with each other. We each have a unique way that helps us to feel present. For me in the summer, that is being near the water. I live in Minnesota, the land of 10,000 lakes. I grew up going to the lake every single weekend in the summer. I don't live on a lake now, but near a lake, and my boys and I just today landed at a beach somewhere and we were swimming. I have to be near the water, if I can walk by the water, if I can sit by the water, if I can have coffee by the water. Any of those things makes me feel like I'm soaking up the summer, because I know come winter that's not really an option.

Speaker 1: 9:51

So what is it that helps you feel present, what helps you feel connected and what do you really want? Block out everything else of what people are telling you that you want. Block out what you feel like you should want and decide what you want. And if you're having some trouble trying to pinpoint what it is that you want, I encourage you to grab the 90-Day Planner and Journal. It has some really powerful questions to walk you through that five-year vision of what you want your life to look like. And then it helps you map out what those days are going to look like, all the way down to your momentum hour, which we're going to talk about next time on part two.

Speaker 1: 10:32

But for this week, I encourage you let go of those outside expectations, let go of your internal expectations and remember what it is that you really want. Write it down somewhere, keep it on your phone, your screen, and remember when all these opportunities pop up or others are telling you you should do this or this, ask yourself if it really helps you accomplish that thing that you really want this summer. You have more control over this summer than you realize. In part two next time, I'm going to be sharing some nitty gritty details of how you can plan out your week and your day to be able to be really effective and efficient in your work time and effective and efficient at home, so that you can also be freeing yourself up to have more time for enjoying your life, whatever that looks like this summer. But it's really important first to know what it is that you want that's going to help you like you are soaking it up and enjoying every bit of summer. Pinpoint with that is share with me on Instagram. I would love to hear what stood out to you today, how you want your summer to look like. Share this on Instagram so more people just like you can find this podcast, and I'll be back in a few weeks to share with you part two of how to create the best work from home schedule this summer.

Speaker 1: 11:57

Thank you for listening to this episode of Momentum Restart Podcast. I would love to hear what you think about it. What were your takeaways. What action steps do you now want to take? Dm me on Instagram at Coach Amber B and let's keep this conversation going. I promise I respond to every message I get. Talk with you soon.