Creating the Best WFH Schedule This Summer (Part Two)

What if I told you that a bit of planning could transform your summer into a perfect balance of productivity and joy? Let's unfold the secrets to crafting an efficient work-from-home schedule amidst the sunniest season. I’ll share the must-know strategies for setting up your weekly and daily routines, ensuring you stay on track with your goals while still savoring those warm summer days. From flexible work hours to making time for family activities, I’ve got tips that will help you thrive. Whether you’re managing a bustling household or nurturing your passion projects, this episode promises inspiration and actionable advice for maintaining momentum and enjoying a refreshing summer.

In this episode, I cover the following:
1. Importance of mindset adjustments for achieving goals.
2. Tips for staying motivated and productive during health journeys or life changes.
3. Practical productivity tools for managing a flexible schedule.

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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, part two of how to create the best work from home schedule this summer and last week we talked about your expectations, letting them go and really dialing in on how you want your summer to look how you're going to be connecting with your people and making the most of these really beautiful days so that you can go into the fall feeling refreshed. Today I'm going to share really practical tools and tips productivity tools that I encourage you to try, both. If you've gone through Momentum Restart you've worked through these before this is a really great time to refresh. If you have the 90-day planner and journal, these are in there because I walk you through that first week of how to put your schedule up and into place. So if you don't have that yet, make sure to grab it. Or if you need a new one after 90 days, grab that too. And we're going to walk through today how to set up your week and your days so that you can make the most out of this summer. And I was laughing with a friend today when we were talking about how much time is spent in the summer looking for goggles If you have kids or have ever had kids at home. We were laughing about how important it is. God forbid you show up somewhere with water and there are no goggles. You're either going to spend all the money buying brand new pair or you're going to have a kid who's pretty unhappy. So I found today to be a really big win. I was pretty pumped about this.

Speaker 1: 2:26

In some of this planning that I've been doing and preparing for the summer, I created a tote that had. I did this a couple weeks ago, before the boys were even out of school, and had a tote filled with towels and goggles and sunscreen and band-aids and Neosporin and Benadryl and all the different things that you might need when you have two little boys and you are doing all sorts of adventures this summer. And today I took them to get ice cream because I had calls all day from 8 am until 1.30. And we are now into our schedule. We are moving and grooving with our schedule and they are doing so great. I'm so proud of them with the routine that they're waking up, they know what to do, they have some fun activities that we have started over the last couple of weeks that they just busy themselves with. So I told them on one of my breaks that we're going to go eat ice cream. So we're driving to get ice cream and we're near a lake, always in Minnesota, and they said, oh man, if only we had our goggles we could go to the beach. And I said I've got the goggles packed in the back and Max yelled you're the best mom, and I really felt like it was the moment that I won this summer. So if all goes downhill after today, I'm going to just hold today like it was the best celebratory moment and I actually have.

Speaker 1: 3:48

I'm adjusting, I'm not quitting. We have unique times right now with when I'm working. I shared on last week's podcast my work from home schedule is early morning or late at night, and sometimes in the afternoon as well. If you are someone who's able to adjust your schedule too, I'm curious on what's working for you and would love to hear. Pop it in Instagram, dm me. I would love to hear what's working for you or isn't. And if you are not able, or wishing that you had more flexibility in your schedule or wishing that you were more in charge of your work life, reach out to me, because I would love to help you find ways to move towards that goal. That's what I love to do, so that you can have these moments too. But no matter what your schedule looks like right now, I promise you that these tools today that I'm going to teach you are going to help you be able to anchor in those weeks, anchor in those days and get your work done efficiently, effectively, so you can be more present in connecting this summer. I actually have two special guests here today because my schedule has looked very different and I am actually, instead of recording this podcast all by myself in a quiet room, I am in a room surrounded by my boys right now. They are reading quietly and we have Max.

Speaker 1: 5:09

What's your favorite part so far this summer that we've done? What's your favorite thing we've done together? I would say probably swimming in the lake, swimming in the lake, especially when I went really far out. You did, I got that good, great, thank you. Good job, buddy. All right, jack, what's your favorite thing this summer so far? Same as Max, same as Max Swimming in the lake today. Yep, yes, win for mom with the goggles, and my other one was going to Mama and Nana's. Yeah, me too. Oh yeah, I'm getting to see Grandma and Grandpa. That's always a good time in the summer, for sure.

Speaker 1: 5:40

We have been so busy with sports and activities, but also we've had a lot of downtime, and that's what I really wanted this summer was downtime, to have moments. Tonight we were able to sit out on the porch and the boys were catching bugs. I was planning my Thursday and Friday the rest of the week for work and they were catching bugs, and it was the greatest moment. And today, during my long call date, when I had a five minute break, I would run outside with them and shoot a couple baskets in the driveway. I've been able to have this flexibility, and you can too, so I'm going to share with you two productivity tools that you can put into place right away this week, and then I'll be back in a few weeks to wrap up the series of part three on how to make sure you are protecting your schedule this summer so you can be really present.

Speaker 1: 6:28

The first thing you want to do is to set anchors in your day, and specifically with your workday. No matter what your work life looks like, if you're working from home, if you're able to create your own schedule or not, having anchors in your day is going to be a game changer, and what I mean by that is, with your work, knowing that summer might look a little bit different, knowing what your non-negotiables are, that you have to get done each day, setting aside at least one hour of focused momentum time the momentum hours, what I call it in the 90 day planner and journal. This momentum hour is going to help you keep that traction going, even when you're really thrown off with activities or family coming to visit or you're going on vacation. If you can still have that momentum hour prioritized for your workday, where you have your non-negotiables that you work through every day for one hour. And this momentum hour needs to be during a time of day when you feel the most focused, because if you can have one hour or two hours when you're feeling super focused, versus eight hours when you're really distracted or tired, you're going to get so much more done during your focus hour, your momentum hour. So knowing when your momentum hour is, knowing when you feel the most creative and focused, and then prioritizing that the best you can to get those non-negotiables done with work, are going to be a game changer.

Speaker 1: 7:58

Another thing you can do to anchor in your day have these little routines set up. Besides your momentum hour is taking breaks. If you have kids at home and it's really important to you to have the connection with them, but you're also working, take breaks with your kids. This has been a really fun thing for me. They've loved it. Even I actually used to do this when I had a nanny here. During the day too is I would love taking breaks with the kids during the day, and that might look like between calls real quick when they were little and I had a nanny here. I would run downstairs between calls and snuggle with them or read a book with them or ask them what they were doing and just get to connect with them for a little bit. Another thing I do now is we run outside and play basketball or at the end of the day, we all take a walk to the park. I need that processing, decompressing time at the end of the day and some sunshine, and they love it. Also, making sure to start the day with sunshine I love this, especially being in Minnesota. This is not something we get to do all year, but being outside in the sunshine barefoot in the morning it's going to help your cortisol levels, it's going to help your sleep and it's really fun to do with the kids right away in the morning, especially if you're going to be home all day. So having those anchors in your day is going to make a huge difference.

Speaker 1: 9:16

Second thing you can do is making sure to have themed days and this is something again I talk about in the 90-day planner and journal. Grab it if you don't have it. The theme days I share this all the time on Instagram. I try to be sharing in real time what my theme days are. Your theme days are going to help take the pressure off so you don't feel like you have to do everything all at once.

Speaker 1: 9:39

If you have a theme day with your work, knowing what days you're focusing on your back-end work, what days you're focusing on those back-end administrative work versus being with your clients or creating things and having to be creative you can also have theme days with your kids, too. We have that set up where they know there's some days that we call them the at-home days. Those are the days when mom's on calls most of the day, and then we have days where we know they're going to be going to the pool or the day we're going to be going to the libraries. There's specific days of the week that they can look forward to and that helps deter a lot of that boredom or frustration, because they know there's always something to look forward to. You can also do this with your kids or on your own at home, knowing that there might be a theme day where it's just your day to catch up at home.

Speaker 1: 10:30

We need this a lot in the summer. If you have the flexibility to have a few hours on a Monday morning or half of Monday to recover from the summer weekend and traveling, if you can have that built in your schedule, it'll be such a game changer for summer. And again, if that's something you need help with figuring out how to take more control of your schedule or how to build your business so that you can have more space, reach out and I would love to help you do that. So this week you're creating anchors in your day, you're setting up some theme days and next time I'll be back to give you part three of the series to help you protect these really important days.

Speaker 1: 11:10

But I can't wait to hear you. Share with me how this goes and the connection you're going to be able to have with your people this summer. Share with me on Instagram. Share this episode on Instagram too, so more people just like you can hear the Momentum Restart Podcast, and I can't wait to see you next time. 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.