The Ultimate Schedule for Working from Home

The schedule is probably the one thing that everyone struggles with, and I’m not going to lie, it is hard when you work from home. But once you can crack your schedule, there is nothing that you can’t do. A while ago, I heard a saying that made my blood boil, “you have the same hours in the day as Beyonce”. Yeah, we know, but I’m pretty sure that Beyonce had one hell of a hustle on her hands at the start of her career too. We are so quick to put people down because we compare ourselves to celebrities and successful people who are further ahead on their success journey than we are.

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Let’s break the schedule down

First of all, you should be getting around 8 hours of sleep. This is non-negotiable because it is for your long-term health. Getting enough sleep at night is one of the foundations for success and I don’t want to hear otherwise. Yes, there are people who claim that they only sleep for a few hours before they get up and start working their butts off, but this is going to damage their mental and neuro health in the long term. As much as we all want to succeed, I still want to have my brain intact when I’m in my 80’s and 90’s, not suffering from dementia which has been linked to a lack of sleep in your 20’s, 30’s and 40’s.

Second, let’s say you should be doing around 8 hours of work a day, five or six days a week. This is where it can get tough for some people because they work full time and they want to overextend themselves. Do not worry about it. If you are working 8 hours or more on your full-time job, then taking 8 hours to work with intention on your day off will give you much better results than trying to push through the tiredness. I know it is tempting to work into the small hours of the morning to be part of the hustle porn community, but it isn’t worth it. I’ve done the hustle until 3 am, cramming everything in, typed until my fingers have gone numb. Do you know where it got me? Nowhere. I was tired and burnt out from it. If you work full time, choose one day a week to really focus on your own stuff and then take one day off to relax.

My third point is about learning. Learning can be done in an hour a day if you study with intention. They say that it takes 10,000 hours to master a skill but this is rubbish. It can take as little as 20 hours to master something if you can push through the initial frustration that comes with learning something new. Learning can be done in so many different ways, there are plenty of free ways to get bite size knowledge to help you and your business to grow. You might scoff at the idea of having to study a little bit every day but this is where most people fall down.

The number four thing that you need to schedule in every day is some self-care. Self-care is something that I am really passionate about. When I was a care worker, I saw first hand the problems that people faced as a result of not looking after themselves properly. I like to take an hour a day to get a shower in peace, fresh clothes, a cup of tea with some quiet time before I have to get the troops out of bed. But I also like to take an hour at night to relax and unwind before I go to sleep.

Number five is keeping the house clean. Within my schedule, I have around 3-4 hours for cleaning, doing laundry, and general maintenance of the house so it doesn’t look like I’m constantly in the middle of an exorcism with an asshole of a poltergeist. A clean house is important when you work from home because having a clear space helps prevent distractions. Plus, having a clean house as a parent is one of those ultimate goals that we wish we could have, why not blow everyone out of the water by actually doing it?

And finally, the kids. I have worked out a schedule for my kids so that they know exactly what is going on. They get bathed, fed, clean clothes. My toddler spends all day with me so I make sure that there is plenty for him to do. When it comes to me sitting working, I keep him in the room with me and give him attention when he needs it. When the older ones are at home, they all play together. I know a lot of women experience mom guilt when it comes to working and not dedicating their every waking minute to their kids, but don’t. In fact, you could use your work to your advantage and get the kids involved. I hand mine dusters so they can “clean” with me. When I am learning something, I get my babies involved because their little brains are like sponges and you never know what information they might pick up. When I am writing, I talk out loud and write things back to them to help encourage their vocabulary. Use what you do as a good foundation for life skills that they can use themselves as adults.

My weekday schedule

5am- Get up and have some time to myself to get showered and organised. I have a beauty routine that I like to do every day that makes me feel like a million quid.
6am- Start work. This might be answering emails or checking what I have planned on my to-do list. Or, if I’m feeling brave, I’ll get stuck in with a few hundred words for one of my books.
7am- Get the kids up and ready. This means showers, breakfasts, getting packed lunches sorted…..everything you could possibly think of for getting little ones ready for the day ahead. Even if it is the weekend, my little ones will be up early anyway (they have no concept of time and lack the ability to lie in).
8am- Multi tasking hour- This is the hour of the day that I have a bit of everything going on. I’m finishing getting the kids ready, having a quick tidy and opening curtains back, making lunches, throwing stuff in the dishwasher, and doing the school run.
9am- Normally by this time, I’m back in the house and I get cracking on whatever book I’m working on. Sometimes I am dealing with my editors and making changes to drafts, other times I am cracking away at the word count.
10am- Cleaning the house. After an hour of work, I stop typing and clean the house for an hour. This can be running the hoover over the floors, making the beds, and dusting the furniture. I also like to get the dinner prepared at this time so there are no excuses later in the day that result in a takeaway having to be ordered.
11am- Now I switch back to work mode and do some work on the blog. I might have a sponsored post that needs to be done or I get try and get ahead of myself with blog posts for the week or month.
12pm- Food and tidying up the house. I need to eat a lunch, and so do you. It is important to stop and take a break during the day for a meal. For around 30 minutes, I sit and have a meal without my phone, laptop or TV distracting me. And after I have eaten, I give the kitchen a quick tidy and clear up any mess that I have made. If the kids are in the house, they get fed at this time too.
1pm- Back to the blog- This is another chance to get some more blog posts scheduled for the week or month ahead.
2pm- Social media, promotional work and the school run is the name of the game at this time of the day. A lot of this is probably considered “busy work” that should probably be done by an assistant but I really enjoy doing this stuff myself.
3pm- Book time again. After going back and forth, different ideas can stew and mature in your head so I find breaking it up can really help, especially if you want to avoid writer’s block.
4pm- Ironing– Clothes get washed and then they need ironed. This is a great time for me to listen to an audiobook or a podcast.
5pm- Cooking and dinner time. Because I prep dinner early in the day, it is normally a case of turning some dials and pushing buttons.
6pm- Book time, and this is the last chance I have to work on a book in the day.
7pm- Kids bedtime routine. It’s bath time, into pj’s and snuggles with a story for the little ones. I can have this done within an hour so the kids are tucked up in bed for 8pm.
8pm- Me time hour- This is hour of the day when I get into my comfy clothes, maybe have a bath, I read or do something crafty like knit. Personally, I like to read most nights, maybe around 5 nights a week and then spend the other two knitting or cross stitching.
9pm- Sleep. Yep, it’s time for some shut eye and if I get into bed now and sleep, I get a full 8 hours.

Is this set in stone? No, I try to be flexible because there are days that other stuff needs to happen. One morning a week I schedule in appointments and pick up the food shopping. My weekends are kind of similar but I cut down on the cleaning and workload to spend time with my family, maybe an hour of cleaning and an hour of work at the most. The purpose of the weekday schedule is to make sure I have time to spend with my family at the weekends.

How to create your own schedule

Building your own schedule is one of the simplest yet most effective things that you can do to make your day easier. Think of it this way, when you where at school, you had a timetable of classes and things that you need to do during the school day. Some days there could be around 7 different subjects that you needed to turn your attention to, and for around 12 years you managed to study a variety of different things within 6 hours. Imagine what you could achieve if you sectioned your adult life like this. Work out what you want to do in the day. These will be unique to you. Use the circles below to work out the first part. I recommend making sure that you get 8 hours of sleep, 1 hour of self-care for a shower and a cup of tea.

Ok, I get that the pictures are not my best artwork, but that is how I sat and worked out my day and what needed to be done. Do not be afraid of being picky about what you do and how you work out your day, it should be work for you and your family to get the best out of your time.

What do you think of the schedule? Would you ever try anything as extreme as this? Let me know what your day looks like in the comments section.