Adjusting to Working from Home During the Pandemic

With everyone still (mostly) staying at home, I’m sure we’ve all had to make adjustments to work. In my case, on the surface, it doesn’t look like a lot changed. Since I work from home, not a big change for me. Since my wife is a nurse, she still goes to work on her normal schedule. But my daughter’s daycare is closed, so there’s no one to watch T on days my wife works. Here’s how I’ve been managding.

Note: This went out in my members-only newsletter last month. I thought it would be good to share here! If you want to get all the exclusive members content, you can join here.

Work Schedule

So there are a few ways we’ve adjusted. First, when Erin works (three 12 hour shifts a week), I hang out with my kiddo (that’s a given). I’ll wake up about an hour before T, do some work in the morning and then we play and such when she wakes up. She’ll have about an hour of iPad time (2 30 minute sessions) where I’ll check email and do small tasks. I’m trying very hard to be engaged and not think about work, but that’s not always easy.

As a result I’ve also changed my Calendly to reflect availability only on days Erin isn’t working. Thank you Google Calendar.

Nap time is from 1:45pm to about 4, and I try to get focused work done then. When she wakes up, we play until bedtime at 7:30pm. Erin usually gets home around 8 or 8:30pm.

Because she usually works 3 weekdays, I end up working Saturdays, and maybe part of Sunday. I’ll also work after bed time on days she doesn’t work. I feel like one of the only people who doesn’t have a wealth of time on my hands.

Working Out

For a while I was going to the gym every day, but fell out of that around November. Well, I’m back on it, doing Beachbody On Demand – specifically a program called 10 Rounds.

On days Erin isn’t working, I join a workout group via Zoom at 7:15am. It’s been fantastic to work out with other people, and talk about wins and struggled in the morning.

On days Erin works, I recently made a change. I was waking up early to work out, but after realizing I work best in the morning, I changed my workout to be at nap time. Now I’ll work out for 40 minutes and work the rest of the time.

Finances

Our biggest adjustment has been with finances. Luckily, we’re in a pretty good spot, but we’re saving money where we can. One biggie is daycare. We withdrew Teresa as they were still going to charge us 50%, while watching Teresa 0%. Our primary purpose for daycare was watching T so we I could work, and that’s not happening right now.

The other is that we refinanced Erin’s student loans to a much lower, fixed interest rate in a shorter term. We were ahead of schedule before this and we plan to pay it down as fast a possible. Only having a mortgage as baby number 2 comes would be fantastic.

We are naturally saving more because we aren’t going out as much, and we’re putting more in savings and towards debt. Since my income is less stable than hers, we’re also preparing for a slow year for me.

That’s everything! I hope you find some of it helpful, or at least interesting. How have you adjusted? Let me know!