Tag: holiday

Coping With Kids School Holidays

Posted on by richardbingham

Everyone’s domestic profile is fairly unique and it would be wrong to dictate rules, however here are a few things from a dozen years of experience you might find a helpful.

Avoid Being In Charge. I do not believe you should try to care for children and do work tasks at the exact same time. It is one or the other, as they both require your attention and focus. You’ll annoy everyone (kids, colleagues and yourself) if you even try. You might be able to time-box the two different things across an extended day – most likely working late in the evening when the kids are in bed, but you’ll still need another caregiver and even this is unpractical and exhausting.

High School Relief. I’ve found that as children enter high school age (12yrs+) then having a child under your sole responsibility and doing some work is actually possible. They simply do not demand so much attention and care as younger kids. That said, give them a few specific tasks and activities to perform during the time, else they’ll spend hours watching screens. I would also not recommend more than a couple of hours a day, but when you’re in an unavoidable situation this is certainly more possible.

Set Boundaries. Get your whole family – children and the other caregivers – to agree to specific rules about your work. Use physical signs and verbal reminders about when and why you can be interrupted. Keep the list short – maybe placed it on the fridge, and consider using a door sign – maybe get the kids to make you one.

Use Clubs. Well before the next school holiday period, research your community for kids clubs of various types. Sign your kids up to “try” some of them. This should give you respite plus is actually very good for most children. If fees are too high for your budget, contact the club directly and find out if funding might be available … usually they will have a way to help out.

Help People Help You. Friends and family are the main source of low-cost alternative care-giving, and I have found it helpful to ‘bait the trap’ for everyone’s benefit. If you give them activities to do it makes the day pass quicker and easier. Examples include booking tickets to an event or day-trip somewhere, or just prepare some activities for them to do. This could be as simple as supplying a bag of games and toys, getting a box of craft supplies together with a list of creative challenges, or asking them to help you with something specific, such as shopping for something you need (and providing the money).

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Preparing For Holidays

Posted on by richardbingham

As a homeworker taking a holiday is just a little bit different to office workers, mainly around being more organised and verbose.

Delete Meetings and Reject Invites. As you’re always physically absent it’s hard to tell if your missing. Go through your electronic calendar or physical diary. Also consider messaging invitees for critical meetings that will take place and you’ll not be attending.

Document State. Ensure all commitments and work schedules have current information, with clear updates and plans for while you’re away and immediate return. This covers you In case of questions or things go badly.

Set Expectations for Progress. Ensure people taking over your responsibilities know what to do and setup a debrief meeting on your return – this will encourage them to take ownership. Share the delegated ownership with higher management AND within your out-of-office message.

Prepare for your Return. Make a to-do list for when you’re back – things you didn’t get to before you left or important things you might forget about.

Clear The Decks. I clear out my whole email inbox before I go. Moving anything useful into a folder and deleting the rest. It makes the hour/s scanning new emails on my return somewhat more manageable.

Leave ‘Emergency’ Contact Details. Ask key people to call or text with serious problems but that you’ll not be looking at work email. This helps you stick to that promise!

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Returning From Holiday

Posted on by richardbingham

As the summer vacation period is nearly over, I thought I could share a few tips on how the horrid return to work can be made slightly easier.

Nuke Your Email Inbox. Before you go either clean out your inbox (if you don’t use inbox-zero already) or just move all old messages to a new folder. This means everything coming in while you’re away is in one place.

Pre-Filter your Email. Before you start the mammoth scan of email (I had 2700 new mails on my return this year) sort emails by subject and sender and see if there are large groups of meaningless ones. Create a new filter to remove these out (surely this filter is missing anyway).

Passwords. A few times (embarrassingly) I have returned to work and completely forgotten a password to something. The time spent resetting these, or worse getting Helpdesk folks involved is infuriating. I now keep a secure password log as backup, and have also started using a slight ‘theme’ to elements of my passwords. This actually makes them stronger (multi-faceted) and at the same time easier to remember (changes are less random).

Ask for an Update. Rather than trying to decipher a long email thread which might also be missing meeting details and in-person conversations, for important topics just determine a key participant and ask them for a 10minute catch-up by phone. This saves you time and if you’re involved helps you get back to contributing quickly. Reciprocate and everyone is happy.

Record Your Ideas. Quite often while away I get (potentially) ‘good ideas’ about things related to work. Unfortunately as the tidal wave of work returns these ideas get relegated and often eventually forgotten. As such write them down, or better still put them into a document for sharing with others. Fresh ideas and thoughts are very valuable, and at the least provide some refreshing inspiration.

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