with Britt Reints
Forget the 9 to 5; Full Time, All the Time is a blog about the mobile working life - when you have the freedom to work from anywhere and the responsibility of always having your smartphone turned on. Britt Reints works as a freelance writer while traveling fulltime in an RV with her husband and two kids. She explores balancing real-life bills with an unconventional work life, and finding time to maintain relationships with family and friends.
You can also find Britt at InPursuitOfHappiness.net.
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Here we go again: the kids are off of school and the rest of the world tries not to let that interfere with their non-vacation schedule. While I don’t recall my vacations being an inconvenience for anyone when I was a child, it seems every parent I know goes into full on scramble mode when holiday breaks leave children home during the week.
My children have been on break from their virtual school since last Friday. Fortunately, we’re visiting relatives in Iowa right now and the kids have been able to focus on spending time with loved ones instead of homework. Of course, I still have projects to finish up and deadlines to meet. Am I freaking out about my lack of routine?
Not this year. For the first time, I’m not letting the stress of what’s not getting done get to me. I am making a point of meeting my basic obligations, but I’ve purposely kept my workload light for December. More than that, I’m staying off the computer.
I can’t remember the last time I spent this much time away from the Internet. As you might expect, the Internet hasn’t noticed or complained; it hums along just fine without my constant vigilance.
Instead of being frustrated by the extra noise and distraction of having kids not in school during the day, I’m making a point to be focused and productive during my work hours. Then I log off and find ways to participate in the distraction. We’re visiting friends, making gifts, and blowing up hundreds of balloons to keep up with my daughter’s recent obsession with balloon art (true story.)
It’s nice to be able to enjoy this scheduled downtime. Am I looking forward to getting back to a fuller work day? Yes, a little bit. I’ve got a list of things I’m looking forward to getting to work on once the holidays are over. But it’s been nice not to wish this holiday season away.
This time of year is made for rebooting. I slow down too, mostly because I really lose my motivation for a couple of weeks. It comes roaring back after the holidays, but it craves this quiet time.
Megan | December 21st, 2011 at 2:01 pm