So I’m two weeks into homeschooling, running a home and running a business all whilst trying to carry on as if everything is normal when the reality is it couldn’t be further away from ‘normal’. My performance to date has been mediocre at best and it is driving me absolutely mad.
Over the past two years, I’ve adopted a lean way of working and thinking in my home, my business and in my work commitments. Life and COVID-19 has thrown me into a whole new league of complexity that requires simplification and rearrangement daily.
At first, I felt as if I’d been sent back in time or that we were somehow eerily starring in a movie or Netflix series, not too dissimilar to The Handmaids Tale…Where once you could roam free and do what you choose you were now having to stay home for the safety of others and only to go out for essentials (I imagined meeting fellow shoppers on the Tesco express isles and greeting them with a nod of blessed day).
Prior to the current situation, I had the children’s routines taken care of (ages 2, 6 and 10) the housework and domestic duties at home outsourced and my work and business commitments organised. When the new recommendations came in for home working to take place where possible schools were still open, nurseries hadn’t yet closed and life and work seemed like it would go on as normal…but all that changed especially for those of us with young families to take care of. Our new role became that of teacher, chef, housekeeper, cleaner, wife and mum. Any business responsibilities were having to be done in between all these new responsibilities that had landed on my door. Instead, my organised self became more and more disorganised. I’m cramming writing this blog post in at midnight on a Saturday night when all the children are asleep and currently catching up and doing what I can when I can.
The first week of having everyone at home couldn’t have been a bigger shock to the system, my house was clearly not toddler-proof. I was rushing around trying to get the school work done with my 6-year-old and 10-year old on the same day it was set, whilst feeling like I had totally neglected playing or paying any attention to my 2-year-old. Plus I could barely keep on top of the laundry pile. I felt overwhelmed and a total and utter failure. The only light relief that week was the children’s private drama, singing and dance lessons all ran by self-employed tutors who quickly and admirably adapted hosting lessons over FaceTime, Zoom and Skype at preset organised times. It never fails to amaze me just how quickly small business owners can adapt and flourish in uncertain times.
The second week I decided it couldn’t carry on like this and that to simply try and be a teacher on the same day without any preparation or formal teacher training was a pointless exercise, I could only do what I could do, I didn’t have to get through the whole of the work and we could instead enjoy the time together learning as we go, being a family and I could mix in my business commitments in-between. What I couldn’t do was beat myself up about it or change the situation we are all in.
Dealing with change is tough and how we deal with it will set us up for success or failure so I’m choosing success and to embrace these moments that we have to enjoy the time and to keep working towards meeting those goals. I’ve just taken the time to read back the advice that I wrote two weeks ago about goal setting and you know what, I’m so glad that I wrote those goals down as it will hold me fully accountable to you and myself. Whether I meet them or not there is still a few weeks to go but I know that having someone to be accountable to has set me up to meet them.
So here is an update on what I’ve achieved so far business-wise:
- I’ve built one basic online shop to show farm shops how easy it is to have a working online shop.
- I’ve written two blog pieces, one on goal setting and this one on dealing with change and I did my first ever Instagram live with an influencer.
So my question to you is what have you achieved and how have you found the first two weeks of lockdown during COVID-19?
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