Oct. 13, 2020

10 Advantages for Parents Working From Home

Missing the office? Wishing you had a commute to decompress? Nostalgic about the days of bustling sidewalks?

Whether it’s brewing your own coffee or working in the comfort your sweatpants, the advantages of working from home are likely to outweigh the negatives.

In this episode, Dan and Amanda provide a Fall pick-me-up of 10 advantages that will remind you how convenient it really is to work from home.

Key Takeaways:

Remembering the advantages of working from home can make the tough days easier.

Savings from not commuting or eating out as much can be significant.

Instead of using car rides to/from work to decompress, there are other creative ways like taking a walk, reading, or listening to podcasts.

Creating a consistent, daily routine for yourself can optimize productivity.

Resources:

The Mastery Journal we mention:
https://amzn.to/2GUsCcZ (affiliate link)

Questions? Send us a voice message on the side pannel workinghomeparents.com

Want even more content? Visit the Parent Pacifier YouTube channel

Check us out on Instagram @workinghomeparents

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites at no extra cost to you.

What to Listen for:

[04:30] How to save money while working from home

[06:30] Ways to take advantage of your breaks while not in the office

[14:40] Two advantages that can impact your wallet and productivity

[20:00] The family benefits of a flexible schedule


Quotes:

“In a work environment, your schedule is all laid out, but when you're working from home, it may actually be a struggle to make all of it work and be more productive.” [19:50]

“We do have to kind of remind ourselves that it is a blessing that we do get to spend time with family, because a lot of times it can feel frustrating.” [22:50]

“One thing I am trying to do is create a morning routine for myself so that when I wake up, I have a routine set that sets me up for productivity.” [28:20]

Transcript

Daniel Norton  0:01  
Well, hey, in our last episode, we went through the challenges and hard struggles of working from home and how to work through them. But what are the advantages that you have as a parent who gets to work from home?

Amanda Norton  0:13  
Yeah, and for most, there's a lot more advantages than disadvantages.

Daniel Norton  0:18  
And in this episode, we're gonna go over the 10 best advantages to working from home as a parent. So let's get into this episode.

Bumper  0:28  
Welcome to working home parents helping you find stability between client calls, and potty training, because we're all figuring this out as we go. And now, your hosts, Amanda and Dan Norton.

Amanda Norton  0:46  
Welcome to Episode Six. Today, we're going to be sharing with you our top 10 advantages of working from home.

Daniel Norton  0:54  
Well, I think I mean, the first one's got to be to brew your own coffee, because right now I am drinking some coffee and I really need it. We can go into this. If you're a coffee parent, let us know. Working home parents on Instagram. love to hear from you on that. I mean, oh, did you agree? Yeah, you can bring your own coffee.

Amanda Norton  1:13  
Definitely. Unfortunately, I've been just having to drink decaf because my stomach does not agree with regular coffee. Maybe Yeah, ever since the baby, I have not been able to go back to regular coffee. So it smells so good when Dan makes the coffee. But I just stick to a little decaf. Keurig and Dan does not like Keurig

Daniel Norton  1:37  
No, that's one of the things for me like not being in the office and not drinking Keurig or one of those like instant little plastic cups or whatever the other ones are. I can't

Amanda Norton  1:49  
Oh, case family tastes the same.

Daniel Norton  1:51  
No, they do not. I like my coffee. You know whole beans. grinded, fresh grinded right there. Now I had a couple guys in my office. Who I'm sure not listening to this anyway. But if they are they they would brew their own coffee and do all of that I wasn't really into like bringing in my whole thing. Wow, grind it? Yeah, they would, they would make their own cuz they like it's the same thing. Um, you know, where you want to brew your own. You want good coffee, you know, if you're gonna work, you want good coffee and just be able to be like we I mean, I still go out and buy it. Yeah, I mean, it's not good for our budget. But I still like to go out and buy coffee because I like that. But I think that's that's a big benefit of being to work from home is you get to make your own coffee. You don't have to deal with like terrible office coffee. I do think there is a fight for needing some good office coffee. Yeah, the guys over at a mammoth coffee. I've worked on some of their content over there in the UK. They supply offices with premium coffee. Why I think that's really good. You know, really good coffee made in a really good way. I think that's that's an important thing. But when you work from home, you've got the benefit of coffee. If you're a coffee drinker, let us know. I know. There's some of you that are tea drinkers. Yeah, I don't understand that. I mean, I like tea. Amanda doesn't you

Amanda Norton  3:07  
don't know only when I'm sick? That's when I'm desperate for something and then I'll drink tea. But yeah, he's a sick thing for you. I think of that. Yeah. Both Yeah. Speaking on our budget, the one of the top 10 advantages as well, working from home is saving on gas. that's helped us a lot. And for you, the train tickets.

Daniel Norton  3:35  
Yeah, I'm a, I'm a trained commuter. If I were, you know, working in an office commuting from Long Island into New York City, and Long Island Railroad, that's one of the things all long islanders complained about is the cost of the Long Island Railroad. It's pretty much monopoly. Because if you don't want to drive into the city, and who really in their right mind wants to drive to the city. There's no parking, and if there is parking, it's super expensive. And your car's gonna get dinged up and banged up and just dealing with all of that. No way. No, no. So trying to get in the long URL is the only way. And boy over the how long it was I commuting for so like 2006 to 2020. So all that time I'd been commuting. A monthly pass, like went $100 more from to that over $100 or more since 2006. Yeah, to what I would be paying right now things like 270 bucks. Oh, it's like a car payment just to ride on the Long Island Railroad and it's not even like an amazing service. So just one not being able to have to do that. But saving that money right there. So yeah, tip number two is saving money, what other How to Have we saved money?

Amanda Norton  4:41  
Well, we're down to one car now. Ever since I started telecommuting. Three years ago, we were able to just think wise about the car payments that we were making and we were leasing my car and felt like it was just sitting in the garage or sitting and sitting in the drawer. way for for no reason. And I said, You know what, I think it's just so worth it, just get rid of it. It's, it was a small little car anyway. And that saved us like a good 200 bucks a month. So

Daniel Norton  5:12  
that's great. We were really into the, like the Dave Ramsey. You know, Financial Peace, every dollar budgeting, especially at the time when we made that decision. And it was like, Well, why would we keep paying for this? I'm still paying for the train ticket right on top of that on top of another car that that was mine that we bought, and paying that. So it was like, Alright, let's just go down and when we don't need it, because you're home all the time. Yeah. Remember, this was three years ago. So yeah, saving the money on the car payment.

Amanda Norton  5:41  
Definitely. And saving on gas because I was fueling my car every single week in my car. My commute was like 30 minutes there and 30 minutes back. It wasn't bad. But it definitely got pricey. So

Daniel Norton  5:56  
right. Well, because he add on all the other things like we go to church. Yeah, on Sundays, but we also go to we were youth group counselors, so we were doing that every Wednesday, plus Anything else? doctor's appointments, family, Hangouts, all the different driving? Or if you go on vacation, all that. So all those things on top of it plus the commuting all the time?

Amanda Norton  6:13  
Yeah. So we saved the lot. Number three is commute time is down to zero minutes.

Daniel Norton  6:21  
Or if you're gonna say from the amount of time it takes for me to walk to the bed here. Yeah. to your desk.

Amanda Norton  6:27  
Yeah, exactly. Two seconds. Yeah.

Daniel Norton  6:29  
And I think a lot, you know, I mean, obviously, that's the one thing that I think most parents anyone listening at home that works from home, you know, that's, that's the thing. But man, what an advantage that is, you know, what does no commute time actually, like, what's the benefit, it gives you sleep in longer? Yeah. For me, I would have to, you know, shower, get ready, make sure I have all this stuff before I did, like got it got on the train and went walking in. Because there's a lot more that I need when I go into the city because it's not like I can easily get back home, right? Where we're driving, it's like, Alright, if you could turn around, you turn around. But if I miss my train, that's a huge, there's a difference between making it in on time and being super late. And I worked in live streaming. So it's like, if you're late, you potentially miss the start of a live stream or an event or a game in the sports industry. And that's not look good. No, not only does it look good, you don't actually get the thing started if you're, you know, leading it or supervising and running the show. So the advantage of just being able to get up and walk or do some other things in that time maybe work out. Yeah, he wouldn't be able to do that if you had to commute,

Amanda Norton  7:36  
man, the commute, any any, even if it's a half hour, it exhausts you. It like you're tired already from the day, and then you're commuting. And it just adds that level of exhaustion. And so I always had to find myself like rolling down the windows, blasting some music just to keep me awake. Because I knew when I came home, I was going to be jumping into mommy mode or you know, it just you need to, he needs people to like get that second wind. So

Daniel Norton  8:07  
enough of this is about the cons, we kind of mentioned this in our last episode about the challenges of working from home. I think the one thing we both Miss is that time that we spent in the car where we kind of decompress things, or think about some things like for me, commuting was the time where I spent a lot of time thinking or dreaming or figuring things out as I planned my business to go from side hustle to, you know, fully full time entrepreneur. And I do miss that because I want to spend more time I found myself spending less time listening to podcasts. And those were really important for me, which is why we've always wanted I've always want to make one. But being able to listen to so many of the podcasts that I've listened to or music or sit down and write some notes. It's like now I just have to kind of be intentional to block out that time or get up early enough and go for a walk. Yeah, so

Amanda Norton  8:57  
definitely number four, being able to do things around the house on breaks, or you can actually relax on your break. Go lay down for a little bit you can go sit on the couch and decompress there or you know, read a book or just do whatever you need to do. I know for me I typically like to either do laundry on my 15 minute breaks take out the garbage or wash the dishes or tend to my son to give you a break you know so like I know I I'm kind of not using that time to relax most of the time I tell you to you tell me to but I'm so bad at that because I think after work I'm like just want to focus on on our son and wanting to want to relax and not have to think about those little tasks to get done. And that's the beauty of being home. working from home is doing that.

Daniel Norton  9:52  
Well sometimes you do actually relax sometimes. Yeah, that you actually get to sit down and or shower like

Amanda Norton  9:59  
yeah That is nice. I mean,

Daniel Norton  10:01  
Wendy, you don't get to do that if you're in the office, you don't get to like, I'm gonna take a 15 minute break and take a shower. Yeah, unless your office has showers and it might be a little weird maybe depends on where you work maybe if you work at a gym and a gym, yeah, shower, but I don't think you're just like going to take a shower to relax. That seems like a weird I don't even know, I don't know. Um, but there are some progressive offices like that are really building things up where they have like a couch, or a pool table, or ping pong or play video games. I've never worked in any of those places that have it, I've always wanted to, there is a number of them in New York City that do that. Or that are have like casual Fridays, or, you know, relaxed times like that. But obviously, nothing gets more casual than like being able to, like go on a break or lunch and go sit on your couch. Yeah. But like you like for you, or some of the other maybe moms especially because I know for as dads, it's like, it's pretty easy to like, go on a break and just sit Yeah. Or wish we could, um, but like trying to like intentionally take a break and rest or take a break and take a shower. Because again, if you're cutting down your commute time, and you could sleep closer to when you need to wake up and you get a little better sleep, maybe it's not so good sleep, if you're rushing into work, yeah, you do have the advantage of being able to figure out your morning a little differently. And if you wanted to, let's say work out, or do some stretching, and then do some work, and then take a 15 minute break an hour or two into your work shift. You can go and take a shower, then yeah, and that's kind of nice, because now you're kind of refreshed from, you know, things weren't going so well in the morning, you can kind of get that refresh, time to shower and maybe clear your head or go for a walk. Yeah. And be either, you know, feeling like you have to talk to coworkers or go all the way you know, I mean, I'm coming from New York City where it's like, Alright, I gotta get out of an office building, get in an elevator, go all the way down, and then walk outside where everyone's annoyed and frustrated, where it's like, well, if you're in the suburbs, and you don't have to do all of that it's easier to wear more, you know, it's easier to take that step out and take that break.

Amanda Norton  11:59  
Yeah, that kind of leads to our number five advantage, spending more time outside, like on your lunch break, or your 15 minute break, because that really does make a difference. I noticed that last week when you took our son to the zoo. It actually gave me that one hour lunch break to myself, I usually do things with you or do things with our son. And you know, I didn't really get to relax, I forced myself I actually called My aunt and I was like, I need you to motivate me to do something right now that's working out related. I have the time I am home alone. I could work out for 45 minutes. And then the last 15 minutes, take a quick shower. And she was so encouraging. She said yeah, it's so rewarding to exercise, go do it right now go take a walk, go around your block, whatever you need to do. Do a little ab workout, do a little arm, you know, Workout, you'll feel great. She was right. I felt great. And I actually had more energy to finish off the day. So that was great. And I was also having a little bit of like, a morning I get really like moody when it's cloudy out. I don't know why I just I get a headache. I get moody. And I was so refreshed after I did that. So it was so nice. It was like a little little self care time, you know, in the middle of my day, no distractions, no kid to run after. And it was great.

Daniel Norton  13:29  
Yeah, well, and for me, one of the things that was always hard was I would leave to go to work. And I'd have to like, you know, say goodbye to our son. And it was like, you know, hard to, to do that sometimes, because my goal was always to be like to be home and Alright, but now with being home all time. And then of course, obviously, the pandemic not really being able to, you know, go anywhere. We were kind of forced to spend more time outside so I was in the backyard with them more than ever before. But because I tend to have to be the one taking care of them while Amanda is working. I have to take them somewhere. Because we're in a one bedroom apartment and she needs to be on calls that she can't have people in the background really listening or, you know, being heard. So I'm taking them out like taking them to the zoo has been fun and doing those things outside that I hadn't normally done. actually got like a tan in the beginning of the summer. Because I was outside with him.

Amanda Norton  14:27  
He had a better tan than me

Daniel Norton  14:28  
in the sprinklers or whatever. Or in his water pool table or in the pool. So it forces me to spend more time outside playing with him. Then I would other times just normally,

Amanda Norton  14:42  
absolutely. Number six is less temptation of eating takeout. Mm hmm. I think this is really good. It's helped us because you know why? In the morning, we are able to instead of having to get ready for work, you know getting dressed doing makeup, whatever. We could plan out our meal for the night and like, if it's a crock pot, we can make it first thing in the morning and then don't have to worry about it. And then you're home throughout the day, we're home throughout the day so that we can monitor it, make sure it doesn't cause a fire or whatever. We could also just plan out meals for the week, do a big meal prep session on a Sunday and not have to spend a lot of money throughout the week. And that's really helpful.

Daniel Norton  15:28  
Yeah, I think I mean, I'm the one that likes to go out and eat or order out. Amanda always tells me No, I, you know, we order a lot from delis here in New York. It's just the thing. It's the delis and diners, I love delis and diners. I grew up always going to the deli or to the diner, especially for breakfast in the morning or for lunch and in the city. You go to the bodegas, you get a sandwich, you know, usually a big one for you know, it's a cheap, but New York City cheap, which is still really expensive. $15 everywhere. Yeah. Um, especially that it's usually not that great of a quality. But yeah, you got a bacon egg and cheese back, you know, I really I love getting bacon and cheese or any of that stuff. But I've had to try more of just making it myself and been doing that more in the mornings of making eggs, sandwiches and stuff for the for the family,

Amanda Norton  16:21  
and you should work in a deli, your egg sandwiches are so good.

Daniel Norton  16:25  
I just don't want to deal with people. No, that's why I always done the, you know, behind the scenes or video working on those things, because I, you know, I did spend some time working in a supermarket. But I was never a big fan of like, interacting with customers and all that stuff in a public forum. I love working with clients and other people, but on a very individual basis. So it's I don't think I would ever be able to work in a deli without getting frustrated like that.

Amanda Norton  16:55  
Yeah. Number seven is more productive, less chatting with coworkers. This one's definitely towards me, because I know you're not really chatty at work. I was super chatty at work. And I am so thankful I came home, I've become so much more organized, I've become so much more productive. I'm really, really happy that I did that. I know, at first, I was so hesitant, I thought I was going to be depressed, working on home and not seeing my coworkers. But they're a phone call away. And they were text away when I'm when I'm off of work, I could text them, I could chat with them, we could meet up for dinner. So that part I I'm okay with now, I really transitions really great knowing that I was coming home and I was pregnant. And I knew that this was going to benefit me in long run. I really was happy that I did this. And I made this choice.

Daniel Norton  17:56  
Because originally you were thinking you were just going to come home at the end of the pregnancy. Maybe stay working from home a little bit after he was born once you've got off maternity leave, but then ultimately go back to the office. Yep. So I know that's what you originally were thinking. But then it when it switched to everyone being able to stay home at least for who you're working with. And then you being able to do it, we're like, Well, I think this actually works. Yeah, cuz you're, you're an extrovert. I'm the introvert who's like, man, if I could do all my work by myself and not have to have anyone around, that's definitely, that would be it for me, you know, that would be the thing. I'm a video editor. And if you're in the video or film industry, the video editors are the ones that kind of are always kind of hidden away in the dark in a room or a lab. And that was one of the things that attracted me to doing that kind of work. Because I don't love the being around a ton of people outside all this activity. You know, because I'm a little bit more of an introvert, I have extroverted tendencies. When I get talking, I don't stop talking. And I love going to conferences and stuff like that. So I do love interacting with people. But it's got to be the right topics. And the right scenarios and people that I get comfortable with, it takes me a little while to get comfortable with people. So you know, the only thing for me though, and this is where I think it differentiates from person to person like for you, you're able to be productive because you have this personality where you can use once your focus, you can get work done, were with me, my mind is bouncing all over the place all the time. And I flow from different things to things that I'm terrible at scheduling. So it's almost like where like you dictate my schedule. Sometimes you're like are what do you have to do go and make sure you're doing this and that and I've had to get better because in a work environment. It's just like it's all laid out, right? Like a schedule. Here's the things and things I was used to is like, Hey, here's a live event, next live event. It's just all this stuff gets taken place at a time and you know where you need to move. But when you're working from home, if you're like me, it may actually be a struggle to make all of it work and be become more productive. But I think ultimately once you get a hand of that productivity may you know will happen as long as you know works for you.

Amanda Norton  19:59  
Yeah. Number eight is you're spending more time with your kids. And that's so important.

Daniel Norton  20:05  
That's definitely worked for me.

Amanda Norton  20:06  
Yeah. I love it. I mean, like I said, in the few podcasts earlier, being able to shut off my computer and have some time with my kid right after his great, yes, I would I miss having that little break. So I can just like unwind from work and the craziness I had to deal with, and then coming home to a toddler and run around with him. But I actually don't mind it, you know, it's a good distraction. As soon as I you know, as soon as I get off of work, boom, like, forget about work, move on. And that's really great. Because then I won't be thinking all the way home, what I should have done with this and what I could have done with that, and what what I have to deal with, when I come come back to work tomorrow, it's not even a thought. As soon as five o'clock hits, I sign off, and I'm in mommy mode. So forget about work, relax, even if the lights blinking on my voicemail that somebody just called right after five o'clock. Okay, that's gonna be dealt with tomorrow. So I do like that.

Daniel Norton  21:13  
Yeah, I think it also, again, is another thing, all of these things kind of depend on who you are, and what you actually like, if you like spending time with your family, I think it always is a benefit. I think it should be if you're a parent, obviously. But for sure, for me, I've spent a lot more time with our son than I then we did prior because I was leaving so often. And I'd be working at nights or really early mornings, or different times. I, sometimes I feel like I'm doing work and not spending time with them. And it's easy for me to get a message from a client or something, and have to go and deal with that. And move around my time. But I'm here, yeah, I'm here, I get to do this. And even if spending time is like, you know, helping him, you know, eat, he needs to get food or get lunch or do those things we're getting to do it, which is always been my desire, from when I was graduating film school. And I was like, I don't want to be in film school anymore. Because it was my second film school too. I knew, you know, at that point, this is 2012. Like, I want to be able to have a family one day, and I don't think the film industry, at least in production, or a lot of the areas is really a great industry for being a family, Dad, you know, or a family Father, you know, being home, because you're out all the time, or you're doing all this stuff. And it's long hours outside the house. And I realized like, this is not really my desire. And I got a job in in a corporate job in in live streaming. And in that which worked a little better for being home. I wasn't obviously you weren't married then. And we didn't have kids at that point. This is how many years ago. But I always knew that's what I've wanted. Now I finally have it where I am home. And I think this, I think it's great, I love being able to do it. But I do we do have to kind of remind ourselves that it is a blessing that we do get to spend time with family, because a lot of times it can feel frustrating to it's like, oh, now I got to do this. But it's like reminding ourselves like this is a blessing because he's gonna grow up and any other kids that come along down the line are gonna grow up fast. Very fast is already three. So it's like in three years have gone, you've been working home for three years, how fast all of that has gone by. So it's like trying to enjoy every one of those moments, which is why it's so critical and important for us to remember that and count those blessings that we have, which is why we're doing this episode.

Amanda Norton  23:33  
Yeah. Number nine is flexibility. So what I like about working from home now and our schedule is, I could literally work up until the point where I have to have a little short commute to a doctor's office. And I don't have to waste the whole day for that, you know, I don't have to take time off from work for five hours. If it's a quick ride to a doctor, I could do most of the work day and then literally leave right before I have to hop in a car and go to this appointment or something. So I like that flexibility. If I was working back in the office, I would have to take way more time off to either drive home and get ready for this appointment or you know, pick up our son and pick you up and go wherever and then what go to the appointment. I like that I could get in the car in two seconds and go straight to an appointment. It saves me a lot of time on my on my time off from work.

Daniel Norton  24:36  
All right, like that's the flexibility with with a job. And if you if you run your own business that you can control the hours in or your own time. For me, that's the huge benefit because I'm not set to any hours obviously I gotta put time in and do that. But I could create my own time and create my own flexibility where I can be taken care of or Sunday morning or be able to drop him off Every morning to school and pick them up every afternoon. And that's, that's so cool. It's a blessing to be able to be there. And that he'll always have that like memory of, you know, Dad was always able to do it or mom was always able to do it. I mean, right now it's me because I have the flexibility of that time while a man is working. But that's obviously I think that's one of the key things that everyone when they choose, if you choose to work from home, which you chose originally, and a lot of people this year, didn't necessarily choose it. If you're one of those ones struggling because you didn't choose it, and you'd rather in the office, there is that one benefit. I mean, you can't change your hours, might, but you it does, if your doctors are closer, you know if the places you like to eat are closer. I mean, a whole lot of different things. Your school with your kid is a lot closer than your office, you know, for us that would be that. So if you needed to go do something to get him. It's a lot closer.

Amanda Norton  25:53  
Definitely. And number 10 is preparation in the morning is a lot shorter. So

Daniel Norton  25:59  
sort of like the commute, but I guess it's before the commute.

Amanda Norton  26:02  
Yes, yes. So getting up in the morning, it kind of it's about like a 20 minute, get, get ready time. You know, go back, go to the bathroom freshen up and then grab a bite to eat and clock in and go for the day. If our son wakes up a lot earlier than at least I have enough time that I'm awake. And I could hang out with him before work, do whatever I need to do with him try to feed him maybe getting ready for school. And then I could clock in and you're already out the door bringing him to school. So it's great. And then I have some quiet time before you get back and I could make some calls or whatever. So yeah, it's a quick morning. It's not the whole waking up an hour and a half before have to be at work, get dressed, get get ready makeup, whatever hop in the car and pray there's no traffic.

Daniel Norton  26:59  
Yeah. And so I love it because I always felt like I don't want to have to I love dressing down as much as possible. Like I'm a short sky gym shorts all the time. In that way. No, I mean, obviously outside I'll wear like, actually, I didn't wear sweatpants for a long time. I was always in jeans until Amanda was like, why don't you wear sweatpants. And I was like, I don't like sweatpants feel like a little kid or something. And she got me into wearing sweatpants I converted you. And now it was like in the wintertime I wear sweatpants as much as possible. But inside I'm always I love to wear gym shorts and just be like as relaxed because so many years it was commuting and jeans, you got to look professional mean, it was you know, casual, professional. I had my city shoes that would get worn out from walking in New York City all the time. And all of that now it's like I can just have the one pair of shoes and they hardly get worn out, which is really nice. I mean, maybe I'm not walking enough. But all that goes into the preparation of need to make sure I've got I would always have a backpack with extra things that I need to make sure if I had if I was bringing extra food hoodie, umbrella cuz it's like it's New York, you don't know if all of a sudden it's gonna start raining.

Amanda Norton  28:08  
You also brought extra clothes, if you ever got stuck in the snow, if snow had to get in the hotel over there, what hotel if it was

Daniel Norton  28:15  
if I was sweaty from walking the walk because I would walk from the train and then have to like be drenched in clothes by the time I got in. So I'd have that in my backpack just to have this like backup of clothes, those kind of things that I don't even have to think about anymore. It's just like grab the gym shorts that I left out and put them on. One thing I am trying to do is create a morning routine for myself so that when I wake up, I have a routine set that sets me up for productivity. I'm very like undisciplined when it comes to that stuff. So I'm trying to, I'm using the mastery journal by john Lee Dumas. He's also a podcaster entrepreneurs on fire. And him and Kate are great. We got to hang out with him last year in Puerto Rico. Put him using his mastery journal is a journal journal to help you kind of master productivity and very much part of it is planning your next day and having a morning routine and you set it up like you would and I would my goal is to have a morning routine where I'm waking up at 5am everyday spending some time in the Bible. We're Christian. So we like to do that's something I really want to be able to have in the morning. Drinking water and not going straight to coffee as much as I really believe coffee is the lifeblood of parents and I love coffee and I'm never going to stop I don't think maybe it could be wrong. Never say never. But focusing in on drinking water first thing in the morning. That's something that I'm trying to put in. But it's not it's still it's not really preparation. That's still easy enough where I could be in gym shorts and do that. So that's still something I really, for me I really enjoy that sums up our 10 advantages of working from home, whether you identify with any of these, you know benefits or advantages or not being able to look at this and say okay, you know what, I got to look at what my benefits are for me, my family For me working home, I keep those in mind all the time.

Amanda Norton  30:04  
Yeah, I'm a visual person, I definitely use sticky notes on my computer sticky notes on paper everywhere. And I think, for me, what helps is putting these little positive top 10 advantages of working from home, on little sticky notes all around my desk all around my computer. I'm a big believer in that because I need that reminder, especially in the hardest moments of the day. So it is a great idea to just keep these in the forefront of your mind. And if that means visually, you need it in front of you go for it. If If you think you could just remember this on top of your head, God bless you because my memory is gone.

Daniel Norton  30:47  
So for you put a lot of like scripture and Bible verses around, we have even in the bathroom up on the walls. And these are the things we've gotten from our church and from our pastors and pastors wives who've helped kind of share like these are some things to do you even have it right on your desk, some different things that that are focused. So even if it's not just, you know, what are the benefits of working from home, but what are the things that keep you going? And what are the things that are going to help you have a better mindset or encourage you in those hard moments. Having that around to remind you that there are a lot of blessings and benefits that come out of being home even with all the struggles of whether it's family struggles or whether it's office struggles, business struggles, or all of that combined.

Amanda Norton  31:26  
And I think I rubbed off on you because your desk is full of sticky notes. Now. I know

Daniel Norton  31:30  
I take a lot of notes from all the different online courses I've taken or whatever. So we'd like to hear from you. Like what advantages Do you think you have hit us up on Instagram working home parents on Instagram and and that was that this is episode number six. Hope you enjoyed it. And if you want any of the show notes from this episode, you can go to working home parents.com slash six, three to find out any of the things that we've mentioned here, see the transcript if you would like over working home parents comm slash six. And hey, just a reminder, if you haven't already, remember to subscribe to this podcast. You'll get every episode into whatever your favorite podcast listening app is whatever you're listening to right now. Go and hit subscribe and leave us an honest review. Let us know what you think about this podcast. For that we look forward to chatting with you in the next episode.

Bumper  32:28  
Thank you for listening to working home parents find show notes links mentioned and more at working home parents.com