Do Days Really Mean Anything Right Now?

Time and day of the week seem to have no meaning for me these days.

I get up to exercise and make a morning post to my students at 6:30am. I’m answering emails well into the evening. I’m grading work and giving feedback at 9:00pm. I’m lesson planning and scheduling new material for my students on the weekends.

On one hand, I’m super fortunate that my job is flexible enough right now that I can do work on my own schedule. I mean, I do need to be “available” to my students for a certain amount of time during school hours, but let’s face it - as I told my students, I’m available all day… we aren’t going anywhere!

On the other hand, I feel like work is just a continuous event. I’m fitting it in between teaching my first grader and being a mom. Dominic finishes a worksheet, I let them have “free time” in the house, and I use that time to reply to emails and give feedback to 10 students on a given assignment. Then someone’s having a tantrum, or needs help in the bathroom, or is asking to go outside, and I break and pick things up again when possible. This prevents me from getting everything done during work hours - so I end up letting it bleed into the rest of my time. Evenings. Weekends. Early morning.

I’ve always said I have the self control to be a fantastic work-at-home employee (which my job is not designed for… but theoretically, I have the skills). And I stand by this. I’m just not great at it while trying to teach my own kids and be their mom.

What about you? Are you able to keep a “schedule” or are you like me, trying to fit it in and letting it expand? Do you usually work from home and this is just more of the same?