A Day in the Life of a Full Time Work-From-Home Mom

Wondering what my typical day looks like now that I work from home full time?

Unfortunately, it doesn’t involve sleeping in or laying on the couch, eating bon-bons and watching television all day until my son gets home.

During my last day in the life post, I shared my crazy busy schedule and I’m still hard at work even though each day can be extremely different.

My Typical Tuesday

4:45 a.m. – My alarm goes off and I wake up. I never hit snooze. I get up at this time Tues-Thurs in order to get my exercise out of the way for the day. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I go to a kickboxing gym that’s across town about 25 minutes away.

On Mondays and Wednesdays, I go to a regular fitness center about 3 minutes away from my house for group classes. Since Tuesday is the longer stretch, I hop out of bed, brush my teeth, get dressed, grab my water and boxing gloves, warm up the car etc.

Kickboxing has really been a great outlet stress reliever for me and I’ve even lost 8 pounds already which is a nice perk. It’s expensive, but with my membership I get unlimited classes so I could go seven days a week if I wanted or multiple times a day.

5:10 a.m. – I try to leave out by this time or 5:15 a.m. at the latest. There’s usually no traffic in the morning which is nice, but it’s winter so I need to take the road conditions into account too.

5:35 a.m. – I arrive at the kickboxing gym. I greet two of my smiling instructors and wonder how they can be up so bright and early with so much energy. Maybe they’re coffee drinkers. I don’t really consider myself a coffee drinker even though I will have a cup rarely like once or twice a month.

Remarkably, coffee doesn’t do much to wake me up in the morning and I could go without the extra sugar so I usually don’t drink it.

After I greet the instructors and chat for a bit, I put my stuff away in the locker room and start stretching and getting prepared for class.

5:45 a.m. – 6:45 a.m. – Class runs for about an hour. It starts with a gruesome workout then some fun kicks, jabs, and hooks. I challenge myself, sweat a lot, and always estimate how many calories I’ve burned throughout the hour. My instructor usually says we burn about 750 calories on average during that hour. Not a bad way to start your day before the sun even comes up.

6:45 a.m. – 7:15 a.m. – I leave class and drive back home.

7:15 a.m. – 7:25 a.m. – I usually arrive back home with a few minutes to greet my son and talk with him before my husband drops him off to school. I usually ride along for the morning school drop off every day except Tues./Thurs.

7:25 a.m. – 8:00 a.m. – I shower, get changed again, make breakfast and talk with my husband when he gets back from dropping our son off at school around the corner. If I have time, I may even work on cleaning the kitchen (hopefully).

8:00 a.m. – I usually start working. I’m eager to start working as early as possible because I know all my energy for the day lies in the morning. I can’t really do anything super productive in the evening which is why I save cleaning the house for later in the day because it requires less brain power.

I may mess around on Facebook for a bit and interact in some of the groups I’m in but my goal is usually to finish at least one article by 9 when my husband leaves for work.

Today, I decided to stay home but some days I go to a coffee shop or the library if I don’t feel like spending any money. The library doesn’t open until 9 so on those days I’d start work later or just start at home and pick back up at the library. I’ve found quite a few coworking spaces in my area but have been hesitant to drop the cash to become a member and use the space regularly. It seems like a luxury to me.

From this time until lunch I try to knock out as much of my to-do list as possible whether it’s client work, responding to important emails, meetings etc.

12:00 p.m. – 12:45 p.m. – I break off for lunch whenever I get hungry but it’s usually around noon. I try to eat at home for the most part so I’m not spending more money on expensive restaurant meals.

Sometimes my mom stops by to bring me food too which is pretty funny. My mom got a little too excited when I told her I’d be working from home and since she works mostly during the weekend and lives pretty close, she tries to call or stop by around my ‘lunch break’ and will bring me food she’s cooked or just something random.

Today though, I just watch my favorite YouTube channels while I eat like Clevver News for celebrity gossip. Don’t judge me, lol!

12:45 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. I pick back up with working and try to power through my food coma.

2:00 p.m. My favorite part of the day! I pack up and get ready to leave out to get my son from school. The school is so close, but I have to drive during this time of year because it’s super cold so I leave out a bit earlier to get a good park.

2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. – My son and I get home, I make him a snack and we talk about stuff. He always has a good story for me whether it’s about school, his friends, or one of the many mysteries of life. We also do homework during this time which is super easy. I love first grade homework! I’m not looking forward to the confusing math work he’ll have in a few years.

3:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. – This is our down time during the day to relax. My son will usually watch one of his favorite shows, play on his tablet or play in his room. If I don’t have extra work to finish up and if we don’t have errands to run, I clean up a little bit, read, watch T.V. with my son or nap.

5:00 p.m. – 5:45 p.m. – I cook dinner. It usually takes anywhere between 20 minutes and an hour to prepare dinner depending on what I’m making and if I’m intentionally making enough for leftovers so I won’t have to cook the following day.

5:45 p.m. – 6:05 p.m. – We eat dinner, then get ready for my son’s Boy Scout meeting.

6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. – We stay at the Boy Scout meeting. Meetings are only once or twice a month on Tuesdays and sometimes it’s tricky because I have a call with a client every other Tuesday from 7-8 p.m. Sometimes schedules conflict but for the most part they don’t which is good.

7:35 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. – We get back home and my husband is now home from work finishing up his dinner. He gets back around 7ish most days. During this time we try to do a family activity since we put our son down for bed on week days.

Tonight we play video games together for a bit. Some of the games we like playing together include Plants vs. Zombies and Injustice. Other nights it’s board games, books, or whatever.

I get my son ready for bed and tuck him in around 8:30 p.m.

8:30 p.m. – I finish up any chores I have, then my husband and I talk and hang out. We usually watch a T.V. show together. We finished watching the second season of Empire, so right now we’re watching The Fosters which is in its 4th or 5th season right now I think but I recently found out about.

I did some binge watching a few weekends ago so I’m on season 3 while my husband is still on season 2 but I don’t mind re-watching some of the episodes. As long as we’re spending quality time together.

9:30 p.m. Lights out for me. I have to wake up at 4:45 a.m. the following morning and head to the gym!

Some Noticable Changes

Now you know what a typical day is like for me now that I’ve quit my job to work for myself. If you read my last day in the life update, you probably noticed that I was tied down at work until around 5 p.m. or sometimes later most days and I relied on my husband more since he got off work earlier.

Now, he’s the one working longer hours so it works out well that I have more flexibility to be at home. My typical day may seem more dull now, but like I said, no day is ever the same and I love that. Plus, I can choose whether I want to have a laid back dull day or a more eventful one thanks to my flexible schedule.

While I don’t have actual coworkers to bounce ideas off or keep me company throughout the day, I have some great local friends plus my family nearby, as well as all my online entrepreneur friends from the FinCon community.

It makes me feel great to know that I can interact in Facebook groups with people who are experiencing the same things that I am each day or hop on a quick call with someone to ask for advice or catch up.

My schedule has improved so much over the past year and while I may still be juggling, I feel like I have more control and balance. I can’t wait to see how my typical day will look a year from now.

What does your typical day look like? What’s your favorite part of the day? What do you prioritize most? When are you most productive?