Can you believe we are in the final days of August? In a few weeks kids are going back to school and parents are returning to regular schedules. This is insane to me. I had so many plans for this summer and….well let’s say that summer did not go according to plan this year. Let’s be honest, my summers never do, but this one more so. And yet, even so, I am hopeful for the future. Let’s chat about the end of summer and the rest of the year, shall we?
End of Summer Wrap Up
So, this summer I had aspirations of lots of outside time, getting lots of reading done, and days on the beach. Needless to say, that didn’t happen. I was able to go on one hike early in the summer, which was great. And there were quite a few walks that I went on, but otherwise, I didn’t get to do a lot outside. Now yes, this is my own fault. I certainly had time to sit outside and read. And I did do a little bit of that early on, but what happens every year happened again. It was much easier to sit on the chair in the living room and watch TV or play games on my phone. So, you could say I wasted summer in some ways.
Not All is Lost
Now, I certainly cannot say that all of summer was a bust. Some of that inside time was me trying to get back on track with my blog. I’m sure that some of you have noticed that I’ve been trying to be more consistent with my blogs. It’s still a work in progress, but I have a bit of a plan so I will share that later in this blog. And, I was able to purchase my computer to start my podcast. Again, not a waste, since it’s something that I want to work on to hopefully bring in some money. And let’s not forget that I had a bake sale at a market to raise money for my book. These things are really good uses of my time.
End of Summer – Entering Fall
Now that summer is ending and fall is creeping it’s way towards us, I’m looking forward to all that I want to get done. Cold weather is the perfect weather for curling up in a blanket with a hot drink and a good book. So, hopefully I can get back on track with that. I have been feeling the tug from my books begging me to read them, so that’s a good sign. And, all my work from home ventures are obviously inside. The hotel should also start getting busy all over again with hockey tournaments and such. We had a busy summer with weddings, and some softball, but we now get to switch gears for hockey season. But I am hopeful for my work from home projects to start taking off as well. Because, as I mentioned earlier, I have a plan.
Making a Schedule
At the hotel I make schedules for all the staff that work. Except my husband, he makes his own schedule. And my boss, for the most part. Though I have scheduled her, and do occasionally as she helps out when I really need her to. Always appreciated. But that made me think that if I have a schedule at the hotel, my home work should also have a schedule. I was reminded of a YouTuber talking about making a schedule when they moved to YouTube full time so they wouldn’t feel overwhelmed, or burn out because they were just always working. With that advice in mind, I set about breaking up my week to schedule when I worked on certain things.
A quick caveat
Now, I do have to interject here. Obviously this is not a perfect plan because I have my hotel hours as well. So, while I was making my schedule I knew that it was still going to be hectic as I still need to work a lot of hours at the hotel. This can only be reduced if I’m making regular income from the blog and podcast, and my book starts to sell once published. I may have made this schedule with the goal of not burning myself out, but temporarily it’s going to feel very busy.
End of Summer – The Work From Home Schedule
So, let’s break this down a little bit, shall we? Mondays will be the fullest and busiest of days. They will consist of planning, writing and posting a blog. If I have the mental capacity, perhaps I can write out more than one blog and have the second one ready to post later in the week, but this is slightly doubtful. This is because I want to also commit Mondays to writing out scripts for the podcast, as well as recording some episodes. Tuesdays will be podcast day. So, on these days I will post the podcast episode on Spotify. I’ll also be checking my podcast email for more stories and make sure that I know which episode I want to release the next week. And I’ll most likely work on scripts or recording on these days as well.
The rest is less intense
Now, I say less intense but they will still be productive. Wednesdays will be committed to my books. So, writing, editing, talking with beta readers, or when applicable, working on publishing. I’m not stopping with just one book. Thursdays will be committed to social media. Once my book publishes I’ll have so many social media accounts, I’ll need a day to check them, schedule posts and stories and reels, film reels, make the posts, and all the other things involved with social media. It’s a lot. Plus, responding to comments and emails. And Fridays will be the second blog day, so posting the second blog I wrote on Monday, if I wrote it, or writing and posting it all on Friday.
End of Summer – Still At the Hotel
Now, I did mention that I am still going to be working around 5 days a week at the hotel. You’re probably looking at my work from home schedule and wondering how I plan to pull that off with working full time. I typically have Mondays and Tuesdays off at the hotel, which is why I planned my two busiest days there. I’ll have a season where I’ll be working Tuesday evenings, but that gives me from 7am till about 5pm to work on podcast stuff. That’s plenty of time. The rest of the week I can easily work on my stuff before or after my scheduled hotel hours. And, of course, weekends will be just hotel hours.
End of Summer – About to Get Really Busy
This season will be extremely busy for me and there’s a part of me that looks at it and is already exhausted. And yes, I do worry that I’ll regret it, temporarily. The whole point of making the work from home schedule is to remind myself that that is the goal. To be able to do that full time and work just from home. As things pick up, and money starts to come in from my blog, my books and my podcast, I can go down in hours at the hotel. There won’t be that urgency to get a certain amount of hours there. But, because of my debt and my husband’s debt, on top of our goals, I can’t fully quit until that is under control. So, wish me luck there. Am I nervous? Yes. But also very excited.
I Know There Will Be Hiccups
Now, this isn’t going to workout perfectly for me. I know that, and it’s fine. There will be Mondays and Tuesdays that I’ll have to work because people book time off. It will be tricky, but I can make it work. The point will be that consistency is key. And if I have to take a few hours in the evenings to do work that I couldn’t during the day, my husband is supportive and understands that. He’s in my corner, cheering me on every day. And we both know it will just be a season. So, I am very excited to move forward with this and see how well consistency helps me succeed. That and persistence and patience. So much, but we know that anything can happen if we try.
