So many people have asked about work schedule and getting up at 5am so here’s a chat on how and why I fit in my work hours with kids and use 5am as a time to work!

Some notes from the video above! 

• Do you need to get up at 5? So many people ask how we do it and say they want to but first, know your best working hours and what you need. Do you need to get up at 5?! If you’re best hours are late at night – don’t get up at 5! There’s nothing extra noble about the early morning if you don’t need it.
• Let’s talk first a bit more generally, we could deep dive but an overview. Look at your week – what are you trying to achieve? As you plan and find hours you can either look at the hours you need, or look at the schedule and see what hours you can give. It will depend on your situation and it’s a combo of both for me. I end up with about an 18 hour work week. Working from home it’s easy to not know your hours but it helps everything to know how any hours you have and when they are!
• I don’t want to work around my kids, that’s something I know as I plan. But I also don’t want the expense of child care – I don’t want to be working to pay for childcare if possible. So I only have quiet times and when they’re asleep to work. There are some tasks we can do together that play into work – maybe shopping, cooking, setting something up, or sometimes me doing non screen planning while they colour. But then I strictly only use my time where I’m not with kids for non kid tasks. This means they do laundry with me, make packed lunches with me, go to the shops with me, clean the house with me. Those aren’t tasks I try to occupy them while I do, we do them together. It means that I’ve saved the time for solo play for tasks I can’t do with them – like my working screen time.

• Know how much sleep you need! Get to bed! This is where you need to know your best hours and what you need work/sleep wise. Also know what you can do in a pinch and what you need ongingly. I need 7 hours sleep a night, but I can do 6 in a pinch when I need to get stuff done.The coffee I talk about using in the morning is HERE from Ethical Superstore which is my best new UK find!
• The coffee I talk about using in the morning is HERE from Ethical Superstore which is my best new UK find! Sidenote: when we do make a French press we use THIS plastic free, organic, Fairtrade one from Percol.  In the US, I recommend Northbound coffee Roasters or Stumptown for having organic and plastic free options.

• Be organised with the rest of the day, and week.  Don’t do 5am so you can be unorganised the rest of the day, do 5am so you can get done what you need and earn extra time, not extra tie to be disorganised!  When you’re missing sleep, you get really good at knowing the value of that time!
• Consider a sound machine – we have a small house! We actually just got a sound machine but when we didn’t have one I would pull up a YouTube video of white noise  to get me from bed to the sofa! The Sound machine we got is below with US and UK versions – I confess to buying it from Amazon, but we love it for being a bluetooth speaker too, not running off batteries, and being small and nice looking!

• Know why you need to get up. It gives perspective to staying in bed vs getting up when you know what it’s buying you or what it costs.
• Plan out the time and know what you’re good for at 5am. If you need to use it but it’s not your best time allocate tasks you can do well- it might not be creative time but can you pay bills or do more mindless things? Write a list the night before so when you get there you can dive right in.
• Stay off Social and Time Wasting Tasks! I’m very careful what tabs I open in the morning. I know my brain can’t handle social so I keep my phone on airplane mode or just don’t open social. I don’t start reading news or anything else – I just stay in the right headspace and get into the tasks I need.
• Prep ahead- have the kettle filled and everything set out. Especially if you need to stay quiet. Figure out what you need then – does eating help? Set out a bite. Do you need coffee, or to hydrate? Make an insulated tea or coffee in a hydroflask before bed.

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