It begins with the short work week right before Thanksgiving.

I head out of the office on Wednesday and don’t return until four days later.  By that time, Black Friday shopping and holiday decorating have sufficiently cemented me into seasonal work mode.  The rapid succession of extended weekends will keep me there until New Years if I let it.

I’m distracted.  I’m counting down the days until the next weekend or vacation.  I’m worrying more about Christmas lists and holiday meals than I am about monthly sales goals and marketing campaigns.

Unfortunately, businesses - including the one that employs me - do not shut down for the month of December.  And they tend to take things like customer service and earning a profit just as seriously as they did for the first 11 months of the year.

This is when I find productivity tips, like the ones below, the most helpful.

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Do you ever feel like you are keeping score of your performance as a working mother?  I know, I know… the game of life is not a competitive sport.  Still at the end of every day, I know the score of that day’s juggle.  And whether it was a win, a loss, or a draw.  Sure, these games will never be played on ESPN and there is no fancy Superbowl Ring being handed out for a job well done.  But the announcer in my head is keeping score of how I am doing as a working mother.

“Mom starts the day strong with a 3-point bonus: she manages to pack her kid’s lunch AND pull out the leftovers for Dad and herself.  Everybody eats today!  In fact, it looks like she scored an additional point for extra difficulty; each family member received a fruit, a veggie, a protein, and a whole wheat grain.  Mom is clearly taking control today.”

 “Oh no, Mom lost 4 points for not using her hands-free device on a conference call in the car.  Nervously looking for any cops who can dole out a hefty fine clearly shows that she is not on top of her game.  Can she recover, folks?”

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Voting Day is a pressure-filled day for working parents.  Not only do you have to manage drop-off, pick-up and a busy working day, now you have to throw voting into the mix.  In history-making elections like this one, more people turn out to vote making long lines… and even more stress for the working mom.  I’m sure if I had asked my boss for time to vote, she would have approved the time off.  But then I’d be feeling pangs of guilt since my polling place is open for hours before I get to work and hours after I return home.  And I know that many employers are not willing to allow employees to leave early or come in late so that they can fulfill their civic duty.  I even heard of bosses sending out emails to their team telling them to “vote on their own time.”

For the last two years, I almost always voted via absentee ballot.  For me, it was the only way to manage the juggle.  There are days were I barely manage daycare drop off and pick-up with work meetings.  And I’ve already admitted that I often don’t take a lunch.  So voting was just one more thing to do on the list.  Switching to voting by absentee ballot meant that I had plenty of time to research the candidates, measures, and propositions.  Voting day no longer had to be the day of the election - but whatever day was convenient for me.

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Using an old cell phone that has been converted into a toy, my son pretended to email people on his “blackberry” yesterday evening.  He sat there for 10 minutes, thumbing the keys in remarkable similarity to my own style.  When I asked him to come to the dinner table, he casually responded “I’ll be there in a minute after I finish this email.”  In fact, he didn’t even look away from his “blackberry” when he responded.

I wonder where he learned that one?

I am living in a virtual avalanche of email.  Too much, too often, and too many accounts are bogging me down.  Between all of my email accounts, I easily read over 250 emails per day. 

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Unless you already know that your boss is predisposed to letting you telecommute, one the best ways to start a dialogue is to submit a well-written proposal. In your proposal, take a business-case approach, looking at things from your boss’s perspective. Address ‘what’s-in-it-for-the-company’ issues, as well as any concerns or objections your boss might have. Plan to hit your boss with a double-whammy: A written proposal and an oral presentation.

The written proposal enables your manager to more carefully consider your ideas when she has more time.  Plus it can serve as a crucial tool if your boss must obtain approval from higher up in the food chain. The presentation prepares your manager to absorb the points in the written proposal and gives her the opportunity to raise questions or objections.

I can see some of you cringing at the idea of having to write a written proposal. Trust me on this one. By taking a professional business approach to the idea you are increasing your chances of getting an approval from your manager.  This is not a thesis statement or some large written grant.  A one to two page proposal is all you need. 

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When I decided that I wanted to work from home at least one day a week, I did not prepare a pitch.  I barged into my manager’s office one day and simply blurted out that I was going to work from home every Friday.  While my manager did agree that having an established day in which I was home was acceptable, I would not recommend this approach.   My tactic was unprofessional and while it did work to get me what I wanted, it most likely won’t work for you. 

The best thing to do is to be prepared.  The power of information is in your favor when it comes to working from home.  In order to earn that Telecommuting badge, you must prepare a thoughtful and comprehensive proposal.

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People always tell me how lucky I am that I have the opportunity to work from home.  And I agree, for the most part.  But working from home is not sunshine, rainbows, and butterflies.  I’ve had to re-learn working in a virtual environment.  It’s a different ball game.  While I do love getting to fold a load of laundry while on a conference call, my life can be totally unbalanced while I work from home.  And I’ve seen many a co-worker crash and burn when moving from the corporate office to the home office.

You may have thought of your office as distracting with water cooler conversations, idle hallway chit-chat, and that one person who always manages to burn the popcorn in the breakroom microwave.  But just wait until you are at home with a whole new set of distractions.

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Turkey Sloppy Joes

My spouse is a typical “meat and potatoes” guy.  Eating red meat isn’t a healthy option every night so I’ve learned to adapt meals that satisfy his love of meat.  The trick?  I use ground turkey instead of ground beef.  With a flavorful sauce, the meat-lovers in your family will never know the difference.

 I serve this meal with a hearty green salad, carrots and dip (for my carrot loving son), and store-bought, oven-baked fries.  A healthy meal that goes from pan to plate in 20 minutes. 
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My son’s preschool has been shut down for the last two days for Teacher In-Service.  The new “school year” begins after Labor Day and the teachers use this time to prepare their classrooms for the switch.  I know that I am lucky that my son goes to a year round school that is open most of the year.  With the standard holidays, four inservice days a year (two in the Fall and two in the Spring), and a week off between Christmas and New Year’s, I know that I am lucky.  I rarely have to find alternative arrangements. 

Still every year, the inservice days creep up on me and I find myself desperately making alternate arrangements.  Okay, maybe not desperate.  But this heat and forgetting to mark the days in my calendar is making me just a teeny bit crabby about the situation.  When I was complaining to a neighbor with school age kids that I was struggling to stay on task while working from home and having a four year old that was ready to break out of the house, she quickly told me to get used to it.  She pulled out the school calendar and showed me that in our local school district there is an inservice day at least once every month.  Throw in Christmas Break, Ski week and Easter break and a whole slew of other days - and we are talking almost 45 days off during the school year.

I practically had a panic attack about all those days off and my kid won’t be starting Kindergarten for another year.

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On Thursday, I eagerly showed up for my son’s four year old check-up with his pediatrician 10 minutes early.  I was feeling a tad bit guilty that it took me over 2 months to schedule the check-up, but I wasn’t going to let that get me down.  My son and I had a pleasant morning.  I was able to attend a 1-hr conference call without relying on any TV to quietly occupy my son.  We ate breakfast together.  I had even managed to get out of my sweatpants and put on a little makeup.  And now I had arrived 10 minutes early to the appointment when I usually arrive ten minutes late.  Honestly, I felt like I deserved my own Gold Medal in Work-Life Balance. 

Too bad the nurse quickly burst my “I’ve really got my act together” bubble. 
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