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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

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Speaker 1: Today's tip is about how to work from home with

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Speaker 1: kids around. I've worked out of home offices for years,

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Speaker 1: but my cardinal rule has always been that work is work,

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Speaker 1: and so just as if I were in an office,

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Speaker 1: I need childcare for kids who are too young to

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Speaker 1: watch themselves. I make sure to tell people who would

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Speaker 1: like to try working from home that it's actually not

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Speaker 1: a great way to save money on childcare. I mean, yes,

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Speaker 1: you'll need fewer hours if you don't have a commute,

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Speaker 1: but you'll need another caregiver or family member to watch

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Speaker 1: your children, or you'll need to enroll them in daycare

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Speaker 1: or mostly use school hours. Otherwise you'll feel pulled in

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Speaker 1: multiple directions and constantly distracted. With many offices closing these

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Speaker 1: days due to concerns about the coronavirus, lots of people

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Speaker 1: are trying working from home. The problem with this is

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Speaker 1: that many schools and daycares are also closed, and so

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Speaker 1: these experiments in remote work are going to be far

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Speaker 1: from ideal. That said, it's also just life and we

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Speaker 1: need to deal with it. My kids are home from

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Speaker 1: school for the next few weeks, and there are a

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Speaker 1: few ways I've found and that maybe you can find too,

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Speaker 1: to preserve time to focus and spend time with your

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Speaker 1: kids and keep all of you from going insane. If

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Speaker 1: you've got young kids and you've got a partner who's

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Speaker 1: in the same boat, your best bet is to swap hours.

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Speaker 1: One of you gets up and works from six am

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Speaker 1: to noon, the other works from noon to six pm.

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Speaker 1: Given how distracting offices can be, my bet is that

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Speaker 1: if you truly focus during your six hour shift, you

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Speaker 1: will basically get a full day of work. In of course,

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Speaker 1: that assumes that your work can be set for certain windows.

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Speaker 1: If you can't control when video conferences get set, you

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Speaker 1: might compare schedules with your partner and see who is

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Speaker 1: scheduled for meetings at particular times. You can trade off

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Speaker 1: for the times that you aren't, And if both of

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Speaker 1: you have called simultaneously, well that's the time to bring

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Speaker 1: out the iPad or Xbox or pop finding Nemo into

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Speaker 1: the DVD player. There's absolutely nothing wrong with screen time,

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Speaker 1: particularly in these circumstances, but the problem is that if

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Speaker 1: the kids are on it all day, it can lose

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Speaker 1: its magic. If you use it strategically during the times

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Speaker 1: when no adult is available to interact with them, they'll

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Speaker 1: find it novel enough not to bother you. This is

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Speaker 1: harder if one of you is still working on site,

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Speaker 1: or particularly if one of you is a healthcare worker

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Speaker 1: or government official who's working longer hours these days. If

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Speaker 1: you are on your own with the kids and are

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Speaker 1: trying to work from home, one option is to get

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Speaker 1: up quite early, like five am, and try to get

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Speaker 1: two hours of solid work done before they get up.

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Speaker 1: Then spend the morning doing lots of active play with them.

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Speaker 1: With any luck, they'll be tired and somewhat tired of

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Speaker 1: you by lunch. Then you can put the little ones

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Speaker 1: down for naptime and give older children quiet time during

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Speaker 1: which they can read or watch screens. You can work

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Speaker 1: from one to three PM, or hopefully to three thirty

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Speaker 1: or even four, depending on your napper. Let's hope for

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Speaker 1: good naps these days. Then you can put in another

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Speaker 1: hour or so after the kids go to bed. And

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Speaker 1: if you've got a toddler and your boss insists on

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Speaker 1: a video call at ten am when you have no coverage,

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Speaker 1: well there's not much to be done about that. You

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Speaker 1: can try special toys that only come out during calls

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Speaker 1: so they seem novel enough to keep them entertained, but

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Speaker 1: it might be better to have everyone reach an agreement

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Speaker 1: that we are all just doing the best we can.

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Speaker 1: If you are a manager, being understanding about this situation

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Speaker 1: is going to go a long way. You will buy

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Speaker 1: incredible loyalty from your people by telling your employees that

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Speaker 1: it's cute when the toddler keeps shoving a Plato creation

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Speaker 1: in the parents face while she's on a video call.

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Speaker 1: It isn't sustainable long term, not by any means, but

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Speaker 1: this will eventually end and the productivity lessons we all

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Speaker 1: learn will stay with us, which is one silver lining,

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Speaker 1: and we really need silver linings these days. If you're

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Speaker 1: working from home with kids around, I'd love to hear

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Speaker 1: how you're coping. You can let me know at Before

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Speaker 1: Breakfast podcast at I heart media dot com. In the meantime,

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Speaker 1: this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making

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Speaker 1: the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to

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Speaker 1: hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,

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Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook,

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Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod. That's B the number four,

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Speaker 1: then Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me

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Speaker 1: an email at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media

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Speaker 1: dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all

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Speaker 1: the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward to staying

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Speaker 1: in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of I heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to

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