I’ve been sick for the past 6 weeks, so I’ve becoming sort of an expert on what to do when you’re home sick.
- Sleep in. I mean, you’ll be up earlier than normal because your internal clock is a jerk, but at least you can scroll through Facebook guilt free.
- Stay in your pajamas, get some tea and breakfast, then curl up under a blanket. (Pro tip: sleep in leggings and toss on a hoodie that has a front pocket. Practical for holding your tissues, yet comfy enough to never want to be healthy again.)
- Grab your laptop, promising yourself you will be productive, but since you’re sick you’ll start the morning a little later than usual.
- After an hour of time looking at hilarious memes (A cheerful heart is good medicine and you’re not one to argue with GOD!), begin working your way through your email box, but not too fast, you don’t want to overtax yourself. Email, FB, think about something you need and add it to your Amazon cart, repeat.
- Around noon, after a full 40 minutes of work stretched out over 2 1/2 hours, you should get some lunch. Soup sounds good. It’s cold out and your sick. But wait, you would prefer to do a little simple cooking. I mean, your sick, so who will begrudge you the time to make soup.
- Soup in hand, return to your comfy chair. You can’t really eat and work, so taking a “Lunch break” while streaming a movie is a logical choice. Promise yourself you will only watch it while you eat.
- Finish eating before you even have a clue who the main characters are in this 90 minute Hallmark romance. Decide you deserve at least 30 minutes of watch time. That’s a reasonable length break.
- Get totally sucked into the movie and rationalize that 90 minutes for lunch is fine; you’re sick.
- Quickly shut down the movie while the credits are rolling. No more wasting time. You have work to do. Begin working on a real work project. No more distractions. No more switching back to FB every few minutes. Since you have self-discipline, you’ll still leave that tab open while you work.
- Wait, is that a notification? It will just take a second…..
- Back to work. You have goals. You’re not wasting this day even it it is 3:00 and you’re still wearing pajamas.
- What? it’s 3:00. It’s not good to stare at a computer screen all day. You’re sick. you need to take care of your health. Better unplug and rest a bit. Grab a cup of tea and select a book. Remember your sick, so it has to be light reading. It’s not like you’re going to have the mental capacity for a work related title. How about this sweet, short novel.
- How can it already be 6:00? Wow, the work day is over. Working from home is exhausting. But you need to make dinner for the family. A sick day is no excuse for not making dinner. No one understands how hard it is to be sick and still need to work and take care of a family. You’re a strong woman. You’ve got this.
- With dinner cleared away, sink back into your chair. (Added noises of exhaustion to emphasize how much you do is perfectly acceptable.) It time to end this long day with a family movie night. You get to pick the movie, because you’re sick and you still had to do all that work today. It’s only fair.
- Crawl into bed early. It’s so warm and cozy. Start that book on your Kindle, because it’s too early to fall asleep, but you need your rest. Win-win. Of course you’ll read into the wee hours of the morning because let’s be honest, you have no self control, but your sick so it’s allowed.
And that is how you do it. Balancing the life of a working mom is hard. Doing it while your sick is even harder. Having a game plan can be the difference between success and failure. Now, go live your best life.
