“Mommy, he’s bothering me!” or “Mommy, I’m so thirsty!” This is what I hear constantly as I sit down at the laptop to get work completed. Anything that must do with focusing is not easily completed when you have kids. As stated in my blog post “Welcoming a New Baby”, I currently gave birth to a baby girl.  How do you fit school into your life when you have children that are still young and need your attention? Simple. You just complete your homework when they are sleep and then you get sleep whenever you can. NOT! That is far from reality.

Those of you who have one child let alone multiple children know that it seems the kids never sleep! Those of you who are in school know that doing homework is not something you can just do in one sitting. There is research and planning, analyzing, and writing to do as just the basics fir assignments. This could take anywhere from two hours to an entire day worth of information that’s needed. And you’re telling me that people combine both things that take ample amount of time to tend to on a daily basis? Well yes!

How it Really is

Currently, going for my MBA in Finance online with kids and one being a newborn at that is quite the challenge. There is no push back of due dates with assignments. There aren’t any quiet places that you can go and read or to just focus on only homework for any amount of time in a row. Picture this scenario: Sitting down at the desk with your laptop showing your assignment, textbook open whether digital or physical and notebook open beginning to read and take notes and suddenly, your name gets called and you hear crying from the next room.

Does this sound familiar? Everything happens at once; the kids are thirsty they will not stop bothering until they get what they want. Even if it means running back and forth to you every 2 minutes to see if you are ready. Baby starts crying since it is time for a feeding or needs to be changed right when you are at the peak of your writing assignment and finally have a good momentum going. What do you do? Pause that momentum and tend to that baby. You are always on demand when you are a parent. Assignments cannot be put on hold due to a child crying an hour before your paper is due. Does the madness ever stop? Never! Is there any chance that you can get things completed? Yes, of course.

Steps to Get it Done?

One major thing that you should do to make yourself more flexible with all the demands that you have is create a schedule for the items you can schedule. What this means is creating a specific schedule to complete throughout the day. Pick times that you will feel more motivated to get things done. This time varies for many of us and can be at any time of day. Scheduling around kids nap schedules or just trying to schedule a time when the household is less chaotic and everyone is busy doing something. Making sure to have snacks and drinks on standby for your kids as well. This way when they randomly get thirsty or hungry when you are completing an assignment all you have to do is point to where they can get what they are asking for.

When it comes to the baby it is not that easy but what I’ve learned in the last month is that you can change a diaper, feed and burp in less than 30 minutes. A swing would become your best friend when baby is not trying to go right back to sleep. Or even a play yard where she lays on her back and watch the toys dangling from above them. If baby just wants some warm comfort of your body heat (as most newborns do) you become flexible even more. That’s when you learn to hold the baby in one hand and write with the other or place a boppy around your body and lay the baby on it close to you.

How to get the momentum back up when you just had to shift from one task back to your assignment? Take time to read over what you were in the middle of first. If that is not enough, turn on a motivation podcast or video that will get your thoughts back where they need to be. In the middle of writing this blog my son needed me so I had to stop for a moment. After that, I had to turn on my motivation playlist that I have on my phone and everything hit me as though I never stopped.

Making sure to have a dream board above your workspace will also work to remind you what you are pushing towards. Since I have not been able to create me a new board, I currently have a list on my wall with each of my kid’s names listed on there because they are the reason I continue to push for more. Close your eyes while listening to the motivation and just allow yourself to dream for about 5 minutes while breathing slowly. Once you have done this, go ahead and take one last deep breath and open your eyes and I’m sure you will feel as though you never stopped.

I hope that this not only gives you the information that you need to keep your focus but also provides you with motivation. Your life does not have to end just because you have kids. This is when your life makes a huge turn for the better because you are not just living for yourself but also another individual that depends on you for everything. You can do it all as long as you have the support behind you and the tips that will keep you on track.