9-5 WORK DAY ROUTINE! BALANCING HOME & WORK LIFE, DAILY CLEANING ROUTINE, UPDATING OFFICE SPACE

What's up you guys, welcome back to my channel. So today's video is really just going to give you guys a glimpse into my everyday life as a single working mom. How I juggle and try and find balance between work and home life, especially working from home. I do find it to be slightly challenging, yes I am able to get more stuff done during the day, you know when it comes to tidying up and cleaning and all that stuff compared to when I was going into an office. However, when I was also going into the office, there wasn't as much of a mess because there's nobody here to make a mess. But it can be just overwhelming sometimes, just trying to do all the things that come with adulting. So I had a couple of calls this morning, I finally have about, what time is it, 10 more minutes before I have to jump on another call and then I have a little bit more of down time. So it is about 11.20 right now and I have not eaten today and that is definitely something that I do struggle with is just finding the time to come and cook and you know eat just because like right now it's a little bit busy and I'm also preparing to go out of town later on this week as well. So I'm just trying to make sure that I get everything done. So you guys saw me quickly kind of just like cut up some brussel sprouts. I didn't even go shopping this, food shopping this week because it makes no sense. I am going to be out for like the second half of the week so it really just makes no sense to go like buy food. So I'm just kind of trying to grab and create stuff that I already have here in the fridge, use up things before they go bad. So I'm just gonna, I just put the brussel sprouts in to get some like greens and then I do still have some grilled chicken and some lime rice that I think I'm just gonna throw together and make something. But yeah, needed to refill up on some water and after my next call I definitely will finish cleaning up the living room. There's a mound of laundry that needs to be folded and put away and then there's also just some stuff from last week when we had the snow and everything. I went to my mom's house so I just need some bags, there are bags on the floor that need to be picked up. But yeah, so today is just going to be kind of my, I don't know, everyday life as a working mom type of thing and how I try and create some sort of balance and everything. So the biggest thing that I am working on right now, specifically working from home is creating boundaries. Boundaries is definitely going to help me with the work life balance. It's so easy to try and step away, take a lunch break and you hear the pings on the computer because somebody IM'd you or somebody wants to call you while you're on your lunch break and it's just easy to say yes and do it. But I'm also realizing that it's so important to also make sure to take that time to step away because work, work, work, work, work is not ever good without having any type of break and a little bit of time to yourself. And even when I step away and get some cleaning done, that's not really any type of self care or allowing myself to take a breather or anything like that. So I highly recommend creating better boundaries because that is also going to help with mental health and also that work life balance. So one of the things that does really help me throughout the day to stay on top of all of my daily chores is I will step away for 10-15 minutes a couple times throughout the day and I will get a little bit of tidying done. Whether that's cleaning the kitchen, cleaning the living room, folding some laundry, throwing some laundry in, tackling something around the house so that at the end of the night when I am so tired and exhausted and want absolutely nothing to do with cleaning, it is less work for me that has to get done because I've been tidying up throughout the day. Alright, so for my office slash desk in my room, I really wanted to get a chair because I had been using one of our dining room chairs because I just didn't have anything here and at the same time when people come over, you know, you want all four chairs to be there. So for Christmas, I had asked for an Amazon gift card and I had my eye on this particular chair so that when I do bring my desk down because it is a standing desk, that I can sit down. And honestly, I definitely have found myself walking more just because I don't really have a traditional chair which is great because I'm moving my body and everything but then there are some times when I'm like I really need to hone in on what I'm doing and I just want to sit down, relax, get comfortable and you know, knock out whatever it is that I'm working on. So, we're gonna put this chair together and then restyle that space a little bit. I'll show you guys, I had brought in like a very old acrylic calendar from my parents' house and it's large, it's massive but I would like to hang it on the wall near my desk. So let's see if that fits but first things first, just need to put this chair together so your girl can sit and relax while she's getting some work done. So we got everything set up, it looks really, really cute. It did come in other colors, I will make sure to have it linked down below for you guys in case you're looking for a new office chair or anything like that. I just felt like the gray would look really, really nice and I didn't necessarily want to go for black, I wanted to like, you know, brighten up the room I guess a little bit. So, next thing we really need to do is kind of clear off the whole desk and all that stuff because it's a hot mess. My desk is definitely one of those catch-all spaces that I really do need to do a better job of keeping it organized. I'm also starting to contemplate if I should keep these acrylic stands for my monitors. I just feel as if it's taking up a lot of space on the desk so I'm not really sure. I think I might have to just play around with it a little bit and figure out maybe another solution to everything but either way, the base of the monitors is pretty large so whether it's sitting on top of the stands or if it's going to be sitting on the desk, it is still going to take up a lot of space but either way, I definitely need to do a better job of just keeping my desk area a lot more neat and organized. So reorganizing and cleaning the desk area complete and this is the acrylic calendar that I have. It's very big and I want to be able to hang it up on the wall. I want to be able to hang it up on the wall here however, I kind of have to make sure that I'm finding the studs and all that stuff and because I am actually leaving to go on my trip tomorrow, we're going to deal with this another time. I would like to eventually redo it and make it black and then the actual decals are on this side and I want to have it mirrored so as I'm writing and stuff like that, it doesn't get on the decals because the decals are actually on the other side. I hope all of that makes sense. So right now, I'm just going to put it in the corner for right now because we just don't have the time but this is definitely something I want to eventually hang up and this way, I can keep up with all of the things that I have going on and I do want to get a smaller one to put near the door for all of Riley's activities and all of the things. Alright, so now I'm just trying to find a cute outfit to wear and I feel as if this is what I always struggle with. So I have these wide leg black trousers, really really comfortable. I'm flying in the morning of the meeting. So I was almost thinking that I probably have to go directly to the meeting so I was looking for something that is really comfortable, something I can wear on the plane. I'm actually flying out like early in the morning at like 6.40 is my flight and then this just like black short sleeve bodysuit. I am going, I'm leaving here from New Jersey and actually going to Arizona which is a little bit warmer so I didn't have to go like full blown like winter attire and then also we're going to go to dinner afterwards so I figured this is just something like nice casual. I feel as if black is always my go to but let me know what top to go with. So I have this blazer. I just think that the blazer is just too long but I don't know. What do you guys think? And I'm just going to wear some flats like making it very easy. I'm trying to fly in and then fly back out but I just feel as if it's too long. It kind of like just weighs me down. I feel as if so I do have just like a cute little, I have a blue sweater and then also a white one. I figured let's add a little bit of color. I'm just going to wear some black and white snake skin flats so I can always just do this. I feel like this is cute with some gold jewelry making it very simple, easy. I don't even know what I want to do with my hair just yet. But yeah, I think this is probably going to be the look. Here it is with the snake skin flats. So really really comfortable and then this is just the overall look. It doesn't, we're not, it's more like business casual and I feel as if I can wear jeans like a nice like dark denim jean or a black jean but I also don't want to be the only person in the meeting wearing jeans. You know what I mean? I'd rather be a little bit more dressed up and professional than not. So I think this is the look I'm going to go with. Something that I can potentially sit on the airplane with, super comfortable and then just head straight to the meeting. Alright, so it's getting down to the wire. I still have not even packed. Riley's at least showered. She's gone to her dance class. I'm going to pick up food on the way to grandma and grandpa's house. So she's taking care of. Homework's done, all of the things. The only thing left I have to do, I'm currently washing her school dishes because honestly I just didn't even feel like standing there washing, hand washing dishes. But I did pack a majority of her lunch already. I do still need to do snack, which I realize. I do still need to do snack and then so the only thing that grandma has to do is literally warm up her soup because that's what she's going to have tomorrow and send her off to school. Now I need to worry about myself. I'm going to just quickly throw everything in. I have everything on my bed, what I'm going to travel in both days, sleep in, and then my outfit that I need. So pretty, pretty straightforward. The only other thing left I have to do is like shower, make sure I pack some makeup, a little bit of jewelry, some lotion, and then like my kind of like essentials like toothbrush, all of the things. So we're going to finally get this done because I haven't had a chance to try and do anything. I am still working, trying to finish up on a couple of things and to be raw and honest with you guys, sometimes I don't balance at all. I'm going to be 100% honest. I don't balance at all a lot of the times. I feel as if on the outside looking in, it can look as if women and particularly black women can juggle a lot and even though maybe our tolerance for juggling a lot may look as if we are just like breezing through life, like it's a struggle. It is a struggle. I'm definitely kind of a little bit stressed out just trying to make sure that I got everything in place. And I think sometimes that's why I don't always like traveling. One because it is a little bit hard leaving Riley, especially as a single mom because I need to figure out arrangements, who's going to pick her up from school, who's dropping her off. This is how lunch needs to be packed or you also need to make sure you do snack. This is the time she has to be dropped off. This is because of course this week they do different themes of dressing up so it's like what is she wearing tomorrow and then the next day and you know does she have gym and dance so that she has to wear sneakers and then someday she could wear boots or whatever she wants. It's like all of that stuff is a big stressor personally on me to try and make sure and educate my community on the things that she needs. And I am so grateful for having a community but I feel as if at the same time nobody does it like mom does and I do wish and hope that I didn't even need to do any of this stuff like people just knew. You know what I mean? But I'm the one who's in the thick of it and in the grind of it every day and I just want to make sure and do my best to make sure that her routine isn't thrown off too much and it's only just me being taken out but everything else still runs smoothly. Which there's never any complaints or anything like that it's just more of just trying to remember everything because you know god forbid you know it's pajama day tomorrow and I forgot to send you in pajamas or tell whoever's watching you to send you in pajamas and you know, you know how kids are. It's the end of the world for them. But I do try and validate her feelings and all of that good stuff but it is just always a stressor and then you know anytime you're going out of town or on vacation or anything like that you know you tend to work a little bit longer because you're trying to clean everything out or answer as many emails and tackle everything because you know that you're going to be out of pocket so it just is what it is. But let me stop rambling but that's just the honest truth I always get stressed out before traveling is just because there's like just so much stuff to do and I'm just juggling it all and I do my best and sometimes I drop something and you know drop the ball in something and that's okay I'm not going to beat myself up about it but like it's just the prep that is always just so draining I don't even know what I'm going to do with my hair to be honest like but we're going to have to deal with that another day or not another day we're just going to have to figure that out later because worst case I will just straighten my hair real quick and wrap it and just have it wrapped on the plane I don't know at this point or just keep it in a ponytail because I just really don't care at this point but anyways let's stop rambling and let me get all this packing just throw everything in the bag and call it a day.