Use screen time strategically

How to ensure quiet when you need it

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Good morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the New Corner Office,
the podcast where we share strategies for thriving in the
new world of work, one where the location and ours
are more flexible than in the past. Today's tip is
to use screen time strategically. With the world on lockdown

(00:26):
to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Many parents are
working from home while their kids are home from school
or daycare. With everyone under one roof, it's inevitable that
screen time rules are going to be relaxed, and that
is totally fine. The issue is that we tend to
reach a point of diminishing returns. My ten year old

(00:48):
absolutely loves video games, and I thought he would happily
play them all day long, every day. But as we
pass weeks in home isolation, even he announced that his
games had become somewhat boring. You want to make sure
that screen time feels exciting during the hours when you
desperately need your children to be entertained. If you are

(01:11):
working at home and you have little kids, you know
how sacred naptime can be. While little kids are napping
from say, one to three thirty, you can seize the
time to do those important calls that require quiet and
must happen during business hours. That means that any older
kids need to be occupied, so that is a great

(01:32):
time to break out the movies or devices. When they
start getting restless. That will probably be about the time
that the little ones are waking up. If you're smart,
you will have planned your work to be at a
natural stopping point around then, so you can go take
them outside for a while, or run them around the basement,
or up and down the stairs or something. As for

(01:55):
other screen time, look at your schedule and make some calculation. Ideally,
you and your partner can trade off kid time and
work time, either based on a set schedule each day
or decided daily based on calls. The problem is that
there will always be sometimes when the two of you
are both required to be on something and paying attention,

(02:19):
or if you're parenting solo, there's gonna be something you
have to do outside the naptime window. This is when
to break out the devices or shows. If the kids
have been playing Angry Birds all morning, it won't hold
any particular appeal during your eleven am very important call,
they'll be knocking on the door and barging in, just
as they might always do, but if the device comes

(02:42):
out right at ten fifty eight, you'll get yourself at
least sometime unencumbered. Then you have to make sure it
goes away again so it stays special. With any luck,
they'll start to get pretty excited about your calls. In
the meantime. This is Laura, thanks for listening, and here's
the succeeding in the New Corner Office. The New Corner

(03:09):
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