My first post: To whoever needs to hear this + working parents... WE GOT THIS!

Shauna Wu

I'm reporting live from Day #5 of school closure as a working mom. Want to learn about how I digitized my daughter's day in Smartsheet amid COVID-19 school closure? Keep reading!...

Spoiler alert, also includes these gems: A confession, a Hunger Games reference, my daughter on a motorcycle, a 28 minute demo on YouTube of the solution I built for my daughter, a Bruce Lee reference and my TOP FIVE tips on how to adjust to this new normal.

When Work, Home, School & a 10yo Collide

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/when-work-home-school-10yo-collide-shauna-wu

I have a confession: I'm a closet introvert (secrets out now!). And I also say things like this “Working mom life is going to be hard, and people are going to recommend that you strive to find balance.

Would love to hear how others are using Smartsheet for this 'new normal' way of working and keeping their family and/or kids organized!

Clint Stitser

Hi Shauna,

Thanks for the share!

For purposes of background, my wife usually works 1 day a week as a respiratory therapist, and I'm full time at the office. Given the nature of the COVID-19, my wife will most certainly be going full time, and my office work, now at home. BIG CHANGES!!!

In regards to the use of Smartsheet to manage work and focus on outcomes, we have identified a number of Outcomes to track and progress with which to celebrate, but my use of Smartsheet for this purpose hasn't taken off as I overcomplicated things :(...

Click here for the google slide deck on our targets as a family...

While creating the Outcomes, purpose and action plans are something I am quite comfortable with, Systematic capture and display in a meaningful way (Optics) is something I tend to fall a little short on.

Your dashboard format is awesome, and if you don't mind, I have a couple of quick questions..

1. When are lunch orders due and how has that worked for you? Any inventory issues? :)
2. Who checks off "done"?
3. Do you have the times published to a calendar?
4. I don't see a date column...Do you create a new sheet every day?

My original intent was to create some "target" accumulations of completed tasks in progress towards a reward, and then having a dashboard that presents in a visual way. In terms of your sheet above, 20 completed "ketchup" tasks earns ice cream after dinner. Or a badge...Or...

Have you done something similar? If so, without spending ample time writing long tail countifs on summation sheets (I have multiple children) how would you track this?

Sorry for the 10,000,000 questions...Feel free to answer as many or as few as you'd like.

Cheers!

Clint

Shauna Wu

First off - WOW - what a great framework for your family!

Answers:

1. I haven't been strict on when lunch orders are due, but she usually does them first thing in the morning when she logs on. If I wanted to I could put it on her list but so far she has been good at picking on her own :) No inventory issues yet, I anticipate changing the menu every week and/or simplifying.
2. The only person checking off done is my daughter. It's been based on the honor system, she's 10 and tends to follow rules, fortunately!
3. I do not have times published to a calendar. But you could certainly incorporate a calendar really easily.. just haven't gotten there.
4. I do not have a date column.. I decided to start off simple so I could quickly get her ramped. Right now I'm just using the same sheet and deleting the check marks after each day and reusing. Next step could be building it so there is a sheet for every day and you are tracking /tallying all the tasks completed.. from there you could do some fun charts and add them to dashboard. This would be fun for kids to visualize I imagine. This is another I haven't gotten to yet.

Rewards / target accumulations:

My family and I were JUST talking about this last night. Rewards, incentive is definitely something we are going to incorporate. Might be based on days or checkmarks. Thinking we will do a point system - so the more challenging tasks are more points, whereas the pickles list doesn't get points. And if she decides to do extra chores or an extra 30 minutes on reading, she gets double points.

Hopefully this answers your question! Feel free to send me your email associated with your Smartsheet account at shauna.wu@smartsheet.com or DM on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaunawu/ and I'll share all the templates with you!