You can’t really put off an aspect of your life when it’s looking you in the face.

If there’s one kind of person I really feel for right now, it’s single parents. Single parents have a rough enough go at things as it is, but when you throw a global pandemic in the mix, things are pretty much guaranteed to get hectic. If you’re your household’s sole breadwinner working from home and you need to keep an eye on your kid at the same time, that’s a recipe for a stress-induced breakdown. But don’t lose heart; it is possible to achieve balance. You just need to get a little creative.

If your child is too young to aid with things like cooking and housework, you may need to call in some external help. If you have family members you’re on good terms with, be they parents, siblings, or whoever else, ask them if they’d be willing to stay with you for a little while and help keep things running. Even if they have to work as well, it’ll be easier if you have two able bodies to direct toward this. Once your load is lessened, you can focus on organizing your work.

Try to create a daily task list. Outline everything you need to get done on a particular day, and get to banging it all out. If you can, try to squeeze some entertainment from your work. I like to listen to music while I work, and since I’m not in the office, I don’t need to wear headphones or be careful about what I listen to. Put on the silliest tunes you’ve got, and vibe along with your work (just keep the volume reasonable).

This whole situation has stymied a lot of plans for a lot of people, yourself likely included. If you find that your work-at-home set-up isn’t working, don’t force yourself to endure it. Re-work the plan, talk to others in similar situations, and piece it back together. It’s not going to be an easy process, but with a little cleverness and perseverance, we can turn most situations to our favor.