For families, late summer is the season of new beginnings. School is back in swing. Work ramps back up. New routines start to solidify. This year is, um, different. With the pandemic still in full swing, many parents are working from home and many children are home, too, be they learning remotely or too young to attend school. Trying to work from home while the house is full is difficult. Gone are the structures of the office; here to stay are distractions, distractions, and more distractions. The balancing act isn’t new for parents. It is, however, more intense. And it takes a toll. After all, you’re trying to do both jobs simultaneously, and likely thinking you’re doing neither one especially well.

To work from home with kids and keep your focus and your cool, you need to reframe your outlook and do what you can to reduce stress and feel like you’re getting work done within limited windows of time. You know some basics: exercise, sleep, get some sun, eat well. But you also need some back-pocket tactics Here are 32 strategies to help you do just that. Will they work for everyone or solve every problem that occurs? God no. But we hope some of them make the new normal a bit easier.

...

9. Predictability in each day is good. If you can schedule regular calls at the same time, even better. Your kids will then know that, say between 11 and 2 is together time. “People know what’s coming,” Pamela Davis-Kean, professor of psychology at University of Michigan, told us. “It puts a structure on unstructured time, and it makes people feel more comfortable.”

...

11. Create a signal to use when you’re busy and can’t be interrupted. Maybe it’s as simple as a finger to the lips or a thumbs down. All that matters is that you’ve explained it to mean, “I can’t answer you right now, but I will when I’m free.” Then when you are, follow through on that promise. They’ll learn to trust your word and that can also lessen the stress, Davis-Kean said. Afterwards, go big on praise. Tell them, “You handled that well,” or “Great question but not the kind to disturb me with.” You want to be flexible but still teach boundaries.

Read the full list at Fatherly.