Working from home? Good for you. There’s so much gratitude for the opportunity to work from home, while so many companies are proceeding with hour cutbacks or layoffs. That doesn’t mean there aren’t challenges to working from home! But nothing compares to the challenge of trying to work from home while parenting or even homeschooling. That is the ultimate balancing act. So how can you work from home and parent while staying productive and sane?

Early mornings and late nights are your new besties

You’re in high demand at work and at home, with little bugs who always seem to need a boo-boo kiss or another bowl of grapes. So the best time to maximize productivity—sometimes the only time—is while your kids are asleep. You may have to shift your schedule to do your best work in the wee hours, taking advantage of whether you are a morning person or a night owl. Your optimal work times may look different if you have littles who nap two hours at midday, or elementary-aged kids who get up at 5am. Yes, you are exhausted, and getting up early or staying up late probably sounds pretty awful right now. You’ll have to reach deep for this strength, and remember that this heightened state of Supermom or Superdad won’t last forever.

Claim a dedicated workspace

Good luck working on the couch during your kids’ re-creation of Paw Patrol on Ice (you’re playing Rubble, by the way). It should feel good that your kids want to include you in all of their activities, but it’s also distracting. Your kids are conditioned that you are available to them while you are at home. They’re not differentiating that Mommy or Daddy is trying to work because you’re, well, on the couch. Find a “work” spot, whether it’s a spare room, your bedroom, or the dining table, so that when your kids see you there, they know you are working and are off limits to anything that’s not super important (realizing that it is super important to get the purple cup instead of the yellow cup). Keep this space strictly for work activities, and try to dress business casual when you are working—no jammies!

Create a schedule for the kids

With a daily schedule, your kids will feel more secure knowing what their days look like. After all, their school days are planned out, too. So build a schedule on butcher paper and tape it up on the wall. When is school-learning time? Chore time? Educational TV time? When are snacks and lunch? Stay firm to the schedule; your kids will pick it up faster than you think, and will learn to anticipate the next step—and so will you. Figure out when your kids are the most self-sufficient (read: less prone to interrupt you), which is likely to be their lunch time, creative-play time, or device time. Leverage these reprieves for a midday productivity push. There will always be interruptions, especially when you’re parenting young children, but you can do your best to plan around them. And hey, it’s not so bad when that interruption is to say, “I love you so much.”