How this work-from-home mom gets back-to-school ready with the help of Mac
The back-to-school grind is not for the faint of heart – especially when you’re a parent. We caught up with work-from-home logistics manager and supermom Kim von Brandis to find out how she does it all.
The back-to-school grind is not for the faint of heart – especially when you’re a parent. Between organising class schedules, extra-curricular activities, taking stock of your child’s stationery and uniform needs – and your own schedule – there’s a lot to juggle and balance.
Thankfully, with the advancements in tech and powerhouse devices like those offered by leading tech brand Apple, being able to organise and manage multiple schedules is made a breeze.
We caught up with work-from-home supermom Kim von Brandis to find out how she does it all. As a professional logistics manager in the water and biodiversity conservation space, she is responsible for scheduling and setting up daunting wetland work journeys for her research teams.
“We conduct river surveys up through Africa to look at biodiversity and water quality – very interesting projects. We work with the local communities, get them on board along with our researchers, and they paddle down these rivers. It’s totally self-sufficient as they have to pack food, water, tents as well as all their research equipment into these canoes and go down the river for five to six weeks at a time,” Kim explains.
However, Kim finds balancing these responsibilities alongside her family obligations is best kept afloat using Apple’s reliable Mac ecosystem.
When she’s not on site braving the rugged waters of the Okavango Delta or Zambezi, Kim works from her home while doing the indomitable job of parenting and running a household that’s bustling with two busy boys and two energetic pups bolstered by the support of her husband at her flank.
The first thing that runs through her mind when she catches a glimpse of ‘back-to-school’ reminders is how to fit everything into the short hours of an afternoon.
“The kids do sports at school, they do extra murals outside of school – so, it’s quite tricky making sure you can split yourself to be everywhere in every location,” she explains.
But managing it all is made easy when she leans into her trusted Mac devices. With Apple’s ability to work seamlessly with external app programmes from Microsoft 365 to the Google suite – Kim makes use of Google Sheets to help her colour-code and cross-plan her and her husband’s daily family work and life responsibilities with a few quick taps.
“The great thing about Apple products is I’ve got everything on my Google calendar, it syncs to my iPhone, it syncs to my smartwatch,” Kim shares. “We’re able to keep track of everywhere we need to be.”
Kim and her family can balance, work, life, and packed schedules through Apple devices. While she is able to get calendar reminders on her mobile devices, her children can easily study and do homework on the go with their iPads.
“At the school my children attend, they’re issued iPads from grade four upwards – so they get a chance to interact with the platform,” she explains.
“They’re introduced to iBooks – being able to navigate PDFs to try and search for information, so, we do a lot less printing and a lot more online work. They use various apps – Procreate and things like that for artwork – it’s a great introduction to all of that.”
Both of her sons having access to iPads with educational tools on them has made keeping them on schedule with homework significantly easier.
“With both my boys having iPads themselves, when they do get homework from the school, we can easily AirDrop it across to their iPads and they can sit and navigate and do their work.”
For Kim, the convenience of cross-device synchronisation allows her to cruise through staying on track with work and family obligations while on the go.
“I work a lot from home as well as driving out and about with kids in the car, and the nature of my role as a logistics manager is having a finger in every pie,” says Kim.
“So, being able to have access to everything – whether I’m on my iPhone driving around or whether I’m based on my desk on my MacBook – makes life a lot easier.”
As like most parents, Kim knows that having this close connection to her children’s schedule will adapt and shift over time as they grow. This is where she finds that the Apple Find My Phone feature will come in handy to ensure her boys are safe as they grow up and start going out on their own adventures with friends.
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