The trend of moms working from home to be near their children has grown in the last couple of years. Now that they have found jobs or businesses to run, they’re starting to realize that working from home is not as easy as they thought it would be. The work they do is hard to separate form their personal lives, which makes it hard to schedule time for work responsibilities and home duties.
The workspace these moms use to do their jobs at ends up being a part of their household, so that makes dividing work and home life even more difficult to do — and one of the motivating reasons for creating my Balancing Work and Family guide. Imagine that your office is a part of the dining room, which also happens to be the room where you eat your meals as a family. How easy is it going to be for you to leave your work life to be with your family when the office is 5 feet away from the dinner table?
The realities of dividing work and personal life can get smudged for work at home moms. When that happens, one’s stress level is sure to rise, which could jeopardize one’s sanity. To prevent your sanity from leaving, you should find ways to ensure that separation takes place between your job/business and your family life.
Assess the current situation. Try to find an area, within your home, to have your office so that it won’t interfere with your family life. The home office needs a room with a door where you can be apart from the rest of the house. A den or a garage can be converted into office space that is exclusive to your business. Some people have resorted to placing their office in the laundry room, just because it has a door! When that is not an option, set up shop in your bedroom to keep it away from the family areas.
Organization is the next step. A messy desk can be a huge distraction when trying to work. Everything needs to have its place. If you worked in an office, your boss would not stand for a messy work space. There’s no difference when you’re office is at home and not at the worksite.
Use inexpensive organizing items, such as baskets with separate compartments to help organize the odds and ends on your desk. You can keep rubber stamps, letters, invoices, pens, pencils, and the like in here. Organization makes finding things much easier, which results in a more relaxed work day.
Keep your business phone separate from the family phone line. When using the same line, you run the risk of your children answering business calls or picking up the phone during a conference call. This causes your professionalism to fly right out the window and takes your customers or employers along with it.
The same goes for the computer. It’s best to keep your business computer separate from what the other family members use, but budgets don’t always allow for this. In that case, make sure that the business/job files and documents can’t be easily accessed by anyone but you. This will help prevent some of the stress that could be brought on by family members stumbling on a client’s important document and accidentally deleting them.
Be sure to use calendars or planners as they are very helpful when trying to keep track of business appointments or deadlines and family appointments. This will lessen the stress of setting up family appointments when you’ve forgotten about business deadlines you have.
Consider hiring a sitter on days you have a lot of work to do. Being a work at home mom gives you the benefit of controlling your own schedule. Having a sitter keeps the kids away from your office and gives you quiet time to focus on your work and gives your kids a chance to have fun without you feeling too guilty.
Mixing business with family in the home setting can be a major source of stress. Keeping the business side of your life organized and separate is crucial to success in keeping your stress levels down and your sanity intact.
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Working at home can be extremely rewarding, but it’s challenging. Get the help you need with Real Life Guidance to Balancing Work and Family. It’s your practical guide to tracking your time, setting priorities, learning to say no and achieving that balance you strive for.
Time is one of the most important resources that we have. Time is one thing that you can’t swap, borrow or purchase. We are all given the same 24 hours to each day. Even with all of our modern day time-saving conveniences such as e-mail, fax machines, microwaves, and dish washers, there is no way to get more hours into your day. It is up to each of us to make the very best use of our time since we can’t get it back.
Here are some time saving tips that you can use to optimize and free up your precious time:
Double Up. One way to maximize your time is to double it up. Try exercising while vacuuming or while watching TV. While you are talking to your children, use that time to go through their back packs and ask them about their day. During your down time chats with your girlfriend on the phone, why not clip coupons or browse through the sales paper.
Make Use of Services Available To You. Take advantage of pick-up and delivery services offered by neighborhood stores, dry cleaners, and restaurants. One wonderful service to look into would be to hiring a teenager or an errand service to run certain errands for you.
Schedule Like Tasks at the Same Time. Instead of sitting in front of your computer all day returning e-mails as they arrive, try to return all e-mails during the same block of time. Set aside an hour or so to return multiple e-mails as opposed to doing it sporadically all day.
Combine Your Outdoor Errands. When you are out grocery shopping also pick up your needed prescriptions, run to the post office, and fill up your gas tank. By doing this you will not have to leave the house 3 or 4 times in the same day.
Organize Your Home. We spend so much time looking for things, trying to re-create things that have been lost, and cleaning up clutter. Create a spot in your home where you keep, record, and pay your bills, and store your stamps, envelopes, and other things that you use frequently. Don’t forget about your children. How many minutes or hours a day do you spend looking for shoes, socks, toys, or that favorite stuffed animal? Arrange things so that your children can take care of some of their everyday needs. Try using shoe racks that hang on the closet door so that your children can hang up their shoes. Use clear storage containers for small toys and a desk for storing all of the arts and crafts supplies.
Make Use Of Small Bits of Time. Take care of small projects during waiting periods. For example, if you find yourself waiting in the doctors office, why not use that time to plan and write out your grocery list or “To Do” list. If you use public transportation use that time to read those magazines that have been piling up.
Plan Ahead. We can’t always foresee what will be needed but we can be prepared for certain things. Pick and set out your children’s clothes the night before. When you are cooking dinner, double the recipe and freeze half of it to be used for a meal in the upcoming weeks. Before you go to bed, create a short list of the things that you have to do the next day.
Be sure to allow for some flexibility in your schedule. If the sun starts shining on what you thought was going to be a rainy day, grab those children and head to the park or take an impromptu trip to the zoo! Just make sure to take care of yourself and be wise about your time.
Aurelia Williams, certified Personal Life Coach and owner of Real Life Coaching and author of the Journey to Joy ebook. Learn to quit running yourself ragged: Take the Journey to Joy instead.
An interesting re-think of time management by guest blogger Cindy Dachuk. Enjoy.
If you are anything like me, then you likely find yourself overloaded with more things to do in a day than can possibly be accomplished. We use technology more to stay on top of things, and to keep in touch with everyone, than to free up our time. We try to cram as much as possible into our workday, to be as productive as possible, in the vain hope that perhaps we won’t have to work late or take work home to catch up.
Is it little wonder then that we are always on the search for the latest tool or tip that helps us manage our time more efficiently? After all, that’s the real issue, isn’t it? Not having enough of that precious commodity - time. Or… is it?
Maybe, instead of continuing to work at managing our time and tasks more effectively, we need to reframe our thinking. The issue with time is that it’s finite. No matter how you do the math, there are only 24 hours in a day. Instead of learning to manage your time more efficiently you have to learn manage the Energy you bring to your tasks.
Much of the early research on energy management comes to us from the world of sports, but it is just as applicable to our day-to-day work lives. Heck… to our lives in general! As a professional athlete, it is essential to understand exactly what it takes to achieve consistent, peak performance. Research has shown that though it is important to hone the technical skills each athlete brings to their respective sport, it is essential that they maximize the Energy output in order to increase performance.
We may not be operating our daily lives at the same physical level as professional athletes, but the machines we’re using to accomplish our work (our bodies) are the same. The challenge for us though, is that we are typically asked to ‘perform’ for 8 hours a day, a minimum of 5 days a week, without the benefit of the knowledge or training that athletes receive.
A key training method of elite athletes is known as Periodization, first introduced by the early Greeks. Periodization is the concept of improving performance through balancing periods of activity with periods of rest. Consider your typical work day though. You likely…
- Wake up to an alarm clock blaring at you
- Race through your morning routine to get out the door as quickly as possible to beat the traffic
- Move from one task to another, one meeting to another, with no pause
- Take lunch at your desk so you can continue to work… you wouldn’t want to ‘waste’ time!
- Race home, work tucked under your arm
- Fix dinner - Spend time with the kids (that all-important ‘quality’ time!)
- Squeeze in a little more work
- Collapse in front of the television to ‘vegetate’
- Drag yourself to bed so you can get up tomorrow to do it all again!
Where was the rest, the renewal, in your day? Oh… right… it’s called vacation and it doesn’t come daily, it comes annually! We live in a world where ‘busyness’ is worn like a badge of honour and where renewal and recovery get ignored. However, our ability to be fully engaged at work, to be optimally productive, depends upon our ability to periodically ‘disengage’ successfully.
Building moments of recovery into your work day will enable you to engage in your tasks more fully and passionately. Research has clearly shown that productivity increases when people build in periods of renewal into their work day. Even though they are ‘breaking’ more, they get more done than those choosing to work ‘flat out’. Some of the most creative thinkers (such as daVinci and Einstein) were strong advocates of breaks, to allow their subconscious minds to work out the problem at hand.
I have clients that will not schedule any meeting exceeding 90 minutes in length, without scheduling a break, recognizing the link of our energy levels to our body’s natural Ultradian Rhythms. And… really… most meetings run needlessly long anyway!
Consider breaking your day into 90-120 minute blocks of time. Rather than fighting these natural body rhythms, defer to them instead. A break needn’t be long in duration for it to provide you with enough of a rest for your energy and focus to improve. Potential ideas for workday renewal breaks?
- take a walk
- read a chapter of a book, or listen to one
- listen to music
- do some light stretches
- prepare and eat a light, healthy snack
- work on a puzzle, crossword, sudoku
You get the idea! Whatever activity would work best for you and relieve you of some of the physical and mental stress you’ve experienced so far. Allow your mind to switch gears, take a break from the task at hand, so that it can be more focused when you return. Odds are that the solution to the problem you were stuck on before the break, is waiting for you upon your return!
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About the Author: As the President of the Titan Training Group, Cindy Dachuk has traveled throughout the United States and Canada delivering workshops and training programs, primarily in: Understanding Style Differences, Personality-Based Persuasion, Executive Presence, Personal Branding, Gender Differences, Personal Presentation Skills. Cindy’s work as a Personal Coach has provided her with the opportunity to work with clients on a one-on-one basis, mentoring them in the development of a personal plant of action. Her book, It’s Time Now, is based on her experiences in helping others identify and achieve their life goals. http://www.titantraining.ca
As a special treat today, I’d like to share with you an article from one of my favorite motivational speakers and authors, Brian Tracy. Have you ever wondered how to best use those seemingly wasted minutes and hours to further your career? Read on.
Time management is the central skill of success. Your ability to manage your time, to focus and channel your energies on your highest value tasks, will determine your rewards and your level of accomplishment in life more than any other factor.
Save Hundreds of Hours and Thousands of Dollars in Personal Advancement
Your mind is your most precious asset. You must be continually working to increase the quality of your thinking. One of the best ways is to turn driving time into learning time. Listen to educational CDs or audio cassettes in your car. The average driver, according to the American Automobile Association, drives 12,000 to 25,000 miles each year. If this is you, you are spending 500 to 1000 hours in your car. That is the equivalent of 12 1/2 to 25 forty-hour weeks. This is the same as two full university semesters spent behind the wheel of your car each year.
Use Traveling Time as Learning Time
If you did nothing but use that traveling time as learning time, this decision alone could make you one of the best educated people of your generation. Many people have gone from rags to riches simply by listening to audio programs as they drive to and from work.
Attend Every Seminar
In addition, for personal and professional development, you should attend every seminar you can. You can often save yourself 100’s of hours of reading and researching by attending a seminar given by an authority in his or her field. You can learn ideas, techniques and methods that can save you hours, days, even months of hard work and research on your own.
Increase Your Earnings
Remember, to earn more, you must learn more. Your outer world of results will always correspond to your inner world of preparation. Continuous learning is the minimum requirement for success in any field.
Action Exercises
Now, here are two things you can do to put these ideas to work in your life immediately.
First, purchase an audio program that can help you to be happier and more effective today. Begin listening to it immediately. Resolve never to listen to music in your car when you can turn driving time into learning time.
Second, seek out seminars and training programs given by experts in your field. Sit close to the front, take careful notes, and apply the best ideas that you learn immediately.
My number one frustration as a work-at-home mom is distraction. I can have the best intentions as far as what I want to accomplish, my planner can be utilized perfectly, and I can even have my “game on” (meaning my mind is sharp and raring to go).
But without fail, a family member will need me or want to talk. If I’m deep in thought about a project, the interruption is like fingernails on a chalkboard.
Don’t get me wrong; I love my family and I love having them near. It’s not that they’re being disrespectful or don’t care that I need to work…I believe the real story is that I haven’t made the line in the sand quite clear enough.
It’s healthy — it really is — for the members of our families to learn to respect the times when we need to work without interruption. If we can’t complete a thought in our heads, we’re not going to be able to bring in any money, right? That said, we also need to make sure there’s a balance, and I’ll get to that in just a bit.
I’d like to share with you some tips that have helped me. Some I’ve learned from others, while some I’ve come up with out of sheer desperation.
1. Put on your headphones. You don’t have to really be listening to anything, just ignore whoever’s talking to you, snap your fingers to whatever rhythm you can think of, and bob your head up and down to the “music.”
Or really listen to something, if you can work with background music (or a podcast, etc.). I am, at this very moment, listening to my new favorite singer, Shawn Mullins.
2. Do you have an office or other designated room where you work? Hang up a sign that says, “Do not disturb.” Mary Engelbreit, author and illustrator, has a sign above her studio that reads, “No one gets in to see the wizard…no way, no how.”
3. Get a babysitter. If the babysitter keeps interrupting you, find another. If that doesn’t work, get off-site childcare for at least a few days a week.
4. Get off-site yourself. Go to Starbucks or the library (take those headphones with you, just in case). Wear sunglasses if you think you might be recognized. Dark sunglasses. And a hat.
5. Older children can keep younger ones preoccupied, at least for a little while. However, if you happen to have a clingy toddler who doesn’t want anyone but you…see #4.
6. If they still don’t get it, have a family meeting. Ignore the pouty faces and stick to your guns. But make it an “if, then” meeting. Tell your kids, “If I can work without interruption between (fill in the hours), I’ll play a board game with you (or take you to the park, etc.).”
7. Most importantly…give a little. Kids need their moms, husbands need their wives. Don’t be a work-a-holic, working for too many hours on end. Try to work for a set period each day and spend the rest with those you love…and who love you. Balance is key. If they feel like they’re getting enough time with you, they’ll be less likely to interrupt when you really need to work.
I'm so glad to have you as a reader here at CrazyBusy Mama (Dot Calm)! If you've been encouraged, motivated, or both, I won't say no if you'd like to buy me a cup of coffee. :-)
Time is one of the most important resources that we have. Time is one thing that you can’t swap, borrow or purchase. We are all given the same 24 hours to each day. Even with all of our modern day time-saving conveniences such as e-mail, fax machines, microwaves, and dish washers, there is no way to get more hours into your day. It is up to each of us to make the very best use of our time since we can’t get it back.
workday, to be as productive as possible, in the vain hope that perhaps we won’t have to work late or take work home to catch up.
Building moments of recovery into your work day will enable you to engage in your tasks more fully and passionately. Research has clearly shown that productivity increases when people build in periods of renewal into their work day. Even though they are ‘breaking’ more, they get more done than those choosing to work ‘flat out’. Some of the most creative thinkers (such as daVinci and Einstein) were strong advocates of breaks, to allow their subconscious minds to work out the problem at hand.
My number one frustration as a work-at-home mom is distraction. I can have the best intentions as far as what I want to accomplish, my planner can be utilized perfectly, and I can even have my “game on” (meaning my mind is sharp and raring to go).
