For many, working from home sounds ideal. You have no commute and you don’t have to prepare as much for the day. Many people view working at home as casually strolling downstairs, flipping open the laptop with the TV on in the background, and getting to it. But when you are a work at home parent and you are trying to work at home or do something a bit more entrepreneurial, there’s a lot more at stake, not just in a professional sense, but personally too. When you are a work at home parent and you really have to get things done, what can everyone benefit from? It boils down to three things.
A Designated Workspace
This might not be something you can sort out for yourself. But if you don’t have the option for a spare room but you can set aside a space in your home to turn it into the designated work area this helps you in a mental sense to go into work mode or home mode. You don’t want to be blurring the two. If you are are trying to run a fully-fledged business or do something incredibly complicated that requires a lot of focus ensure the space is full of the touchstones associated with work rather than home, whether this is a designated space for a VPS server or a stand-up desk or numerous items of technology, all these things can communicate to your subconscious that this is a place for work. Once you transition from home to work this will switch something on in your mind that can force you to be more productive. Sometimes you need to get away from the home completely in order to be productive. But if you don’t have this option you need to really see how far the wi-fi signal can go in your home!
Structuring Your Working Day
You know when your children go down for naps and the most important thing you can do is to structure your working day around the children. Being flexible keeps you on your toes and this can mean that your working day will change from one day to the next but when your children are taking naps and you have an hour of uninterrupted time to focus, this is when you get to work on the hardest tasks. When there’s light admin or tasks that you don’t have to completely focus on, save these for when your children are awake.
Be Realistic About How Much You Can Achieve
Not every day is going to be the same and when you’ve got many tasks to complete but not enough time to do them in, setting small goals will keep you focused, and anything extra that you complete is going to be a win. It is not easy, especially when you have to cram in 7 hours or more of work every single day. But whether you’re working for an employer or trying to set up something for yourself you must remember that as long as you are going in the right direction you are doing good enough.
