Being a mom can be stressful and a massive challenge. You have to dedicate all of your time and your love to another human being and this can be incredibly exhausting in itself. Now imagine you are doing this and running your own business… impossible, right?
Being a mother as well as running your own business from home can be a wonderful thing for you but it can also be a massive juggling act, and today we are going to have a chat about some of the things you can do to make it easier.
Have a home office
One of the first things you can do to make a difference to your working day and make to easier to work at home is to set up an office. Sitting on the sofa in front of the TV and working is never a good idea and it is too easy to become distracted by things and be less productive than you need. However if you can create a home office out of a room in your house, you will be able to keep work separate from home and this can be a big help for your mental state and balance.
Stick to working hours
It is so important as a business owner that you dedicate enough time to your venture every single day because it is something which you rely on for making money, however it also works the other way. If you want to be the most productive you can be at your job you need to set out strict working hours. For example you can get up at 7 am, start work at 8 am and finish at 4 pm each day. You can use an app such as https://getsling.com/blog/best-time-clock-for-small-businesses/ to also schedule anyone who works remotely for you and this will keep your business afloat each and every day.
Work around the kids
The kids will always take up a lot of your time and the main issue you will have in the mornings and the afternoon will be the school run. It is of course easier for you to take care of this than your partner if you work at home, and you will need to set out a morning and afternoon ‘break’ in your schedule to go and perform this task. You can even make sure that you start working even earlier so that your working day finishes before you set off in the afternoon. Making a schedule for yourself can be hard when you don’t have a boss or deadlines to work for but it is something you need to do and you need to balance with the other commitments you have.
Ignore chores
If you are working in the house all day every day it can be FAR too easy to end up getting up from your chair and doing the dishes or vacuuming the house. When you sit down at your desk in the morning you need to imagine you are in another place. You are at work and therefore all of these little chores you have can wait until you get ‘home’ later. It can be difficult to resist at first but eventually you’ll get used to it!
Make a rota
If you want to really make things easier for yourself as a work at home mom, one of the things you can do is create a chore rota for the kids. Running after your children is difficult and you might be better off teaching them how to do a few things themselves. This can include the washing up, dry my plates and putting them away, dusting the house or even cleaning the windows. If you make a rota for them to do when they get home from school it will make all the difference to you.
Take a break
It is so important during the day that you take regular breaks from working for a while. We know it is tempting to work until your drop in order to finish earlier, but it is something which you need to think long and hard about for your own health. Ideally you should have a 15 minute break mid morning, then an hour lunch, and then a 15 minute break in the afternoon. All of these small breaks from work will allow your mind to reset and refresh and it will make all the difference to your productivity.
Switch it off
When you work at home it can sometimes be hard to distinguish working time from relaxing time and this can lead us to sit downstairs in the evenings with our laptop out and glasses on. But as you would with any other job, when the clock strikes 5 you should shut down your work, leave everything in the office and shut the door. It cannot be said how important this is for your mental health and physical health, and it will allow you of course to spend your evening relaxing with the people you love the most.
Meal prep
If the idea of making lunch for yourself every day at home seems like a huge effort, why not do what you would do if you worked in and office? As you pack everyone else’s lunch for the day, pack your own and leave it in the fridge for later. This means that when you come for your lunch break, it will feel like an actual break!
Spend time with family
Work is important but family is more important, and you need to remember that no matter how successful you want to be in life, there isn’t much point if you have no one to share it with. Take the time out each and every dab to be present with your family. Put down the technology and just spend time with these people because they are the most important part of your life. If you can do this you’ll have an amazing life with a successful career and a happy family.
