Working from home is something you may have dreamed about while schlepping yourself to and from the office five days a week, but now that it’s a reality a lot of us are dealing with, it may be tougher than you thought. And if you have kids at home?
It can be even more challenging. Of course, there are all kinds of benefits to working from home. The not having to commute or actually get dressed part is great, and so is having more family time. But the struggle to get work done with kids underfoot and stay sane? That’s the hard part, but these tips from a mom who’s been there may help.
- Accept failure- There’s a 100% chance you won’t finish everything on your to-do list for today and the sooner you accept this, the better off you’ll be.
- Build an “Oh, crap!” block into your schedule- This time will help with the stuff that falls through the cracks and there will be a lot of that.
- Get up and move- A lot, like as much as you can, because it helps ease the anxiety that creeps in when you’re not getting everything done.
- Exercise- It combats stress and you need it, daily if possible.
- Get dressed and put on makeup- Or at the very least, put shoes on when you step into your home work space to help reinforce being “at work” versus being at home.
- Find your rhythm- Figure out when you’re most productive and block that time off for work.
- Train your partner - They might not get that even though you “worked” all day, you were interrupted by kids every 20 minutes. So when they get home, you need to work more to actually get stuff done.
- Be disciplined- Some days you’ll really have to fight the urge to not binge watch Netflix, but when you find the routine that works for you, stick to it and it will help your productivity.