Work From Home When Your Children Are Home

Working from home often sounds amazing and quite manageable. But try adding children, especially toddlers, into the equation, and the whole idea may get a bit nightmarish. Children often need a lot of time and attention, and this can interfere with parents who are trying to work from home. These parents as well as other home-based workers need to have a lot of patience and dedication to juggle their responsibilities with work.

The truth is that it isn’t easy all the time,  but lets take a look at some ways to get around this problem and make the most of this tricky situation.

Plan Your Time

You need to clearly chart out the number of hours you will be working every day. Have specific hours in which you conduct business to give you a feeling of professionalism. This will also enable to reach out to your clients and colleagues regularly and let them get used to the time you are available. Your working hours need not be like office working hours and you can define them according to your convenience.

and set working hours around times when your children go to school or take a nap after school. Hours when your children are not around are the best. You can also set time aside to work on the weekends when your spouse may be home to take care and spend quality time with your children.

Once you have charted out your working hours, you need to settle down into them. Try not to waste time and stick to the routine as much as possible.

Importance Of An Exclusive Work Space

Time management and having a stringent routine can work wonders to your productivity but what if you are not able to access your workspace due to certain domestic hassles. This calls for an exclusive workspace. You need to have a corner in your home where you can put up a workstation and organize your folders and files. It’s even better to have a small room with a door so that your work may be kept out of the reach of your children. Children can be taught that when the door is shut, it means that you are working and not available except for emergencies.

If you have little kids and keeping an eye on them while you work is a necessary, then setting up your workstation in a common room is a good decision. This kind of arrangement wont leave you with any privacy or silence but you can concentrate on your core work processes once your kids have gone to sleep.

Get Additional help

Hiring a nanny or a simple helper to assist you with the mundane task of childcare can prove to be beneficial. If your children are a bit grown up then you can use out-of-home preschool services to handle your children giving you lots of uninterrupted time to work.

You can also hire domestic help on an hourly basis to help you with household chores thereby leaving you with enough time to work on that presentation.

With these simple methods you are sure to manage your time effectively and juggle your responsibilities with ease.