Setting a Schedule

Working outside of the house you had a set schedule put in place by your employer. Schedules should be incorporated into work at home as well. Since you are working from home and are  your own boss, now you get the pleasure of making a schedule for yourself that will work for you. Having your day planned out will help your productivity and to reach goals throughout the day and long term.

 

Sit down and write out a timeline of your day. Include when you get up, when the kids get up, when they need to be at school, when you get started on work, and any other daily task that has a specific time to begin or end. Grab yourself a new daily planner or journal to jot everything down. Starting with daily tasks that already have a specific timeline will help you manage the rest of your "free time" instead of wondering what you should be doing or trying to decide if the dishes need to be done first or if the laundry needs to be switched out. It will also help you to have a visual of just how much time you do have to yourself everyday for several reasons such as time for yourself or increased productivity for your at home job.

 

When it comes to the kids and your schedule, make it easier on everyone and try to work around them. Granted they are going to have to make some changes and adjustments since you will be working from home, but keeping there schedule as normal as possible will cause you less stress in the end. Kids are great with routine and the more you allow them to stick with it the better off you are. It will cut out tantrums and meltdowns on both ends. Being a parent that works from home doesn't mean that we get to work uninterrupted and it's very important to remember that at all times. Even I am at fault for telling my daughter "just a minute sweetie" and then have it turn into 20 minutes before she gets her mommies undivided attention.

 

Think about when you want to work. Do you want to work five days a week? Seven days a week? Or maybe you are only wanting to work part time from home. Which ever it is, sync your workdays with your "schedule of daily events." Look at everything that you have to get done in addition to your work. Plan out how early you need to get up to get started on everything to make sure that you are not feeling overwhelmed or taking on too much before you're even fully awake. Along with choosing a start time for your day, you also need to pick and end time. Decide when you are going to call it a day and clock out and stick to it. Unless you are struggling for money or you have a deadline to meet, the end of the day is the end of the day and your family will appreciate that.

 

Taking your family, husband/wife, household responsibilities and yourself into consideration when making your schedule will have a huge impact on your day. While everyone at home needs to respect the fact that you are working even though you are home, you still have the responsibility of juggling them and it can be much harder to do them in sync if you don't have the ground work set up first.