I’m supposed to be sitting and writing. Instead I’m trying to stop the fighting, yelling and screaming between my 3-year-old and my 6-year-old. Last night I had six 9 and 11-year-old girls over. Life was a little crazy then too. I was supposed to write last night. Didn’t happen.
I imagine that you can understand my pain in some way. If it’s not your kids, you had kids at one point. If you’ve never had kids it’s your basement flooding. If you haven’t ever lived in a house with a basement, it’s your camera equipment being stolen.
I think you’re getting my point. Life is hard…okay, that’s not really hard. Life is irritating and frustrating at times. As small business owners we plan on being able to get work done at home and during “off” times. Here are 3 ways I’ve found to get work done at home:
1. Work during nap/down time.
I have to admit that Kia and I have different strategies about this. We both work at home 1-2 days a week while watching our kids (at least one 3-year-old and now all 4 kids during the summer). We make our kids have nap/rest time, and I like to work during this time.
Kia likes to work during their play time, and then rest during their rest time. Either way is fine, but make sure you have a plan.
2. Make definite separation between work and non-work time.
One of the most important things I’ve found to be successful when working from home (with kids at home) is to have definitive goals of what I am going to do. Typically I set the bar pretty low. I set it low because the point of being at home with my kids is to be at home with my kids.
So I plan to carry out one or two more minor tasks during the day, and if I need to finish more I plan on doing that a different day or at night.
3. Attempt not to have work to do at home.
After saying all the above, the easiest way to make sure you get work done is to not do the work at “home.” I do realize that Kia and I both have the advantage of having an off site office to escape to on a regular basis.
If you don’t have a regular office space, then you need to make sure that you are doing steps one and two religiously. If you don’t you will feel like you have been run over by a truck every day.
In the end though, remember that while life is crazy it’s the way you’ve chosen it.
How do you separate your life and work at home? Please let me hear your strategies to make it all fit.
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