You know what I love most about working from home: the flexible hours. Now, take a guess at what I hate most about working from home. Yes, you’re right. The flexible hours.
Because you work from home, it is SO easy to get sucked into working whenever you can, losing track of time, forgetting to eat lunch or drink a glass of water because you’re so engrossed in what you do.
Yes, it does mean that you love your job and so you forget about time. But it also means that you don’t respect your time enough to treat it right and treat yourself right.
Here’s what I learned: it doesn’t work. well.in.the.long.run.
So, after repeatedly getting frustrated at myself (yes, I am a slow learner!) for forgetting something, working all the time or losing track of where the day went while I was at the laptop, my husband and I decided to set working hours. Nothing carved in stone and no I haven’t put them on my email signature as well, but I have them and I try to stick to them. As much as possible.
How to Set Your Own Working Hours
Being a work-at-home mom means well, you’re at home and therefore, your attention is drawn to dust on the dresser, toys on the carpet, laundry piles turning into dinosaurs and more. You’re also needed to take care of your husband and children, and yourself. And this is in addition to obviously, doing the work you’re supposed to be doing. So, can you do it? Yes.
You need to carve out pure work times for dedicated business dealings. How do you do that?
1. Find Your Best and Most Productive Times
The first thing you need to know and use is your most productive time. I love early mornings. And therefore, get 70% of my work done well before my toddler and husband are even up. However, if you’re more of a night owl, you may want to keep heavy-duty jobs for post-dinner and when, the babies are in bed.
Basically, find your most productive time and use it. Sometimes, we know when we’re productive but we don’t know how to use it for business. For instance, if I know I function best as soon as I’m out of bed but I wake up along with my toddler, I’m basically not using my most productive time for business.
So, if you’re a morning person, make use of that by setting working hours for early morning.
If afternoons or late-nights are your best slot, devote those to building your business.
2. Set Systems in Place for Household Chores
In my earlier post on managing home as a work-at-home mom, I’d talked about hiring help for household chores such as cleaning and doing the dishes. Set systems in place so that you can set hours for your work.
My toddler goes to a playschool from 9AM to 12 noon. I go to leave her and when I’m back, my cleaning lady is already there sweeping and mopping the place, giving me time to quickly toss a load of wash, make the beds and do a general tidy-up. Then, I sit down to work till 12 noon. Since I’ve already menu planned, I know what needs to be made for lunch. My husband goes to pick our daughter up which lets me get lunch ready quickly.
If hiring help is not possible, see if you can set a routine for certain chores so that you can use the time when you’re on your own to basically work and build your business. You could do sweeping or laundry alternate days or do a tidy-up the night before so that you save time in the mornings.
The bottom line is you set systems in place so that household chores get taken care of. This allows you to factor in time into your working hours.
3. Learn to Work in Shifts
Being a work-at-home mom means you really can’t work 5 hours at a stretch unless your kids are all grown up or you have someone watching them. With young kids, you need to learn to adapt, adjust and accommodate. In other words, work in shifts.
Your working hours will depend upon when the baby naps, when the preschooler goes to school/playdate/after-school activity and so on. Therefore, block time slots accordingly and set your working hours.
4. Be Flexible
Aside from working in shifts, you’ll also have to learn to “change” your working hours according to your kids’ routines. Holidays mean you may have to push your working hours earlier or later than usual. Sick days mean you may need to take an off as well.
That is why I don’t have working hours carved in stone. But I do have them so that I know that when I’m at the laptop, I’m not goofing around on Facebook or reading blogs. I’m working.
5. Set a Time for Leaving Your “Office” for the Day
Yes, being a WAHM doesn’t mean not switching off at all. If you were working in an office, you would have come home, right? Now that you work at home, shouldn’t you be doing the same? So, set at time to shut off that laptop, turn off your work phone and if you have an office, close the door.
It is very easy to get sucked into being online 24/7 either networking, researching, job hunting, emailing and more. Remember the reason you’re working from home is to be with your family. So, set a “shut-off” time and do that so that you can live the reason for your work-at-hom existence.
Now, sneak peek time. Want to know what my working hours are? **laughing**
These are working hours only for the holidays, since our preschooler is at home these days.
5:30-8:00/8:30 {except Tuesdays when I attend #mombizmondays Twitter chat}. This is my most productive time slot and dedicated to pure writing and on Tuesdays, networking.
2 PM-4PM : My daughter’s nap time. More writing. Some admin work – emails, cleaning up the blog and meetings.
6:30 PM -8PM: This is when she heads to the park with my husband or goes to a friend’s place for a playdate. The evening are my least productive time and are usually spent in social networking, pitching business and researching.
Do you have working hours? Plan on setting some this year? Do share!
Photo Credit: Justin Henry
As usual, a concise but really helpful article from you, Prerna. I have this problem of being online all the time, checking my emails, facebook updates, or searching stuff for my blog..and I do it whenever I get a little time off, even if my son’s asking me to play with him. Your tip of ‘switch-off’ time should totally solve this problem. Thanks!!
Fab recently posted..Weekly Goals Update – 15 January 2012
I’ve always said that working from home when you’re a mom means accepting a new “normal” in terms of work hours and home management. My work week generally looks like this:
Monday: Work from 9AM-11AM; 3-4:30PM, and from 10-11PM for a social media client in the U.S.
Tuesdays: Errands day! Do the weekly groceries, laundry, cook two days worth of food.
Wednesdays: Same hours as Monday.
Thursdays: Date day with the hubby. We both work from home, so we need this day as our “alone time.” We’ll usually go out for lunch, and then work again during the afternoons.
Friday: Same hours as Monday + Wednesday.
Saturday and Sunday are purely for family.
In between work hours is my time with my two-year old, whom my husband and I take turns caring for, playing with, napping with, etc. We like to go to the big city park on Saturday mornings and have breakfast there
So, this has been my new “normal,” and I’m loving it. Things will get busier this year, however, as my husband and I venture into a new business. But for now, this is what works, and it’s been going swimmingly.
Martine recently posted..Home Office Inspiration: A Touch of Pink
Late nights have always been my most productive time but I am finding it hard to make a routine for blogging. Because late nights mean getting late in waking up and the whole day goes for a toss. I have to find a way to get up early and start blogging. Thanks for the tips Prerna.
Swapna recently posted..How to organize Toys in a child’s room
GREAT tips (as usual!)
I would add – Be patient with yourself and don’t give up. It is so easy to have an off day and stick your kids in front of a video for a couple hours, or miss a goal, or feel like you didn’t get anything accomplished and feel like a failure. Keep at it, and be willing to try lots of different things until you find something that works. I know for me this has been a constant work in progress and has had to grow and change with my family.
So many of us WAHM types are such perfectionists! Know that it doesn’t have to be “perfect” (whatever that means) all the time for it to be great, and to be making a difference in your families and clients lives.
Rivka recently posted..Free Book Contest: Prize – Cow’s Can’t Jump by Dave Reisman
This rings so true for me, because as my young kids are growing, I am finding I need to constantly adapt my schedule and working hours. That’s because their schedule is changing as they get older (and they are still pretty young, toddler and preschool age). My business is also growing and I’m getting busier, so it’s like a constant state of flux. I think the most important rule of thumb here is to be patient and things will eventually fall into place.
Your tip about hiring extra help is very important. We can’t do it all!