1. A Set Schedule
One of the beautiful benefits of working from home is the flexibility. However, flexibility will only take you so far. In order to truly succeed from home you’re going to need a plan. And part of that plan will need to be a schedule, even if it’s a loose schedule.
From the time our children are born they prefer to have a schedule of sorts – times that they sleep; times that they eat; times that they play. This helps them to feel safe and secure. It helps them to grow and mature and flourish.
The same is true of businesses. When we “birth” our business, we need to have a plan-of-action. This can be a full-out business plan or a simple marketing plan that we can put into effect step by step. To make it easier on myself, I assign certain tasks to certain days. For instance, Monday may be set aside for marketing, Tuesday for writing, Wednesday for phone calls and answering emails that I put off on Monday and Tuesday, and so on.
My business has evolved over the years and I’ve learned a lot about myself and what I need to in order to be successful from home. I’ve learned that I need to use a monthly planner so that I can see the whole month laid out at once. I need to schedule in quiet days at home for writing … or that writing will never get done.
It’s important to pay attention to the needs of our families and our businesses so that we can adjust our schedules accordingly. What works in one season of life mostly likely won’t work in the next, so you’ll need to be ready and willing to change things up as necessary.
2. Boundaries
Boundaries isn’t a word that we hear often in the business world. However, it’s especially important to know your boundaries and to stick with them when you work at home. Over the years, I’ve had to set the boundary with friends that I won’t answer the phone during the hours that I’ve scheduled myself to work. I will happily set a day and time to meet them for coffee, but in order to maintain my business I need to take full advantage of the short time that I have available to me to work each day.
I’ve also had to set boundaries for myself. When I first began my business I would often find myself working late into the night. I was just getting things up and running and I was so excited about it all that it didn’t seem like a big deal to me to work as much as possible. After a few months of this, my family kindly pointed out to me that I was basically ignoring them in favor of working and they weren’t too pleased about it.
So, I set a cut-off time for myself in the evenings and force myself to set the computer aside and focus on my family. This has gotten easier over the years, but I still catch myself wanting to give into the pressure of working when I need to be fully present with my family. I’ve had to learn to set these thoughts aside and remind myself that things truly can wait until the next morning.
3. Know The Signs
One way to know if your boundaries need updating is to know the signs of distress in your family or business. When kids were toddlers, these signs usually involved one of them grabbing my face and turning it towards them as they chastised me, “Mommy, listen to me.” It was easy to know when they needed my attention.
As they’ve grown it’s become harder to read the signs, but not impossible. Not long ago, after picking up the kids at school, I began to walk towards my office as the kids sat down to have a snack. “Don’t go in there!” my eight-year-old yelled. I asked him why and he kept repeating, “I just don’t want you to go in there.” Certainly this was a clue that I needed to spend some time with him instead of sitting down to work.
There are signs that our businesses need attention, too. We may see a dip in traffic to our website, a drop in sales or even a quiet lull in our social media channels. These can all be signs that we need to re-evaluate and freshen things up.
No matter what business you’re in, working from home will be a challenge at times. Learning to balance what our families need from us and what our businesses need from us is the key to finding success at home. When we are intentional about both, we will sleep peacefully at night knowing that we are doing our best.
When Home
and Work Collide
Jill Hart's entrepreneurial career began in her teens when she spent a summer working with her father who ran his own business. When he put her in charge of a Coke machine and allowed her to keep the profits, she saw the benefits of being her own boss. She is the founder of Christian Work at Home Ministries and the co-author of So You Want To Be a Work-at-Home Mom. Jill has articles published in In Touch Magazine, P31 Woman magazine and Focus on the Family’s Thriving Family, as well as across the web on sites like DrLaura.com. She speaks to audiences around the country about faith and business topics. Learn more about Jill at:
JillHart.com
and connect with her on Facebook www.facebook.com/SpeakerJillHart)
and Twitter @cwahm.
I’ve worked from home for nearly thirteen years now and I still get caught up in the struggle of balancing my family and my work. I’ll admit that it has gotten easier over the years. When my kids were toddlers and preschool age it was much tougher to keep the line from blurring. When you work from home, it’s a constant juggling act to make sure that family comes first, but that the needs of your business and clients get met in a timely manner.
There are a few things that have helped me keep my sanity over the years:
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