How To Stay Productive As A Work-at-Home Mum
Working from home makes it harder to balance work and family. Today, numerous mothers prefer not to return to their previous work but to organize a home office. Many of them decide to start their own business and go from being just a work-at-home mum to a mumpreneur and developing their own company. At the same time, competently planning your day when working remotely and staying productive isn’t an easy task in general, but everything becomes even more complicated with kids.
How to work from home effectively, be a successful mumpreneur by choosing remote work, show excellent results, and not go crazy read below in our article. Let’s go!
- Always make notes
As a stay-at-home mum, you have a lot to do. And if you add work from home, you can completely get lost in the number of tasks. Therefore, to stay productive and have time to do everything planned, we recommend writing all your doings down — be it even some trifle.
Write down even your 10-minute coffee breaks if necessary. It may seem strange, but how often have you forgotten to take breaks and just rest in the flow of everyday activities? You can keep notes on a piece of paper, a notepad, a note-taking app, or your phone. The choice is yours.
- Pick special working hours
If you are a mother of a baby or kids who isn’t yet able to keep themselves entertained and there is no one to help you, the only option is to set your working hours to the baby’s schedule. The child is sleeping — you are working. Therefore, those work-at-home mums with kids are most productive late in the evening, at night, or early in the morning. Some mumpreneurs try to perform work tasks and entertain kids simultaneously, but such work is inefficient.
If you have such a situation, don’t hesitate to tell your boss about it and ask for special working hours, if necessary — a shortened working day. The same goes for mumpreneurs who own their companies or businesses and have multiple employees. Determine a limited period of your availability for video calling with colleagues and clients.
- Organise a home office
It’s hard to believe, but being a work-at-home mum, you can easily do routine tasks in a relaxed atmosphere and increase your concentration due to the comfort of home. But this will require organizing your convenient workspace.
A laptop on your knees or numerous Google Docs on a smartphone is a bad option. If you have the opportunity to isolate yourself in a separate room, your home office for remote work is ready. If possible, do everything as in an ordinary workplace — choose a table and a comfortable chair, add good light, buy the necessary equipment and various things required for work. You should completely forget about household chores and throw yourself into work.
- Prepare all the necessary software
Whether you are a mumpreneur with your own business or work from home as an employee, you need to prepare and purchase the necessary software for remote work.
The choice of apps depends specifically on your tasks, goals, and specifics of work. Use screen recorders for your business needs. As a work-at-home mum, every minute of your time is precious. You must admit that screen recording and a visual explanation of the task or edits will take less time than writing a guide or text with detailed comments.
Use various time management software to plan your day. Don’t overload yourself with tasks. Otherwise, you will be frustrated that everything didn’t work out. Distribute them depending on the deadlines: evenly for the whole week or make 1-2 work-hard-days to get an extra day off.
Try to simplify your day and free up a couple of extra minutes with the help of modern technologies and apps. It’s really convenient. It will help you keep up with everything and stay productive as a stay-at-home mum.
- Take time for physical activity and eat right
Any mumpreneur and stay-at-home mums should take care of their kids’ health and their own. Exercise and proper nutrition will help you stay in shape.
Lack of physical activity reduces tone and performance and weakens the immune system. Therefore, it is extremely crucial to allocate time for physical exercises — even basic 20-minute training in the morning will significantly improve your health and productivity!
Take active breaks during your workday. And it doesn’t concern walking to the kitchen and making yourself a coffee, but going shopping, playing with kids, or, at least, doing some household chores. If you don’t have time to go to the gym, the web is full of various exercise articles, courses, and video fitness lessons. The main thing is not to forget about physical activity and a healthy balanced diet.
- Keep your kids busy
It is the hardest part of a work-at-home mum’s life. There are two rules here: come up with exciting activities for the kids for 40-60 minutes — you can calmly do your job; make a clear schedule for family members. When life is limited to the house, it’s easy to completely lose your daily routine — from meals to healthy sleep.
The younger the kids, the harder it is to keep them entertained or find an activity that they can do on their own for at least one hour. Today, there are a lot of various video lectures and videos for children on the web that will help you free up time for work tasks and keep your kids busy for a while.
Moreover, there are certain online platforms with tasks and games that develop logic and attentiveness. You can pick up tasks that even four-year-old children can complete without the help of an adult.
- Ask for extra help
Sometimes, a work-at-home mum has to resort to extra help to stay productive. If you find yourself unable to do everything yourself, your mumpreneur affairs and remote work require concentration and time, ask your loved ones to look after your kids. Call on your parents, relatives, or a friend who also works from home to help. You can take turns babysitting.
If there is no one to turn to, most stay-at-home mums, switching to a remote work format, prefer to hire a nanny. It is a costly deal, and you definitely don’t want to trust your offspring to a stranger, but your home office will be near your baby and under complete control. If necessary, you can easily solve the situation that may arise.
Summing Up
Being a mumpreneur or work-at-home mum is a challenge, especially if you don’t have a home office. Many don’t understand that working from home is not always about a comfort zone.
A remote employee shouldn’t play with kids, wash floors, or walk a dog during a working day. No matter how pleasant and significant all these things are. The experience of seasoned remote workers says that you shouldn’t mix work with household chores. Chaos at home won’t allow you to concentrate and remain productive. It will lead to missed deadlines and reduced quality.
We have given some tips for stay-at-home mums trying to balance work and family. Try to apply them, find your life hacks, and stay a productive and successful mumpreneur and work-at-home mum. Good luck!
