Confession time, I read a couple of articles here and there about how to work from home before setting up my business, but found them hard to relate to. Basically the assumption is that you have a loving supportive spouse who works nice steady hours and LOVES to distract the kids when they get home and a small gang of relatives and friends who like nothing more than looking after your child because you need the house quiet when a client calls.
My reality consisted of a spouse that never knew when they were going to be hired for their next freelance gig from one day (sometimes one minute) to the next. The (sort-of) discussed plan was that he would take our daughter out for an outing during the day and that's when I could have meetings, take business calls and get work done. In practice, this made every day a delicate touch-and-go. Turns out that trying get a small child with the attention span of a mosquito to commit to some sort of plan for the upcoming 8 hours is surprisingly difficult. Several times I had to run upstairs clutching the phone to my ear as a co-tantrum erupted over exactly which Elmo pullover was to be worn for the aforementioned outing.
The always offered help from friends and family was greatly appreciated, but somehow I could (almost) never quite bring myself to call up out of the blue and "drop-off" a somewhat-pottytrained toddler for more than 20 minutes. Relatives had either lives of their own or had become Snowbirds, so I had to adapt to the actual having-the-kid around part of being a WAHM.
1. Learn to love distraction.
Meet my admin assistant
I worked in a fairly busy office for a while and if there was one thing that I had a love/hate relationship with, it was the constant kibbitzing with co-workers. Sometimes I welcomed the distraction of a juicy tidbit from TMZ.com as relayed by my office neighbor, other times I didn't want to be bothered unless we were under definite terrorist attack. For some reason, I thought I would leave that all behind by working at home. There may be times when I just need to barricade the door, but most of the time I find that turning away from the screen for 5 minutes to play soccer or admire a crayon rendering of a skyscraper, saves me a half hour of arguing and yelling. Sometimes taking that mini-break re-sets my mind and an issue I was stuck on before playing Barbie for a few minutes, magically acquires a solution when I come back.
2. Fight distraction with distraction
The Distraction Bucket
Find a basket or box that will hold a good amount of small, interactive toys and leave it right by the door of your office or near your desk. This is where the majority of Happy Meal doodads end up in our house. When your kid(s) see the bucket, they can't resist its many charms and may actually leave you alone.
3. Learn to use your time wisely.
This is, of course, the main piece of advice most home-office dwellers hear. It's also the hardest to get used to, mainly because everyone's definition of time well-spent is a little different. Give me 3 or 4 hours of "free time" and I'd probably waste the first one trying to figure out what to do first. So, hopefully I've saved the best for last and by doing so, will save you some of your valuable time.
My main rule-of-thumb when faced with a (finally!) empty house and a large to-do list is to take a few seconds and prioritize what needs to happen. I find the whiteboard above the monitor in the photo above to be a huge help. If I have 3-5 clients that all need small housekeeping tasks done, I write down each task according to its priority level. Sounds dorky, but it does feel good to stand up, stretch, and erase a completed task off the list. The left side of the board is for long-term or on-going projects and the right side is the day-to-day list.
But wait! In the photo, the right side is almost blank! That's because I make it a priority to take care of clients' needs before doing things for my own little online world. Some other things that keep me on-target are not having the TV on and not "surfing around". When I am working, I'm working because when you are your own boss, you are constantly looking over your own shoulders right?
Also, forget housework. At least try to. If I need to go upstairs to get food, I do one or two little tasks that need doing, like sorting a load of laundry or washing a few dishes. The big stuff can wait until I'm done for the day with actual paying work.
In the foreground of the photo, you can see two things in front of the keyboard. One is a spiral bound notebook where I take notes as I work or talk to clients on the phone. There are times where it's invaluable to have a log of what happened during the day especially when kid-induced chaos returns to the house. The other thing is a green hand-held grip strengthener. This is great for when you have to wait for a lengthy download/upload since it helps reduce stress too.
Overall, the main thing to bear in mind is that even though you may want to plan your day like Patton planned the landing at Normandy, you can't control everything in your environment, but it's best to let go and focus on what you CAN get done instead of what you can't!
