What I’ve Learned While Working from Home

When my second daughter was born, I left my full time teaching job in favor of working from home as an adjunct teacher for a local online school. It has been a huge blessing and privilege to be home with my girls and be able to continue to work and contribute financially for my family. However, the transition admittedly was much harder than I anticipated. I have a heart for working mamas. I worked outside the home for 3 years after my oldest was born. Going to work every day as a mama is hard, working from home as a mama is hard and just being a mama is hard. We all have different struggles and triumphs. I went into it maybe a little naïve to not only the challenges of being a stay at home mom, but also a work at home mom. I am definitely still a work in progress but here are the top three things that I have learned and that have helped make my transition to working from home a little easier.

Make a Schedule 

This is definitely the best thing I did for myself and it took me a little while to figure it out. Every Sunday I sit down and take a look at the work I need to get done that week. I also look at my schedule and activities with my kids and see if there are any days where I maybe can get more work done or less (or even none). I then divide up my workload and write down exactly what I want to get done each day. I used to do this all the time when I was working outside the home; it was a no brainer. For some reason when I transitioned to being home full time and working from home, I thought I would just have so much more time and wouldn’t need to be as organized and scheduled. I was so wrong! This has been key for me in getting all of my work completed AND spending quality time with my kids.

Be Flexible 

As moms, we all know that you have to be flexible. One of the huge benefits to working from home is that I do have the luxury of being flexible and doing my work where and when I need to. I don’t always schedule a specific time of day to get my work done (unless I have a call or meeting). I try to find pockets of time to sneak in answering a few emails and usually save the bulk of my work for the afternoon when my kids are taking a nap or having quiet time. However, that doesn’t work out 100% of the time, so I try to be flexible to get work done in the evenings, if need be. I also try to take the weekends off, but will use that time to catch up if I need to.

Try not to Procrastinate (too much!) 

It is much easier for me to get behind on things when I am working from home. When I was actually leaving my house and going to work everyday, I was 100% focused on work when I was gone. I budgeted my time and tried my best to get my work done during the day and then came home and shifted my attention to my family. At home, I am definitely splitting my time and it is much easier (for me at least!) to ignore the work in favor of the park or baby snuggles. I don’t think the perfect balance exists, but I have found that the less I procrastinate, the more I have time for all the fun and my work, as well.

I would love to hear your tips for working from home and balancing work and family. I am always learning in this area, as I am only a year into this journey and we can all use all the help we can get!