Work at Home Productivity-Work at Home Series Part 3
You’ve decided to work at home and everything is peachy. Then, reality sets in. It can be a lot more difficult to stay productive at home than you might have thought. Countless distractions, housework and family can all lead to less than stellar productivity.
There’s a lot you can do to get productive and stay productive and make your work at home life a lot easier.
1. Set up a Schedule
Whether you use a computer based program or a pen and paper calendar, keeping a schedule will make your work and home life a lot easier to manage. You’ll be able to manage your daily, weekly and monthly tasks and keep your days from filling up too fast. I couldn’t make it through the day without a schedule; between family, work, household chores, errands and appointments-my days are full and I’d be lost without my schedule.
Some great ideas for getting your schedule together:
Use your Email Client:
Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, and others can all keep track of your schedule and remind you of things coming up. This is also nice because you’ll have your email and your schedule in one place and can easily add any tasks/projects/events that make it through your inbox directly to your calendar.
Use a Web Based Calendar:
Tools like Yahoo Calendar, Google Calendar, I Want Sandy, Airset, 30 Boxes, and Remember the Milk can all help you get an organized schedule together for yourself, your family and some can even sync with other calendars from friends, family or associates.
Pen and Paper Planners:
I have a hard time keeping one of these up, but some people swear by them. There are a lot out there to choose from, but some are formatted for busy moms and dads and well, busy mom is me-so I found these to be the best ones out there for busy work at home parents and all are available at Amazon.
Mom’s Ultimate Planner
Mom’s Go Planner
Busy Mom’s Planner
Family Organizer and Planner
Make Your Own:
If your having a hard time finding something that works for you, consider making your own. The printable planner pages at Organized Home are awesome and you can build a planner just how you want it from scratch.
2.Work In Increments
If a project seems too daunting to tackle during your kids’ nap time or a you’re feeling overwhelmed my a time consuming task; pencil it into your schedule in small increments. Break a larger task into several smaller tasks or schedule chunks of time to dedicate to just a portion of the project.
This helps me out a lot. I start by breaking each project into smaller, more manageable tasks. Then, I concentrate on just one of those tasks at a time and schedule it as it’s own task. When I am done with the task, I walk away. I may be gone from the project for a few minutes or a few hours before returning to work on the next piece, but it all comes together in the end. Plus, while I walk away from a task I am getting time with my family, I can accomplish some household chores and when I return to my work, it is with fresh eyes and a clear mind. I rarely get overwhelmed with projects because I break them up. I highly recommend this.
3.Stay Organized, but keep it SIMPLE
Create a system to keep your work and life organized; keep it simple and keep it up to date. I truly speak from experience here, keeping organized will keep you sane. By filing papers, archiving emails, keeping detailed notes and dealing with every piece of mail, email and paper that comes across your desk, you will save yourself from a lot of wasted time, wasted energy and unwanted headaches down the road.
Make your system immediate-as soon as something is read, handled, finished, etc. get it to it’s final home. Don’t leave a bunch of papers lying around that you’ll just have to sort through later.
Don’t make it too elaborate; I tried that once, didn’t work out. When I started working at home I thought I would re-create my office system at home. It’s pretty hard to use that Brother label maker with a baby under you shirt and it’s even harder to scan blueprints with a baby bjorn strapped to your chest. My point? Make it simple. I now use a color coded system for filing and I immediately file anything that comes my way into it’s appropriate home once I have handled it. I avoid labels and too many “things” cluttering up my system. Simple simple simple.
Want some simple(inexpensive too!) home office ideas, check these out:
IKEA -my most favorite place of all-it’s like Disney World to the frugal work at home Mommy
Everyone is different, so you may have some different ideas and I’d love to hear them! Being productive and staying organized are two of the biggest hurdles I’ve had to face as a work at home mom. What about you? How do you stay productive working at home? How do you stay organized?
Topics: Make Money |
April 21st, 2008
One of your best friends, when working at home, can definitely be Microsoft Excel. I use this program extensively when I work at home especially when it comes to organization.
Working in increments is a really good tip as well. A lot of people, including me, find it hard to concentrate for long periods of time on one subject or goal and by breaking it up you reduce the workload on yourself and it makes it a whole lot easier to do.
April 22nd, 2008
Michigan Geothermal-I agree, a spreadsheet program can help you immensely! I like to use spreadsheets to keep track of my progress on projects and to keep track of my surveys and things I do online so I know what I have done and what I need to do.
April 28th, 2008
[…] Mommy Gets Paid is more on this track with a three-part series on working at home. She asks first, “Is it for everyone?” Assuming it’s for you, she goes on to address the topics of affording it and productivity. […]