As we continue to celebrate mothers across the world, let us explore some useful advice for moms working from home. The reality is that working from home has its perks, but it comes with its own challenges. It can be especially challenging for mothers when they have to balance home life with a work-from-home job. Hence, I want to share some practical advice for moms working from home to make the process easier for them. We will look into how choosing jobs that allow you more flexibility, starting your days early, and getting yourself and your children into a daily routine are effective advice for moms working from home.
Advice #1: Choose jobs that allow you more flexibility
Mothers can relate to the challenges of juggling the management of a household and caring for children when working from home. The COVID-19 pandemic certainly highlighted this issue. We saw many videos of frustrated moms venting their frustrations about struggling with productivity while working from home. I also understand this struggle. One solution I have found is choosing jobs that allow me the flexibility of structuring my time. Hence, I think that mothers, especially those with babies, can benefit from the freedom to decide what time they work and how long they work. Therefore, moms should make job flexibility a priority requirement when job hunting.
However, mothers, you must wisely manage your time if you want to have a successful business. When you have a job that allows you the flexibility of setting your work hours, it comes with the added responsibility of wisely adjusting yourself to meet personal and professional needs. So look for tasks such as transcripts with a longer delivery time and even virtual assistant jobs, like updating databases, where the urgency is manageable. Whatever work you do, creatively use your time to fulfil your motherly duties and still get the job done. Sometimes it means that you work while your children sleep. The important point to note is that as long as you do good work and complete the client’s work in the agreed timeframe, your business can remain successful.
Advice #2: Start your days early
I think it is always best for moms to start their days early. Given the many responsibilities you face, you need creative solutions to balance your personal life and running a successful business. Thus, you have to learn how to efficiently do the housework and care for your energetic children or toddler without compromising your business. One good solution is to get an early start on your list of things to do before the day gets out of control. So, moms, consider starting your work day while your household sleeps.
I will simplify how you can make an early morning work day an effective productivity solution. While the house is quiet and calm, complete the most urgent workload, prepare meals, tackle the laundry, and finish cleaning. You can even prepare fun and non-distracting activities to keep the children engaged while you work the day. When the family gets up, you can feel contented because your house is in order, and you will feel more confident about your day. Throughout the day, you can have family time in-between work. These will allow you to take breaks to relax and spend quality time with your children. Doesn’t an early start to your day sound like a good idea to try out?
Advice #3: Get yourself and your children into a daily routine
I have heard many moms talk about, and I have also seen first-hand, the need for a daily routine. As much as you and I benefit from a routine keeping us organized, disciplined, and prepared, children, can also benefit from it as well. Having a system that includes nap times, controlled play time, snack times, and even time for lessons help you to schedule for maximum productivity. One example is that you can coincide your rest time with taking walks outdoors, playing with your children, and even catching up on what happened during their day while you eat.
Realistically, we can plan routines and unexpected happenings require us to adjust ourselves. However, this should never be an excuse for not having daily routines. It is better to be prepared so that you and your family can adjust yourselves, where necessary. The key thing to remember when making adjustments to your routine is to ensure that you allocate time and focus on the day-to-day urgent needs and complete or make sufficient progress with priority work tasks. So, go ahead and start creating a routine for your children and watch how you, your children, and other family members develop habits that aid your work more efficiently.
Advice #4: Get extra help
The saying no man is an island, no man stands alone is very true. This is especially true as it relates to motherhood. Even though we hear people talk about “supermoms”, mothers do not help sometimes. When you add an at-home business to the mix, then extra help is a must-have. There will be days when the pressures of deadlines, a sudden emergency, or even the exhaustion to keep up with everything signify that you need helping hands.
Extra help can take different forms, but the one you choose should be based on what type of assistance you need. Do not “run yourself into the ground”. Firstly, pause to assess and identify the areas in your life where you need help to better manage your personal life while you focus on professional responsibilities. Sometimes it means that your partner, relatives, friends, and/or the kind neighbour you trust volunteers to watch your children or complete important tasks while you work. Other scenarios, may involve a paid babysitter or a professional to step in to see to some of your children’s needs, such as cooking or tutoring. Additionally, the case may be that you delegate minimal work or some of your jobs to an employee or outsource a professional. Mothers, whatever you decide to do, you must ensure that you get the help you need to strike some semblance of balance between your personal and professional life.
Advice #5: Learn to develop the right mindset
Everything we do in life thrives when we have the right mindset. Having the right mindset is especially important for mothers. We know that there are so many things working moms have to juggle on a daily basis. If they do not have the right mindset they can crash under the pressure. Whether they are single parents, they have a strong support system, or merely struggle to adjust to balancing life, work, and children, I believe that all moms need mental strength. Through mental strength, moms can show up to the mounting responsibilities that demand so much of them.
The right mindset varies from situation to situation. Sometimes it means you have to be strong-willed when the pressures of all you have to do makes you want to give up or procrastinate. Other times, there are situations that pull us too far away from balancing personal needs and professional needs. For example, a successful work-from-home mother who pays someone to fulfil personal duties still needs to show up for her family. Another example could be the destruction of a business because a mother gives in to her desire of wanting to manage everything in the day-to-day life of her family and work around the clock online, which is not possible. I can assure you that fair compromises have to be made because mom can only do so much. However, I know that moms can do a lot with support, help, and the mindset to learn, adjust and never give up.
Let’s Recap
Essentially, I am saying that though there are many challenges for a mom working from home, there are effective ways to reduce the problems you face. These five pieces of advice are some ideas for things you can look into to see how you can better handle situations in a balanced, efficient, and wise way. However, please remember that nothing in life is perfect. Motherhood and business involve constant learning and growing processes. However, both can be combined and you have a successful work-from-home business. What I think you and I can all agree on is that you must set fair expectations, give yourself the grace to make mistakes and learn from them, get help where necessary, and keep finding ways to improve where possible. I believe in you, you can do it!
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