7. Ask For Help
Working from home often brings the illusion that you can do it all. The fact is, everyone needs help and there will come a time when you need to ask for it. Maybe it’s from your spouse, asking them to watch the kids when he gets off work so you can finish up a project. It could mean hiring a babysitter to watch your kids a few afternoons a week so you can hole yourself up in your office to get solid work done. Just because you work from home doesn’t mean that you never need time to work alone, so don’t be afraid to ask for help!
8. Find Your Ultimate Work Space
It’s important to find a place in your home that provides you the space and quiet to work. If you need access to a phone or printer, it makes sense to have an office or nook in your kitchen where you have access to such things. Maybe you need to be away from your kids rooms so they don’t hear you while napping or so they don’t get in to your stuff. The important thing is not to find yourself cluttering up the dining room table and not being able to locate your work documents when you need them.
9. Plan Kid Time
It’s temping to operate from an “on-call” perspective, where you take care of work items that come up immediately. But unless you’re a doctor who’s making the big bucks, it’s probably not going to pay off for the average work from home mom. It’s important that you plan time in for your kids during the day, and not let work intrude. There will always be something that your employer or coworker needs, but it won’t be nearly as important as playing with your kids.
10. Make Sure You Reward Yourself
Just the other day I caught myself focusing on all the things that frustrate me about my job. Then I realized that many women would give up their job just to have one like mine in a heartbeat, where I get to spend all day with my daughter. So instead, I’m going to reward myself with all the positives of working from home. I’m going to take beach trips on a Friday morning, go out to lunch just for the fun of it, and play at the park whenever we feel like it. I took a job working from home so that I could have a flexible schedule and do things with my daughter that most moms just dream of, and I’m not going to squander it!