Every day, more and more women are making the decision to become work at home moms. The idea of being able to stay home while working is appealing for a number of reasons. Generally, the top reasons that mothers want to work from home is so that they don’t have to send their children to day care and can care for them while at home. There is also the freedom that comes when you are working at home. You don’t have a boss standing over your shoulder making sure you are working from 9am-5pm, and if you want to go to one of your child’s activities, you don’t have to ask for permission.
While there are a lot of advantages of working at home for mothers, there are some disadvantages too. One of the biggest disadvantages is how much more difficult it is to stay organized enough to get your work done while you’re at home. Not only will your children be home and require your attention, but you will have other interruptions as well. If you aren’t organized and disciplined enough, it is possible that working from home won’t be nearly as profitable and convenient as you envisioned. Therefore, below are some organizational tips to help you become a successful work at home mom.
1. Create a Work Space. There is only one difference when you are working from home and not from an office and that’s the fact that you are at home. You will still need a designated place to work at. You may be fortunate to have a spare room that will work as your home office, or you may have to settle for a corner desk in your master bedroom. Regardless of where your work space is at, you need to have one and everyone in the family needs to recognize that it is your work station.
2. Keep Your Work Space Clean. In order to be a successful work at home mom, you need to find a way to keep your work space clean. When your work space is clean, you are naturally going to be more organized. In order to help with the clutter of papers, you can go to an office supply store and purchase metal or plastic desk trays or file holders, just as you would if you were working in an office. The reason you need to keep your work space clean is because you are at home and you are a mom…this means there are little hands that may mistake your financial report for a piece of paper to color on.
3. Keep Good Records. For the majority of work at home moms, they are their own boss and have their own business. This requires good recordkeeping. The best way to keep track of your business records is to have a filing cabinet with folders where you can deposit statements, receipts and expenses. It is also possible to keep track of important business documents on your computer as well. If you choose to do this, make sure you back up all the data on your computer in case of a computer crash.
4. Try to Maintain a Schedule. Although you are working at home and do have more flexibility, you need to treat your business like a real job. This means, you need to establish some type of work schedule. Make sure your family and friends know when your work hours are so that they won’t be making impromptu visits.
Very true. I love working at home, but had to make the decision to enroll my toddler in day care part time to be able to work. Work is work no matter where you are.
I work from home and I can say from experience that keeping organized is a vital part of success. For my business activities, I created a daily to do list with check boxes. I simply go through the list and check off what I’ve completed. It keeps me focused and provides a daily business activity target that helps ensures my success.