The best perk that many companies can offer is the ability to work from home on a permanent basis. The one drawback is that if you are a parent this can present far more problems than if you are not. Those single people that work from home can go to anywhere they want to work with an internet connection. With an infant, this becomes much more stressful and even more stressful with a toddler. The distractions that a work from home parent face are unparalleled which can be a bad thing in terms of productivity. You will need to keep your productivity if you are going to continue to work from home as many companies are not understanding about a large drop in production no matter the reason. The following are tips for a parent working from home to stay as productive as possible.
Work Early and Late
Working from home for many means that you get to get out of bed later than those that have to endure a brutal commute but for parents, this is not the case. If you can work any hours that you want you should work as soon as you get up in the morning and take care of tasks that might be more attention-demanding. Once your kids get up you will have to help them start their day so schedule things that you can finish in this amount of time. Working late can help you get ahead on the next day worth of work as well as help you set yourself up for success for the week. Those with set hours need to be very steadfast about doing so as time tracking software will always tell the truth about what you were doing.
Set Up An Office Space
Setting up an office space is imperative as no matter what you think working in the kitchen is never going to work out. Even if the family is trying not to bother you the clanking of dishes and noise will impede your productivity. As a parent you want to spend as much quality time with your family as possible. Being able to get your work done in a shorter time opens up time to spend as you please. Find space or make space for an office and you will never regret it.
Set A Daily Agenda
You need to set a daily agenda as you are wrapping up work so you are ready to go for the next day. This will allow you to start on certain tasks that you can do on “autopilot” while tired or just starting working for the day. Scheduling out your day will give you a great idea of how much you can actually get done as well as how long specific tasks take. Write this out and add a few extra tasks that you might be able to get done. Reward yourself for completing these on certain days as doing more than you though possible is something to be proud of.
As you can see it will be difficult but it is possible to work from home productively even if you have kids. You just have to take a proactive approach to productivity!
COMMENTS