Photo by Stacey Shintani
I’ve become comfortable with the knowledge that most of my friends and family only have a vague idea of what I do for a living. They certainly see the fruit of my labor in the form of books, essays, and speaking engagements. They’re truly astonished by the fact that I can be productive while also caring for a young child. I know however that it’s hard for most of them to wrap their minds around the notion that I’m a “work at home mother.” I’m sure a few would love to ask me, “What the hell do you do all day?”
For a while one friend routinely called me at 8am and asked, “Did I wake you up?” She was unaware that in order to make my deadlines and tend to my family I could have been up since 5am. Another male friend swears that I don’t work because “work” entails leaving the house and acquiescing to the dictates of a boss in exchange for a paycheck. Recently I was interviewed in my local paper about my latest book, Who’s Your Mama? The Unsung Voices of Women and Mothers and the female reporter wrote, “Bynoe…calls herself a ‘work-at-home mother,’” as if I made up the term.
The fact is that I have the benefit of a flexible schedule that allows me to spend time with my son— but my days are also fraught with numerous distractions that can impede my work. Instead of doing research, returning telephone calls or actually writing, I have the freedom to talk on the telephone, watch TV, or cook a gourmet meal. I’m the master of my time— there’s the rub for me and millions of other work at home mothers.
If you’re thinking about setting up a home office as a way to solve your work/life juggle… think again. A new Gallup poll indicates that 49 percent of self-employed people worked 44 hours a week or more, compared to 39 percent of all employed adults who put in that much time. And 26 percent of the self-employed clock in at 60 hours a week or more! That’s more than any other sector surveyed, including people employed by non-profits, the government, or private business.
Working at home isn’t a cakewalk. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a freelancer or a consultant, you’re responsible not only for how you spend your time, but also for how much revenue you generate. However, just as there are ways for you to be a better corporate employee, there are also ways for you to be more effective as a work at home mother. Creating a business environment that works for you is important to escaping the work-family conundrum. However the critical point of a business is to make money and you can’t do that if you are procrastinating or frittering away your work time.
In the five years that I have been a work at home mother I’ve learned a few things that have allowed me to publish 3 books and complete quite a few other projects and still have a fulfilling personal life. So I will now pass these 10 tips on to you…..
1. Get Dressed: It may sound trite, but taking a shower and putting on clothes is important to getting yourself into a “work” state of mind.
2. Set Regular Work Hours (and stick to them). Your designated work time is not the time to do housework, yak on the telephone, shop online or schedule personal appointments. It’s better to devote 2 days a week to work, rather than trying to squeeze work into the middle of other tasks or obligations.
3. Inform Your Family, Friends and Spouse of Your Work Schedule: Make sure that your loved ones understand what working from home is about (making money) and that you’re not available to run errands or to deal with non-emergencies.
4. Determine Your Childcare Needs: Working at home doesn’t mean that you won’t need childcare. If your children are school-age, you can work while they are away. However if you have babies or toddlers, your ability to schedule work time is less predictable. If you can’t work around their nap times, you may need to think about hiring a sitter for a few hours each week.
5. Establish Your Work Space: The optimal situation is to have a separate office with a door. However if that’s not possible you need a regular space where you can work. Aside from the psychological significance of dedicating space to your business/work, on a practical level you need somewhere to store your stuff (papers, documents, publications, etc.)
6. Check Your Email Only Twice a Day: (I’m still working on this on) Tim Ferris in his book 4 Hour Work Week recommends this strategy. You know the problem with email. You start reading jokes and/or clicking on links in a news article, then you look up only to realize that you’ve squandered 2 hours. The trick is to let people known when you will check and respond to email–let’s say each day at 10am and 4pm.
7. Designate Certain Work for Certain Days: In any business there’s the actual work and then there are the supporting functions: administrative, accounting, marketing/promoting, etc. Try to devote certain days to creating the work product and other days to performing the support duties.
8. Give yourself breaks. For every hour you work, have a 15-30 minute break. Giving your brain the chance to recharge will improve the quality of your work.
9. Invest in a large 12 month calendar: Hang the calendar near your desk so that you can easily review your weekly and monthly commitments as well as schedule future appointments and deadlines.
10. Be Firm About Being Off The Clock: In the age of technology, some people feel it’s appropriate to conduct business 24-7. A big part of my decision to work from home is my desire to spend time with my family. I’ve had to tell several colleagues, more than once, that on weekdays I don’t conduct business before 10am or after 6pm EST. Also, barring an emergency, I am also not available on the weekends. Every job is different, but if you don’t establish your time boundaries, you’ll be perpetually on-call.
Please let me know some of your ideas for successfully working from home.
I started out like many other working mothers believing that I could balance my work life and my family life. Unfortunately the more I sought balance , the more of a failure I felt like. As I continued to talk with more working mothers I had an A-HA moment—the problem wasn’t us, it was our attempts to find equilibrium between work and family.
