As a stay-at-home mom, one of the most-asked questions out there (and heck, one I'm still asking myself!) is how to best stay organized and keep the home & work stuff fairly separate.
Here are some ideas from the posters of a popular work-at-home online forum I frequent (note--I'm pasting much of their comments as-is, so you might see some typos & grammatical errors, lol. But all in all, there's some good advice!):
"The biggest thing is to not try and work in a room with a tv! Otherwise, you have to be flexible to meet your family needs. I tend now to work alongside my daughter whilst she is doing homeschool. When I'm working on articles I do it on paper so that there is not temptation to browse."
"Make a folder for each day of the week and place it on your desktop. Forr each day, put in there your todays list of to do's for that particular day. Then when you go to your computer everyday, just open the file for that day and there is what you do for the day..."
"I just started with a direct selling business, but I've been working from home doing freelance writing and mystery shopping (get jobs from home and submit reports from home, but obviously have to leave to complete them...I'm pretty sure that still counts) for a couple of years. My advice would be to try to find your family's schedule and then schedule your work time in where it fits and STICK TO IT. It can be so tempting to just take that naptime and see what's on tv or call a friend or whatever, but if you've set that as your work time then do work.
You also need to realize that your schedule may not be the same day to day if you have family activities or other commitments and it may fluctuate as your child grows depending on their age (naps change and/or disappear for example) so you need to plan as far out as you can and only book yourself as much work as you can handle. I went through a period of serious overscheduling because I kept thinking that I could do more and trying to stay up all night to finish it. That's not good for you or your family. Good luck!! "
"I have been working from home for about 6 months now and have struggled with the same issues.
Here is what I do:
I make a list today for what I need to accomplish tomorrow.
As soon as I get up, I get to work. If I have an appt. then I work before or after.
I set aside at least 4 hours each day and stick to it.
I also work hard to keep up with housework so I don't have alot of that to do in any 1 day. If I do get backlogged, I take my weekend days a get caught up.
I also have an away place in my house with my computer so I can stay focused. "
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