Summer is here which means that if you are a work at home mom you are now probably trying to juggle how to work at home with kids around.
It isn’t always the easiest task, but if you simplify your life, make plans, and set expectations it can be done.
“Mom, I’m hungry”
“Mom, I’m boreeed”
“Mom, are you almost done?”
I am willing to bet that these are similar to the phrases that you hear on a daily basis if you are working at home with kids. Working at home is the ultimate goal for a lot of parents. It frees up your time to make it to more sports games, field trips, or just to spend more quality time together at home.
But it can be hard to get into the groove of working while your kids are home. These are some of the things that I try and do to help me stay on track and get more done.
How to Work at Home with Kids
Set Expectations
For the most part, you probably know how long it will take you to complete the tasks you need to complete for the day. If your kids are old enough to tell time, you can give them your “do not disturb” hours.
These are the hours that you are committed to working each day so that they know when to expect you to be unavailable. It also helps because they know what time you are getting “off work”. If you stick to your word on the time you quit working they can look forward to this time each day.
Eliminate Household Task Stress
You have probably already seen things like Amazon Prime and Walmart’s grocery pick up that can help you make your day to day tasks easier, but have you heard of Phil yet?
It is a prescription refill service that will deliver your reoccurring prescriptions right to your door. Think about how much time will be saved if you aren’t worrying about remembering little tasks like picking up prescriptions each month.
It is always disappointing for me when I realize that I am finally done working and can spend time with my daughter, only to realize that I need to run errands instead. Or even worse, most of the time I don’t even remember that I need to refill prescriptions until it is too late. It is little household tasks like this that make it harder and harder for us to get our work done and get to our families to spend more time with them.
Phil will not only save you time by delivering the medications to you, they also deal with all of the hassle of calling it in or talking to doctors and insurance companies.
Worried about the price?
It is completely free to have the prescriptions delivered and Phil guarantees that your co-pay will be the same as it is at your current pharmacy.
It almost sounds to good to be true, but in today’s fast paced world of 2 day delivering and ordering your groceries online it no longer makes sense to cut out family time in order to run errands.
Bonus: For first-time customers, Phil will pay up to $20 off your insurance copay, or $20 off the cost of the medication if you are uninsured, while supplies last.
Create a Schedule
Another huge time waster is thinking about what you are going to do next. Or what you have to get done by the end of the day.
This is my biggest downfall and why I often forget things like refilling prescriptions, but life is easier with a routine.
If I know each day at 5am I am going to write a blog post and I plan out my editorial calendar in advanced, all I have to do is sit down and write.
There is no time spent brainstorming post topics or time wasted surfing social media until I figure out what I am going to do next. I can just get it done.
The same idea goes into cleaning the house. On Mondays I wash sheets. Every Monday, I never have to think about it I just do it.
Work While the Kids are Asleep
If you have younger children like me, this is the best tip I can give. Many of my days are spent either waking up early or staying up late so that I can finish the tasks that I can’t finish when there is a toddler running around.
Figure out your most productive time of day and schedule the most important tasks to be done during that time. So if you are most productive in the morning you will be waking up earlier that your children.
My daughter doesn’t nap anymore, but naptime used to be my time to write blog posts. Now it primarily falls on the nighttime hours.
