Work at Home Tips: Manage Your Time and Master Your Money

A few years ago I decided to become a stay at home mom, but I didn't stop there.

Just because you stayed at home doesn’t mean you have to give up working for good. While many moms choose to stay at home to raise their kids, you can still make money by finding a work at home job.

I know I did!

From freelancing to blogging and even remote work, there are so many options today for reclaiming your finances without ever leaving your kids.

However, time management as a stay at home mom who also works from home sometimes feels impossible.

Let’s face it: life at home is busy enough. With kids running around, an endless list of chores, and work to think about, it’s hard to keep everything under control. How do you manage your time, so you can make the most of your stay at home gig without compromising on family time?

Work at Home Tips: 5 Tips To Help You Manage Your Time

These are some tried-and-true tips for work at home moms who need to manage their time so they can master their money.

Create a Schedule

We all know how important schedules are. They help you get your kiddo to kindergarten on time. They make sure there’s food on the table by the time 6 pm comes around.

However, when you work from home, sticking to a schedule becomes even more important. When your office is also your home, it’s hard to create clear barriers. What is work time and what is mom time?

Learning the differences between these times can take time, but it doesn’t have to. The easiest way to separate “work” from “home” is to set “office hours.” Just like with a traditional job, set times each day which you’ll devote only to working.

These should be the times when you’re less likely to be bothered by your little ones, like during school or nap time. Having clear times to work and clear times to play will help both you and your family get used to your working habits.

Don’t be afraid to write down your schedule. There are scientific studies showing the importance of writing things down. Creating a written schedule the “old fashioned” way on a paper planner is a must for many moms.

If you’re more tech-savvy, opt for a digital calendar you can take with you like Google Calendar. So the next time you think you’ll remember when your next deadline is, do yourself a favor and write it down.

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Stop Multitasking

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but multitasking is nothing but a myth. When you’re moving between tasks, you’re actually just taking more time to get things done. You’re much better off spending a set amount of time on one thing before moving on to the next.

We all know how overwhelming it is to worry about work, chores, and kids throughout the day. It can easily feel like multitasking is the only way.

Yet, you should actually take some time to slow down and do each thing one at a time. It might even help to create a timecard for yourself, especially for work-related tasks. This will keep you doing only one thing so you’ll make more progress on your day’s work. For more about this read here.

Set Clear Goals

Our next work at home tip talks about setting goals.

Creating clear goals helps you stay focused. If you don’t know what you’re working towards, you’ll never get there. There are two main types of goals to craft in your own life: short-term and long-term.

Short-term can be as simple as things you want to accomplish this week. Make sure they’re prioritized by importance. With everything you accomplish, you’ll feel more motivated to push on.

Your long-term goals can be similarly encouraging. You can divide these into whatever time frame makes sense for your stay-at-home business. Maybe you have goals for the upcoming quarter or even just the entire year.

No matter when your deadlines are set, make sure your goals are concrete and measurable. Take the time to reflect on these goals when your deadlines come around.

Know Your Productivity

There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to getting stuff done. Some of us work best when we get all of our work done first thing in the morning. Others are more productive at night.

Know your personal productivity cycle and cater your time management to it. If that means you need a dedicated office space to cut down on distractions, do that.

No matter your schedule, make sure you schedule breaks. Research suggests regular breaks throughout the day improve your overall productivity and make you more efficient.

These breaks shouldn’t all be devoted to family time. You need your own time to relax on your own so you feel refreshed. It’s okay to take time for yourself in between family and work time. It just means you’ll be better equipped to help your children and your business when it’s time for that.

Use Tech Tools

When it comes to work at home tips to help you manage your time, using these tools will help you, guaranteed!

There’s a reason there are so many tech tools at our disposal in this day and age. If you’re working a remote job, odds are your company will have some time management tools they want you to use to keep track of projects.

However, if you’re working on your own as a freelancer or blogger, you’ll have to be more innovative. Here are some great apps and platforms to try for yourself:

• Trello – A free project management platform that’s visual and easy to use.
• Stay Focused – A free Chrome extension that eliminates your access to social media and other distractions during pre-set times.
• Evernote – Keep all of your documents and organizers in one place.

Making the most of the time you have will help you become a master of your own life, particularly where your finances are concerned. We all could use more hours in the day.

Unfortunately, we’ll just have to make do with what have in terms of time. As a mom, you’ll need to be wise about your time, whether that means setting clear work hours or using all the tools at your disposal so you can continue creating income.

Your turn: When it comes to work at home tips, you read five tips to help you manage your time and master your money now we want to know what are your thoughts and tips?