I’ve been reading The Power of Being Personal on Your Blog over at ProBlogger and really enjoying it. Like many people I vary how personal I get because I think about my privacy and that of my family as well.

Being personal is a big help in just about any home business. You aren’t some giant corporation. You’re you. It should show in most cases, to at least some degree. How much depends on the type of business you’re running. If you’re dealing mostly with other professionals, they may expect more of a professional attitude from you.

A Few Privacy Basics

A while back I switched the registration on this site to a private one. I really don’t like having my address and phone number out there unless I’ve given it out directly. I haven’t switched all my domains to private yet, but my big ones definitely.

Some people don’t trust private domains as much because you can’t tell who’s running them. I can understand that. But when you’re raising a family their privacy comes first.

Besides, I hope that I say enough personal things that it doesn’t matter.

That’s also why I have a P.O. Box that I now use for if I need to put my address out there. I don’t like the inconvenience, but it gives me an extra level of privacy by making my home address harder to get.

I’m not so worried about it however, that I won’t mention the city I live in from time to time or talk about things I have done. I do not mention future plans or vacations I’m going to take, or even that I’ll be out on errands. Keeping private about such things on my sites, Twitter and so forth is just good sense. You don’t know who is seeing what you publish.

Family and Privacy

Figuring out how much to share of family life is an entirely different matter. I could talk a ton more about my kids if I wanted. Some people do. It’s not my style. If I’m going to embarrass my kids in front of their friends with stories about their childhoods, I’d rather do it in person.

It doesn’t bother me to post the occasional pic of my kids, but it’s not a regular thing. They aren’t the focus of how I run my business, even though they’re the reason I have it and they determine much of my working hours.

I post even less about my husband, especially about disagreements. We don’t have many really serious ones fortunately, but in general that’s not my kind of thing to memorialize online. Others feel differently and that’s fine.

Besides, he’s just so darn cute when he’s keeping Selene out of my hair, as he is right now.

His work I especially keep private. Not relevant to anything I do here and people have gotten in trouble in the past over work related stuff posted online. I wouldn’t do that to him, even those times that it has been tempting. I’ve said if he gets a new job or something, but not details.

Minor tales about family I do sometimes post. Hopefully through the years I’ll still feel that I chose the right ones to share.

That’s the big trick with protecting your family’s privacy while trying to be personal online. Sometimes the family stuff is highly relevant. It certainly emphasizes the small and often personal nature of a home business.

Keeping it Real

Privacy doesn’t worry so much that I use a pen name. I am who I say I am. It’s just easier for me to be me that way.

I share my personal experiences, and sometimes even talk about income.

I hope to try video one of these days. That one’s difficult with three kids in the house, especially when two aren’t in school yet.

It’s little touches like that, where you don’t worry about privacy that I think really help a home business owner really emphasize that they’re a person, not a corporation. In many markets, especially online, that helps.

The trouble with working at home is that it’s at home. There are a lot of distractions, especially when you have young children about. But when you’re trying to earn a living you have to get as much as possible done with the time you have.

These are some tips that I’ve found useful when I’m working. Things don’t always work out the way I want them to, but that’s all a part of the challenge!

Forget Multitasking

The more you multitask, the more you’re distracting yourself, more likely than not. Sometimes you can’t avoid multitasking, but if you can focus on one thing at a time you’ll probably be more productive.

How long you work on a particular area is up to you. You may do best in 10-15 minute spurts on a particular activity before moving on to something else. There’s nothing wrong with that. But don’t start checking your email, twittering, checking on your Facebook friends and so forth when you’re supposed to be focused. Save it for a break.

Do your best in this area for distractions kids cause and things around the house. You can’t always tell the kids “later” but teach them to respect when you say you need to work and when to interrupt you anyhow. That’s harder when they’re younger, but they’ll learn in time.

Make Time for Your Kids

I just said it. Kids are distracting. But if you give them the time and attention they need you can have more control over it.

Make time to play with them, but also insist that they play without an adult helping. Kids can and should be doing this daily. Just think of how much fun you probably had as a child playing with no adults involved.

If your children need you when you’re working, try the timer method. Set a time for the time you need to finish what you’re working on or for an amount of time that it’s appropriate to have a child of that age wait. When the timer goes off, stop working and go play.

Don’t do this for more urgent needs, of course.

Plan Your Day

Know what you want to get accomplished every day. Write it down on paper so you have something to check off, if that helps you. Or you can type it into the computer. At the very least have goals in your head. Just something to keep you from working aimlessly throughout the day. That makes it far too easy to goof off.

Trust me. I know.

Having plans and goals help you to realize when you’re allowing yourself to slack off too much. But don’t set them so high that you frustrate yourself because you can never achieve them. Be fair to yourself.

Work at the Times that Are Best for You

Well, at least when possible. If you like working in the middle of the day best, and that’s when other obligations need you most, you’re just out of luck in that area. Pick your next best time for working.

I prefer working at night, after the kids have gone to bed. I don’t get to do that every night, but I try. Second best for me is whenever my youngest goes down for her nap. That one often means working through what would otherwise be lunch time, but a late lunch works well enough for me.

Don’t ask me to get up early in the morning to work. I’ll be cranky. I write at night and then schedule blog posts to come out in the early morning so that early birds can read them if they like, but that does not mean I’m one too.

Take Breaks

There’s a reason why employers are required to give employee breaks. They’re necessary. And even though they feel like they’re taking away precious work time, they will help with your productivity overall. They give your mind the rest it needs.

Separate Work and Home

This is a tough one. You’re home all the time but sometimes you’re working. The two tangle up very easily.

Start with your work space. If you can avoid sharing it with the rest of the home it’s a big help. That doesn’t always work. My office, for example, is also the baby’s play area and my daughter’s homework zone. But they don’t have access to my desk or computer.

This is also why planning out your day is so important. It will help you to separate your home and work life.

Consider Outsourcing

Whether or not you can do this depends on what you do and how your budget looks. But if you can pay someone else to do some of your work you’ll get a lot more other stuff done. Done right, outsourcing will allow you to earn even more money.

But it’s not possible for everyone. It’s more for people running a home business, obviously.

Try to remember that just because you have a particular skill doesn’t mean you shouldn’t outsource it. It makes a lot of sense for many people to hire someone to do their taxes, for example. With modern software you could manage it on your own, but it may not be the right choice.

Similarly, a virtual assistant can be a huge help in some of the basic areas of running a home business. Let someone else handle the routine stuff and focus on the projects that require your special skills.

What Do You Do?

What helps you to be more productive? Any tips you would care to share?

Reading the news about Somer Thompson’s death drives me a little nuts. It’s not so much the coverage; such a death is rare enough that the media tends to go wild with coverage on it. The scare tactics they use on parents along with it are somewhat annoying, of course.

But what drives me most nuts are the comments people are aiming at her mother, criticizing her for working outside the home. Like there’s much of a choice for a single mom. We can’t all work at home, even when we want to.

These critics of the mother have this attitude that the mother’s place is in the home.

A mother’s place is not in the home. A mother’s place is where she can do the best job for her family.

For single moms, that most often means working outside the home. That’s also often true for married moms. Being at home with the kids, whether we have a job or a business or are home for the kids, is a luxury we can’t all manage.

I also do not believe she was foolish for letting her children walk home from school. I don’t know about anyone else, but I was walking home without parents much younger than that. Most children who walk home from school, even without parents or other children will be just fine.

No, the world is not a safe place. More children die in car accidents than from abductions every year. Children even get abducted from their own homes with their parents at home. It’s tragic, but not every tragedy can be prevented. It’s called life!

My heart aches for her entire family. It’s a nightmare that no family should have to live through. Let’s save the blame for the one who killed her, not the people who loved her.

Right off the bat, volunteering may not sound like much fun. But not only can it be fun, it can be very educational for the entire family.

With the holiday season coming up, volunteering at the local food bank or soup kitchen is a popular choice. It’s a good way to really help your family to see just how lucky you all are.

Volunteering at a nursing home is another good choice, especially if your kids don’t have grandparents nearby.

Park cleanup days may be an option if your kids are more into the environment. The work can be tedious, but they’ll be able to see results quickly.

There are always plenty of volunteer activities you can do in your area. Just find something that your family is willing to do and give it a try.

We had a little reminder the other morning about being ready for disasters around here – specifically, earthquakes. That reminder was in the form of a teeny tiny 3.5 quake at 3 in the morning. Only reason we noticed it was because the baby started crying just before, and so we were awake already. We had another small one yesterday morning, a 3.3.

Living in southern California, that’s not much of a quake. But it’s a good reminder to be prepared for disasters in general. Which kind you should prepare for depends on where you live.

One of the big things we did was have a quake talk with the kids. Basic stuff like what to do in a quake, places of the house to avoid (that would be shelves and other furniture that might tip), where to go if they needed to get out of the house and getting help if 911 isn’t available.

All stuff we hope they never need, but should know.

We still need to rebuild our earthquake supplies. We had a good stash in the Poway house, and a good place to keep it. Haven’t quite figured out the storage problem here. Inside the house is good for the most part, but if the quake’s bad enough to render the house uninhabitable, how do you get your supplies?

It’s a relatively new house so that’s not too likely to be a problem even in a bad quake, but you never know.

I’m not big on going wild with preparations for all kinds of disasters, but I do believe in having water and food available for at least a few days for all members of the family, some medical supplies and so forth. It’s been proven that you cannot assume the government will be able to help out everyone in the event of a disaster within a reasonable time frame. Better to have something to take care of your own family.