It’s back to school time. My two older kids have been back for a couple of days and I’m still getting used to the routine. In fact, I’m working on a new one, adding in more specific fitness time and fun time for my youngest. Of course, I also want more work time. These hours with fewer kids are something any work at home parent should take advantage of.

Start the Day Well

I’m lucky. My school is walking distance, as in takes less time to walk there than to load the kids, drive there, find a parking space and unload the kids. Like most schools, the first few days are the worst for drop off, with cars parking almost up to my house. Of course we walk.

This is a great time to make sure that my day gets off to a good start. I’m up, out and about. Perfect time to take a longer walk, so I go around the school block, which is about 1.3 miles, almost entirely on a hill. Downhill is pretty easy, but that uphill is on the steep side. Not San Francisco steep, but respectable enough.

I’m alternating this with walking my toddler to the playground. It’s a longer walk total, but with the playground time I get a good break between sections. She loves the time there, as she’s well aware that there’s a playground at the school, and she’s not allowed to use it. Giving her time to play outside while the day isn’t too hot helps tire her a little too.

This is a great way to get the day going if you want to be sure to include exercise in your daily routine. It’s nice to get it done before the day gets hot or you get too involved in work and suddenly realize you forgot to exercise again.

If the weather isn’t right, you can simply play with any kids you still have at home. Give them some attention before you get busy with work.

Plan Your Day

One of the things I do early each day is a bit of marketing work. It may be link building or other very basic marketing activities. Nothing too intense at this point, because I have a toddler who demands attention at random intervals, so I want these times to be work which I can leave and come back to easily.

As my littlest one naps while her siblings are at school, that’s perfect serious work time. Time to work on video marketing, article writing, anything which requires focus and/or quiet.

After the kids get back from school, it’s back to less focused work for me, if I do much at all. There’s homework to be dealt with most days, plus talking about their day, things like that. Things aren’t always terribly productive later in the day for me, up until the kids are in bed, at which point I may choose to work again on things that require more focus, assuming I have the energy.

Your own schedule may well vary from mine. You could get up before the rest of your family because you’re more productive in the early mornings, a thought which makes me (a night owl) shudder. If it works for you, make the most of it.

If all your kids are in school, you probably have a good number of solid work hours, and you should really take advantage of them. Get away from distractions as best you can and get some work done.

I suggest you have at least enough of a schedule to ensure that you do all the things you need to get done every day. If you have a home business, be sure you include some marketing activities every day, for example. If you have a work at home job, see how much you can get done with the kids out of the way.

A to do list or a written out schedule may help. Think about what you need to get done each day and write it down. If you like schedules, estimate the time you’ll need for each and what time you will work on it. Do something so that you’re accountable to yourself at the very least.

Don’t Overdo Activities

Some kids love to be signed up for all sorts of activities, and back to school is a big time to hear about activities to sign up for, clubs to join and so forth. If you have to take your child to a lot of activities, you may be eating into your own work hours or your child’s homework or relaxation time, both important.

Same goes for you, of course. Don’t give yourself more work than you can handle. Work hard, yes. Overwork, no. We all need time to rest and clear our heads.

If there’s one thing that’s hard about working at home, it’s finding the time to actually work, especially if you set your own schedule. It’s way too easy to get distracted if you aren’t strict with yourself and truly dedicated to the work you’re doing. Even with that dedication, however, it’s sometimes hard to get in the hours you need for working.

One of the most effective ways to find time to work is to recognize the time that you’re wasting during the day. We all do it, and some downtime is certainly necessary. Working at home successfully, however, requires a different balance.

TV Time

The time you spend watching television is perhaps one of the simplest to limit or give up. It’s not productive, and you may find that there are a number of shows you can give up with minimal regret in order to earn a living from home.

You may not need to cut back on all the time you watch television, but the more you do cut, the more time you can spend on more productive activities.

Online Time Wasters

The internet is another place where many of us waste a lot of time. Checking email, forums and social sites takes more time than it has to. They’re fun and you can tell yourself that you’re being productive when they relate to the work you’re doing.

The key here is to keep things under control. Don’t check your email or favorite sites for hours on end or over and over again throughout the day. Set times and time limits for these things. They’re tools, and used correctly they won’t suck up excessive amounts of your day, but benefit you the way they should.

Checking your stats can be another time waster. There are times when it’s perfectly appropriate to check your stats throughout the day, but much of the time you can keep a much lighter eye on things. Stats only need to be frequently checked if there’s something you’re looking for in them, such as how a paid campaign is working out.

I don’t mean ignore your stats, of course. You do need to know how things are working for you. Many times you are just fine looking things over once a week or so.

Online research can be a danger as well. It’s very easy to get sucked into reading more than you need on a particular topic, or get dragged into something unrelated but fascinating. Pay attention to how much time you’re spending on such things when you’re trying to have productive work hours.

Other People

Other people are often huge distractions when you work at home. Some you can’t help but pay attention to, such as children who need your attention at that instant. You just have to deal with those situations.

People who call you on the phone or drop by for a chat, or the spouse who hasn’t learned to respect your work hours may be another matter. You want to be social and pay attention to the important relationships in your life, but you need to have them respect your work hours from home as they would respect your work if you were elsewhere.

Clutter

Clutter is a time waster in that it slows you down when you can’t find things. Since my kids tend to put schoolwork on my desk, sometimes that includes my mouse and keyboard. That one is a small issue, but it certainly adds to some of the minor frustrations of working at home.

Getting Your Time Under Control

If you’re struggling to come up with productive time for working at home, you must come up with a plan to help you. You have some ideas of what’s causing the problem, now comes the time to fix it.

1. Set time limits.

For certain activities, set time limits. This is particularly important for things that get your attention for longer than they should, such as social websites. Set a timer if you need to and stop that activity once it goes off.

2. Have a schedule.

Many people find a written schedule of some sort to be extremely helpful. Know what you need to get accomplished each day and about how long you intend to spend on it.

A schedule can also help you figure out when the best times are for things such as running errands, doing housework and so forth. Try to schedule these things when you’re less likely to be productive in your work.

3. Plan with your family.

Talk to your family about your work needs. Find ways to fit their needs with your own.

The younger the children are, the less they’ll be able to help you with this, but you can still figure out when you can work while they’re young. Naptimes, after bedtime and any time the kids are in school or elsewhere are good times for you to work.

It’s about a week and a half until my daughter’s homeschool program officially starts. To be accurate, it’s an independent study course through an online public school. CAVA provides us with a teacher to contact, and classes to attend on Tuesdays so there’s some in person interaction with fellow students and the teacher.

This is going to be a huge impact on my routine. It’s going to be interesting, and that’s why I’ve started the changes now, before things get started.

My goals in changing the routine now aren’t just about me. They’re about getting my daughter into a bit of a school routine before she has to be on it. We’re doing math and a bit of writing, mostly, at this point. Next week I’ll be having her learn how to use the online programs for her homeschool so that we’ll be completely set when attendance starts to matter.

Our day starts just as though she were still attending the local public school. I have to walk my son to kindergarten anyhow, which gets all of us moving bright and early. No point to dawdling the morning away.

I give her some math problems – addition, subtraction, multiplication. Caught her early on not paying attention to the signs on the problems, but now she pays better attention and shows her work, which is really improving her accuracy. Very useful for when she’s doing regular school work.

We’re figuring out how to deal with my youngest, who loves her big sister and wants to be a distraction. My oldest is quite capable of distracting herself from her school work, and really doesn’t need help from her siblings.

I’ve warned my daughter that she owns her homeschool time. If she doesn’t work, she’ll be stuck at her desk until it’s done. I’m still reminding her some that she needs to focus when she starts goofing off, but the goal is for her to manage her time without a lot of nagging from me. I know she can do it.

Besides, often enough I’ll be involved directly enough in the process that she’d better be paying attention.

I also figure on using Sunday evenings to plan out the week ahead. That’s a tip I got from some of the moms on the K12 site, and it makes a lot of sense. Have plans so that I know what I need to be ready for the week ahead.

A big thing is being stricter with myself on the times I have available for work. They need to be more productive. I do some work by my daughter’s side when my youngest is napping, and I’m getting better about grabbing the laptop when the kids are playing together and don’t need me. Can’t sneak off to my desktop… that’s just begging for trouble. Perfect bait for a still breastfeeding toddler to come up, want to nurse, pound on the keyboard and mess with whatever she can reach on the desktop.

She does the same often enough for the laptop, but it takes only a moment to close it and protect whatever I was doing.

I don’t expect to have this all solved before we officially get started; in fact, I don’t expect to have this all solved within the first few months. But I figure I can have things in some sort of order, and work from there.

Watching my husband try to take a piece of candy from our toddler the other day made me realize that taking candy from a baby is a lot like working at home. It’s not nearly as easy as they want you to think, and if you do it wrong there might be tears involved.

Oh, and like many people trying to work at home, my husband gave up on getting the candy away from our toddler.

You Have to Have a Plan

If you don’t want the baby to cry when you take a piece of candy away,  you have to have a plan. Maybe a toy to distract the child with or something else that will make the baby take notice. It doesn’t always work, but it’s the best shot you have.

You also need a plan when you’re working at home, whether it’s looking for a work at home job, working at one or running a home business. You need to have some idea as to what you’re doing, whether it’s the kind of work you’re looking for, how you’re going to make the time to work, or what your customers need.

Don’t Let the Tears Get to You

When it really matters that baby doesn’t have the candy, tears don’t matter. You take that candy away and deal with the tears.

You also can’t let the frustration of working at home stop you every time. If you need to make it work, keep trying until you find a way. There are a lot of ways to earn money from home, many kinds of work at home jobs and an amazing variety of home businesses you could run. If you keep at it, you’ll probably find the solution that’s going to work for you.

You can add more hours to your working day. You can add in another job. You can cut down on the number of sites you’re trying to run. You can increase the number of sites you’re trying to run. You can do more research and read more on relevant sites and forums. You can buy tools to speed up your work.

If working at home isn’t working out perfectly, make a change. A small change may be enough or you may need to make a big one. Just don’t sit there frustrated – make it work!

Know When to Give In

Sometimes the particular sort of work at home you’re doing isn’t going to work out, just as sometimes that baby is going to enjoy that candy no matter how fast you try to take it away. There are times when it’s best to just give in and find something else to do… and times to keep trying no matter what.

If working at home isn’t working out despite your best efforts, take a look at why it’s not working out. What are the obstacles you haven’t overcome yet? What will it take to overcome those obstacles? Is it going to be worth it?

The answer won’t always be yes. Sometimes you’re going to have to make a big change in what you’re doing. Sometimes you will have to give up and start working outside the home.

Giving up for a time doesn’t mean you have to give up forever. But when you need the income, you need the income and you do what it takes. Working from home is a luxury you can’t always have right away, no matter how hard you work to earn it, or how much it would benefit you and your family. Even if it’s the only practical way for you to earn money, it’s not going to be an easy path for most.

If you’re really determined to work at home, keep trying. Failure is one of the steps most of us have to take before we succeed.

What is the difference between a work at home job and a home business?

A work at home job is a job you perform from your home office. You may be telecommuting from a job that you previously did from an office. You may work 100% from home or have to drive to an office occasionally or to client sites at times.

You may work as a contract employee or a regular employee.

A home business is a business you run from your home office. You pay all the expenses associated with your home business. Sometimes your home business involves working as an independent contractor for another business but you may also have a network marketing business, website design business, affiliate marketing business, etc.

When should you pay for a work at home job?

Never is awfully close to the truth, but it can depend on how you’re defining paying for a job. It is acceptable to pay for a service such as Home Job Stop that helps you to find out about new work at home jobs, but you have to be careful that you pick a legitimate service. There are similar companies out there that do not provide current information.

A very few legitimate employers, such as Arise, have expenses associated with getting a job with them. Some expect you to pay for your own background check.

Never, ever pay to prove that you’re serious or anything like that. If a work at home job is suggesting that you pay anything, check them out extremely carefully before sending in any money, even just a few dollars.

How do you spot work at home scams?

Work at home scams can be easy to spot, but the can also be quite devious. I go into many of the more typical work at home scams on this site sometimes.

Some basic rules of thumb:

Don’t pay for a job, see above.

If it seems too good to be true it probably is.

No one is going to pay you $3000-5000 per month for part time, easy work. You earn that kind of money part time, it’s probably a home business and you’re risking some of your own money. And if they promise you that kind of money even for a home business they may not be trustworthy.

Understand what you’re getting paid to do.

Do not give out your bank account information until you know for certain you have a trustworthy employer.

Do not agree to cash cashier’s checks or reship products.

When in doubt, ask someone else, whether it be a spouse or the people on a work at home forum.

Are the jobs full time or part time?

Many work at home jobs can be either part time or full time. However, it can be hard to get work for all of the hours you sign up for in some jobs. It can take more than one job to get all of the hours you would like to work.

Customer service jobs, for example, typically pay on talk time, not scheduled time. That’s a big difference if it’s a quiet day on the job.

Many pay on production rather than hours worked anyhow. Be more productive and you earn more in less time.

Do I have to work a set schedule?

This depends on the job. When I worked in medical transcription I had to set a schedule for myself. If I couldn’t work it I needed to let them know. But I could change it around quite easily.

What kind of work can be done from home?

Just about any job that can be done on a computer that does not require face to face interaction can be done online. Data entry (real data entry, not the scams), customer service, computer programming, general, legal or medical transcription, administrative work, writing, accounting and more are all possibilities.

Will they train me?

Depends on what you mean by train you. Will they take someone with no job experience and train them to a highly difficult job? No.

Will they teach you what you need to know for the particular job you’ve been accepted for when you already have the background and experience? Yes.

Will they provide the equipment I need to work from home?

This varies. In many cases you are expected to provide your own computer, phone and internet connection. Some employers will provide equipment to you or have it available for rent.

Do I really need daycare for the kids?

That depends on what you’re doing, the age of your kids, when you want to work and other factors. Consider my recent post on using daycare when you work at home.

Some jobs require absolutely silent backgrounds. Customer service jobs, for example. If your kids are too noisy you can lose you job. Think carefully on the childcare issue.