Keeping up with all you have to do is not easy for a stay at home or work at home mom. No matter what you do, something will come up to use up all of your spare time. Fortunately, there are a lot of free and cheap online tools for moms which can help you get everything done.

Groceries And Meals

AllRecipes

All Recipes is my favorite recipe site, mostly due to the user ratings. If I like a recipe, I print it out and file it in a binder. Much more effective for me than buying a cookbook. I write notes on changes I’ve made so I can keep track easily.

Website – iOS – Android

Yummly

Yummly is another great way to find recipes online. You can select recipes and use them to create a shopping list for the week. The recipes come from blogs all over the internet, so the range of possibilities is amazing.

Website – iOS – Android

Amazon Fresh

Amazon Fresh offers grocery delivery to your door in certain areas. If it’s hard to get out shopping, this can be a huge help. You can get fresh produce, meats, prepared foods and more through Amazon Fresh. This is an addon membership – you must also be a member of Amazon Prime.

If Fresh isn’t available in your area, you can also get items delivered via Amazon Prime Pantry. You must be a member of Amazon Prime to use Prime Pantry.

InstaCart

InstaCart is a grocery delivery service available in many areas. You can get same day delivery, which is great for those times when you don’t want to drag the kids to the grocery store.

Website – iOS – Android

Money

Ibotta

Ibotta gives you cash back on qualified purchases. The offers change regularly, and may include cash back on purchases from popular stores such as Costco, Whole Foods, Walmart and many more. It’s not just groceries, too. You may get cash back on travel, electronics, and more.

If you use my referral code – gflmbgj – I get cash back and you get a bonus in your new account too.

Website – iOS – Android

Checkout 51

Checkout 51 is much like Ibotta. Find deals on the app, then buy the items and scan your receipt. The great part is they don’t care which store you bought the product at.

Website – iOS – Android

BerryCart

One of the biggest problems with a lot of the money back shopping apps is that they don’t give money back on many healthy foods. BerryCart does. Their focus is on organic, gluten free and non-GMO foods.

Website – iOS – Android

Varage Sale

Want to get rid of the clutter in your home? The Varage Sale app can help you list things you’re ready to sell. They verify the identity of all users, so you know who you’re meeting up with when you make a sale or a purchase.

iOS – Android

Scholly

As your kids approach college age, odds are that scholarships are on your mind. Scholly can help you find scholarships for them to apply for. The monthly subscription is $2.99 as of this writing, but it could easily pay for itself if your child finds some good scholarships.

Website – iOS – Android

Communication

Skype

Skype has become quite popular as a way to call family members who are far away. The company one of my sisters works for even uses it to keep all their home-based employees in contact. They just stay logged into Skype anytime they’re working, for meetings and so forth. For many uses it’s free, but other features require payment.

If you have Windows 10, you already have Skype on your computer.

iOS – Android

Google Voice

You can use Google Voice to send text messages or make phone calls from your computer. It’s a great option for a free phone number if you have a home business.

Website – iOS – Android

Peanut

Finding mom friends is hard, and that’s where Peanut comes in. It’s kind of like Tinder, but for making friends with other moms. You can chat and create group conversations, and make plans to meet other moms in your area.

Website – iOS – Android

Nextdoor

Nextdoor is a way to keep up with what’s going on in your neighborhood. I honestly have mixed feelings about it, as some people can be awful on it – just check out the Worst of Nextdoor Twitter account. On the other hand, it can be hilarious, as seen on the Best of Nextdoor Twitter account – which still shows some bad behavior, but it’s the stuff you can see as funny.

In some neighborhoods, it works out pretty well. You can find out about local events or ask neighbors how to find a local babysitter. Your address has to be verified to join.

Website – iOS – Android

Scheduling

Remember the Milk

There’s a great free version that will do for most people. It can remind you of tasks by email, SMS or instant messenger. You can even attach files in Google Drive or Dropbox to tasks.

Website – iOS – Android

Cozi Family Organizer

Cozi Family Organizer can help you keep your life organized in so many ways. You can help everyone in the family keep up on family activities and events, update your grocery shopping list, plan meals, and more. You can share appointments from calendars such as Google Calendar to Cozi.

The free version of Cozi is supported by ads, but you can pay for the Gold version to get rid of the ads and get some extra features.

Website – iOS – Android

Google Calendar

Yes, I enjoy a lot of Google’s free products. Google Calendar lets me input all kinds of important events, from birthdays repeating every year, to one time events. Then it can be set to email me and anyone else I choose in advance as a reminder. I’m terrible with birthdays, so I like setting reminders to about two weeks in advance. Makes me look like the organized one in the family.

Events can be set to public or private, so I can keep things to myself while sharing things that I want others to know.

Website – iOS – Android

Chorma

Whose turn is it to take out the trash? Figure it out with Chorma! The app makes it easy to assign chores and give points for doing them. It syncs between devices, so everyone knows what jobs they need to get done.

Website – iOS

When You Need Help

Task Rabbit

For those times when you need help getting something done around the house. You can use Task Rabbit to find someone to do general handyman work, assemble furniture, heavy lifting, and more.

Website – iOS – Android

Bambino

Need a sitter? Bambino will help you find one, even if it’s short notice. You pick from sitters in your area who can then accept or decline the job. You can even pay with the app.

Website – iOS – Android

Fitness

Fitbit

Wearing a Fitbit can be a great way to keep track of your physical activity throughout the day and track how you sleep. There are, of course, many other fitness trackers to choose from that will do much the same.

Windows Store – iOS – Android

FitMama

FitMama offers workouts that you can do in 5-10 minutes, with the goal of getting fit after having a baby. It allows you to choose a pace you’re comfortable with and tracks your progress.

iOS – Android

Healthy Wage

If you’re really confident that you can meet your weight loss goals, you can risk some money through Healthy Wage. You can make an individual bet or join a team challenge. Obviously, this could get expensive if you lose your bets.

Website – iOS – Android

For The Kids

Playground Buddy

Finding a playground in an unfamiliar area is difficult. Playground Buddy makes it easier by letting you search a database of more than 350,000 playgrounds in over 170 countries. When the kids really need to get some energy out, that could be a huge help.

If you know of a park that isn’t in the database, you can add it. Share the features of the park to make it really useful.

iOS – Android

Trekaroo

Much like Playground Buddy, but Trekaroo helps you find all kinds of family friendly activities, including hotels and restaurants.

iOS

Happy Kids Timer

How long does it take your kids to get through their morning and evening routines? I have to be honest, sometimes even my teens go slow. And while a teenager isn’t likely to appreciate being timed by an app, younger kids may like how this app turns it into a game.

iOS – Android

What Online Tools For Moms Do You Like?

Now it’s your turn. What apps and online tools for moms help you keep your life organized, save money or otherwise help you be the best mom you can be?

The post 25 Free And Cheap Online Tools For Moms appeared first on Home with the Kids Blog.

Just about no one feels like going to work every day, even when you love what you do. Sometimes you just want a day off. When you work at home that’s often possible, but it’s not always a good idea if you’re serious about earning a living. How can you push yourself to have a productive work at home day when you’re really not in the mood to work?

Consider the cause.

Why is it that you aren’t in the mood to work? What’s making it so hard to have a productive work at home day?

There can be a lot of reasons why you just aren’t in the mood to work on certain days. You might be tired from staying up late from a sick child. You might be sick yourself. Maybe you’re having a frustrating time with your current project. Or it could be that it’s such a beautiful day that you’d rather be doing other things.

Another reason why you might be procrastinating is because you don’t really want to work on what you ought to that day. Maybe it’s something new and you’re nervous about how it will go. Maybe it’s a part of your job or business you don’t really enjoy.

Whatever the reason, acknowledging why you aren’t in the mood to work on a particular day can help you get past the problem. It can start you on the path to more productive thinking, so long as you don’t start dwelling on the negative side of things.

Once you know why you don’t want to work, remind yourself of why you do what to work. What do you expect to get out of the work you do today?

What about depression?

If you have a constant issue with motivation to get things done, you may also want to consider whether you’re suffering from depression or other issues that you should discuss with your doctor. Anyone can have these issues, and it’s important to get help for yourself if you need it.

It took me a long time to get to where I could talk to my doctor about my anxiety and depression, and it did not go well the first time. He just told me to get more exercise. Sure, exercise can help with mood to an extent, but it’s not a solution for depression. It was like a slap in the face to be dismissed so offhand on an issue that I had struggled to bring up.

My new doctor is much better and is working with me on figuring out what will help.

Do a quick work out.

While exercise won’t take care of the problem if you’re clinically depressed, it can help if all you need is to get moving.

A quick walk around the block or a bit of time on any exercise equipment you may own (I have a Total Gym that has come in handy at times) can improve your mood. A bit of exercise can satisfy that need to feel as though you’re procrastinating, yet make you more productive in the long run.

Take days off regularly.

Don’t try to work seven days a week, every week. There may be times that this is necessary, but it shouldn’t be your life. Take time off every week, especially when you can do things with your family.

Time off is important. Your brain needs to rest. You need to have fun and stay connected with your family.

Write a to do list.

A to do list can help you quite a bit when you aren’t quite in the mood to work. Use it to guide your day’s work, so you have no doubt about what you most need to get done that day.

Break big tasks into smaller ones to make it easier to check things off. It’s easier to be productive you if continue to see that you’ve made progress. If a task is too big, you may not feel like you’re getting enough done when in fact you’ve done quite a bit.

This can be especially helpful with unpleasant or difficult tasks that you’ve been avoiding. Rather than staring at a huge chunk of “I hate doing that,” you see the steps necessary to get the task done.

Take breaks.

Taking regular breaks from work is something you should do even when you are in the mood to work. There are good reasons why employers are required to give breaks, after all. A break refreshes your mind, and you may get more done with breaks than you would without breaks.

A break should be something more than continuing to sit at your computer. Get up. Do something entirely different from what you’ve been doing. Have some fun.

The Pomodoro technique is one method I’ve mentioned in the past. You set a timer for 25 minutes or however long you want the chunk to be, work that entire time, then take a 5 minute break. It’s a great help when you’re struggling to find the time to work at home, as it breaks things down into chunks you can deal with.

Tell someone else what you plan to get done today.

Sometimes internal motivation just isn’t enough. You need to have an external push to get things going. Tell a friend or family member what you’re going to get done, post your goal on your Facebook wall, or otherwise tell someone what you’re going to get done today.

Knowing that others expect you to reach a particular goal can give you that extra push. Who wants to explain why you didn’t reach that goal you shared? Just don’t waste too much of the day updating people on your progress.

It can be helpful to have an accountability partner. Your spouse may be able to help, or you can ask a friend to help keep you on track. If they also work at home, you can help them be more productive too.

Start with a small job.

What’s one of the little things you need to get done, something not all that overwhelming? Maybe just a 5-15 minute job. If you’re having trouble getting in the mood for work in general, it may help to do some small thing, insignificant in itself, that will get you to do any work at all.

It’s often easier to keep working once you have started working. You’re past that mental “I don’t want to” block.

Remind yourself why you’re working at home.

Sure, you know why you’re working at home, but do you really think about that reason or just take it for granted? Inspire yourself by thinking about why you do what you do.

Are you home for your kids or to care for an aging parent? Maybe it’s because the opportunity fell into your lap and you went for it. Possibly you work at home because it’s better than dealing with people face to face all the time.

We all have our reasons for working at home. Keep them in mind when it’s hard to be motivated.

Consider a change of scenery.

Sometimes it’s hard to get in the mood to work at home because you’re tired of staring at the same walls every day. Maybe you’re tired of being alone at work.

If your work permits, consider a change of scenery. Anything from working in a different room to the yard or even at a coffee shop or coworking space can help.

Don’t worry about motivation – just get to work!

Feeling motivated to work is all well and good, but sometimes it’s irrelevant. The only thing that really matters is that you get to work. You can grumble to yourself about how little you want to be doing things so long as they still get done.

You are the only thing that is stopping you when you say you don’t feel like working. There’s nothing and no one holding you back. If you can get past yourself, you can accomplish a lot.

I know it’s not always that simple, or at least it doesn’t feel that way. And yet, that’s what many people have to do when they work outside the home and work where their boss can see them. Mood doesn’t matter. You get things done because that’s your job.

The post How To Have A Productive Day When You Just Aren’t In The Mood appeared first on Home with the Kids Blog.

Most people make some mistakes when they’re working at home. There’s a learning curve, easier for some than for others. A part of the problem has to do with common misconceptions about working at home. Still, if you’re aware of the more common work at home mistakes, you may be able to avoid them.

You can make these work at home mistakes whether you’re self employed or work for someone else. It doesn’t matter who sets the rules or determines what hours you need to work. What matters is how these mistakes impact the productivity of your work at home day.

1. Too Little Childcare

Most parents who work at home do so specifically because they don’t want to use childcare. They have visions of working at home and being a good parent at the same time.

The problem is that this doesn’t always work. It works better for some than for others, but most people who work at home have times where they really need someone else watching the kids.

That even goes for me. My best work hours are when my husband can watch the kids, or they’re asleep. It’s hard working when they’re awake and needing my attention. It’s not that I use the phone in my work and need quiet – they’re just distracting.

Be realistic about any childcare needs you may have when you work at home. Make sure you schedule calls or meetings at times when the kids won’t be an issue. You don’t necessarily need to hire someone to care for your child, but you do need to make sure you can appear as professional as necessary.

You may not need to get this perfect. There are circumstances when people will be very understanding if you say you’re a work at home mom or dad. Other times this may not be so. Be very aware of the image you present to your managers, supervisors, and/or clients. It can make a huge difference.

What About When The Kids Are Sick?

It can be extra difficult to work at home when the kids are sick. They may actually need you at times that you’re supposed to be working. What then?

How you deal with this depends on your family’s situation. Don’t assume that just because you’re the work at home parent that you’re the only choice to deal with a sick child. You may not be.

Sure, if your child doesn’t need you all that badly but does need to stay at home for the day, you may be able to keep working as normal. It’s one of the advantages of working at home.

But if a day off work is necessary, think about which parent can afford that. It may not always be the work at home parent. Sometimes you’ll be the one who can’t get off work, and the work outside the home spouse will need to care for the sick child.

2. You Allow Yourself Too Many Distractions

You’re home, the TV’s there, you’re online, what distractions will you resist? You may believe that you can work while you watch a favorite show, but can you really? How much will it slow you down? And can you resist when the dog is being so cute?

And then there’s the house.

The house just gets to be a mess sometimes, doesn’t it? Especially if you have kids around. It’s way too easy to take some time out to make your house look a little better when you ought to be earning a living.

Moving a bit of laundry quickly probably isn’t so bad, although folding it may take more time than you ought to give during your workday.

The problem comes in when you do too many household chores at the wrong time. If the laundry needs to be done that day, try to work around it without allowing it to take over what should have been your work hours. It’s your balance to strike – only you know if you can stand the extra wrinkles in the clothes if you don’t fold the laundry right away or if you’ll lose less time overall by folding them immediately.

Limit the distractions, and you’ll be much more productive. Pick the times you allow them wisely.

This can be best handled by creating a work at home schedule for yourself. Set aside times for the things that might otherwise be distractions. You can make a block of time where you can play with the cat, walk the dog, or have fun with the kids.

Some Distractions Are Okay

You don’t have to work in perfect silence if your work doesn’t require it. Appropriate distractions can help.

Many people like to listen to music as they work, for example. They may even find that it helps with productivity.

If there’s an emergency in your home, obviously you want to be distracted from work to deal with that as well. Teach your family when it’s okay to distract you from work and when to leave you alone.

3. Working Too Much

While you want to look professional, there is such a thing as working too much. Work hours are work hours, family or personal time are yours. Give yourself enough hours away from work to recover and enjoy your life.

Don’t forget to take breaks too. 15 minutes to refresh yourself every couple hours can give your productivity a boost. Just because your work at home hours are flexible doesn’t mean you have to work them straight through. That’s a bad idea.

The right amount of work depends on the needs of your job or business and the income you need to earn. Don’t treat yourself worse than you’d allow an employer to treat you. There may be times where you have to work a ton of hours, but don’t do that to yourself all the time.

Starting up a business, it’s not that uncommon to hear of people putting in 12-16 hours a day or even more. They want success that bad. It’s rough, but sometimes it’s what has to be done.

But you can overdo that. Some people burn out from working so many hours. That’s not good for your home business, no matter how badly you need to succeed.

Take at least one day off every week, and preferably two. Spend time doing things other than working. Have fun.

A comfortable home office with a door can help with this. When you’re outside of work hours, close that door and do not go back to work until it’s time. That physical separation between home and work can help in many ways.

The Flip Side

The flip side of this is taking too many breaks.

I don’t just mean the kind of breaks where you walk away from your computer. I also mean when you spend a little time on social media in the middle of your day, or play a game for a few minutes.

How quickly do those things add up?

Think about it. And be smart about your breaks.

4. Not Expecting To Be Treated As A Professional

Many work at home parents feel as though other people don’t treat them as serious professionals. Sometimes it’s that other people can have trouble recognizing that working from home is just as serious as working outside of it – it took my mother-in-law years, but she gets it now. Other times it’s that you don’t appear to take your work hours seriously, so why should others do so?

Be a professional. Don’t be the one everyone turns to when their kids are sick unless your work hours really allow you to do that. Do the favors that you would be able to do if you had an outside the home job, not the ones that take away from your work hours and income.

This includes your family. While you want to be there for them, do your best to keep your work and their needs balanced. As mentioned above, this can include paid childcare.

If it helps you to dress professionally to feel professional, then do it! There’s nothing wrong with dressing professionally even if no one is going to see you. On the other hand, if you can be productive in everyday clothes, that’s fine too. Dress in whatever way makes it easier for you to act the professional you are and be productive.

Are Pajamas A Mistake?

Some people will swear that the ability to work in your pajamas is one of the great things about working from home. Others consider it to be one of the worst work at home mistakes you can make. Which is it?

That depends on you.

Can you be productive in your pajamas?

Will you feel like taking a nap because they’re so comfy?

Will your boss or clients see you in them?

Think about all of the things that could go wrong because you wore your pajamas while working at home? Is any of it significant in your case?

If you can be productive while wearing pajamas and no one will see you, go for it! But if wearing PJs while you work at home will cause you problems, dress a little nicer.

5. You Don’t Take Enough Advantage Of Technology

You work at home. You’re online all the time. How much more advantage could you be taking of modern technology in your work?

Possibly plenty!

Upping your tech game doesn’t have to be difficult or scary. Many of the things you can do to make your work at home time better aren’t difficult at all.

For example, if you don’t have a separate phone number for your home business, it’s easy to get one without having a new phone line installed. Sign up with a VOIP provider, and you’ll have a phone number completely separate from your home phone.

I use Google Voice because it’s free and I rarely need to make or receive calls in my business. If you’ll be making a lot of calls, you may need a better service, but Google Voice suits my needs.

You should also have automatic backups set for your data, especially the important stuff. There are lots of cloud backup companies that will help keep your data safe, even if your home is destroyed in a disaster.

I also suggest keeping a local backup. A 1-2 TB external backup drive doesn’t cost a fortune, and gives you a copy of your data in your home for in case your computer dies. It’s nice to know that you won’t have to download all of your data unless things go really, really wrong.

Can You Be Productive Away From Home?

One of the things people tout about working from home is the ability to get away from home and keep working. Coffee shops and coworking spaces are popular options. But are they right for you?

This depends on the work you do and how well you cope with the possible distractions.

Coffee shops and other such places are potential workspaces because technology makes them so. You bring your laptop and connect to their wifi or your data plan, and work just like you would at home.

Or do you?

If you want to work away from home, be sure that you will keep focused on work, not on socializing. Just because technology makes it possible doesn’t mean you should do it. But if it helps, do it!

Don’t Let Work At Home Mistakes Stop You

If you’ve come to realize that you’re making a lot of mistakes while working at home, don’t feel bad. Most of us make mistakes, especially when learning how to deal with working at home.

What matters is how you deal with your mistakes after making them.

It doesn’t matter if you feel as though you’ve gone through the work at home school of hard knocks or if you’ve had a relatively easy time of it. What matters is that you keep going. You haven’t completely failed until you give up, and even then, you can move onto something else and still succeed.

The post 5 Common Work At Home Mistakes And How To Avoid Them appeared first on Home with the Kids Blog.

Have you ever had unexpected guests show up on a day you need to work at home? It can really mess up your productivity. If you want people to take your work at home job or business seriously, you usually have to enforce your work hours strictly. But are there times you should give in and just be with your unexpected guests? That depends on a few factors.

I had this situation recently, although it was entirely my own doing. I ran into a friend at the store and invited her over spontaneously. She moved out of the area a while ago, so I very rarely see her. It was a snap decision to change my schedule so that we could catch up for a while.

That’s not always a good idea, but it worked for me this time. We had a great visit, and I worked extra another time. That’s the nice part about being self employed. I can get away with that. Not everyone can.

How Strict Is Your Work At Home Schedule?

If you work for someone else and you have a strict schedule, you probably cannot afford to let unexpected guests interfere with that. With some companies, it would mean risking your job. That’s almost never worth it.

If someone shows up wanting to visit and your schedule simply won’t allow it, say so or don’t even answer the door. No matter how some people may try to guilt you, you are under no obligation to play host just because someone else has the time to visit.

If you have a lot of trouble with unexpected guests coming to your door when you need to work, consider investing in a Ring doorbell or similar. This can make a lot easier to see if you want to answer the door at all. Keep it muted if you can’t have background noise, of course.

Can You Adjust Your Schedule?

If you can change your schedule so that you have time to visit with your unexpected guests. As I said above, that’s what I did so I could visit with my friend.

If you can work later in the day or on a different day without creating problems for yourself, you can decide if you want to visit with your guests more than you want to work at that moment.

I do not recommend doing this often, as you will create an expectation that of course you will drop everything. That’s bad when you can’t change your schedule. I doubt that I change mine for unexpected guests more than once a year.

Do You Think You Can Spare The Time?

Even if you can adjust your schedule, can you really spare the time? Be honest with yourself.

If you have a deadline, that time has to be made up somehow. If you don’t have a deadline, will adjusting your schedule make it harder to reach your goals?

Be very careful in how often you spare the time for guests when it wasn’t planned ahead. You don’t want anyone thinking this should be a routine thing.

When you can spare the time for guests, it’s one of the perks of working at home. When you can’t, it’s the same disadvantage as any other job.

Set Time Limits

If someone comes over at a time you consider it reasonable to call it a break time, make sure they understand that. Explain that it’s just like your break time at any other job – you have maybe 15 minutes for most breaks, or however much longer if it’s a meal break.

Then enforce those limits.

Time limits can be more difficult to enforce than a flat out “no.” You know how conversations can carry on. You may have to be as strict with yourself as you are with your guest.

Make Plans For Later

If now is not a good time, but sometime later is, let your guests know. Just tell them “I’m off work at x, and I’d love to see you then,” and send them on their way.

This may be easier said than done, but making your work hours clear and enforcing the idea that you are truly busy at those times is important. You’d do the same to someone who interrupted you on the way to an outside the home job, right?

Can Someone Else Entertain Them?

If you aren’t home alone while you work at home, maybe the other people there can entertain the guests.

This is why my kids can have friends over while I work without disturbing me, provided the parents aren’t along. If the parents want to stay and chat, I need to be in a situation where I can afford the distraction.

I don’t have to be on the phone to work, so children playing is only so distracting. It helps that my kids are old enough that I don’t have to supervise, and the garage is set up to be a lot of fun. That keeps them well away from my office most of the time.

If your spouse has company, you may want to be polite and say hello, but you should also explain if you are not to be disturbed. Your spouse could do that as well, of course. If you do a job where background noise is not allowed, make sure the rules are well understood, as well as the reasons for them.

Can You Work And Chat?

This won’t work most of the time, especially if you have to be on the phone or otherwise undistracted. But if you can work and chat with your guests, you can be at least a little productive.

My mother recently commented on how I manage to work even with distractions around. That is one of the great parts about blogging – I can listen to the conversations around me but not take part unless I want to. Some routine tasks are even easier to handle while chatting with others.

Chatting with guests will slow down your productivity. Don’t fool yourself about that. But if it’s worth it to you and doesn’t create a complete mess of your work day, do it.

What If The Unexpected Guests Don’t Want To Hear “No?”

Some people are really bad at taking “no” for an answer. They don’t tend to take “I’m working” much better, if at all. It can be very difficult to get this kind of person to respect your work hours.

If you can get away with not answering the door, that’s one way to handle the situation. This won’t always succeed – some people will keep knocking or ringing the bell a long time. They may even call or text to insist that you answer the door.

Start with a conversation to explain why you can’t drop everything for them. It may or may not work, but it’s usually the best place to start. Not everyone understands that working at home is the same as having any other job. Help them learn to respect that.

If that isn’t enough, find someone you can enlist for help. Your spouse, a sibling, inlaw, or mutual friend may be able to get things across better.

If all else fails, be consistent in your refusals. One “yes” will make your life that much more difficult. It will take time to make stubborn people understand that they need to respect your work hours just as they would anyone else’s. The fact that you’re at home must not be allowed to make any difference that you don’t welcome.

This Goes For Texting Chats Too

These days, you may have more trouble with friends and family who want to chat all day on text or other apps, rather than visit in person. The issues are much the same, however. You have to learn to say no when it’s too distracting to your workday.

Some people may not like it, but if you can’t text at the time, a quick “I’m at work, can’t talk now” reply should be good enough. Once you’ve said that, ignore the person trying to get your attention. I know some people feel it’s rude to ignore a text, but if you’ve made it clear that it’s not a good time, the person ignoring that is the one being rude.

The post Should You Ever Let Unexpected Guests Interfere With Your Work At Home Day? appeared first on Home with the Kids Blog.

Running a home business can be one of the most challenging and rewarding things you can do for yourself and your family. Being there for your family while dealing with the demands of a business is complicated. Getting time to run your home business can be difficult. There are a number of things you can do to get more time to really focus on your work.

Set Up A Daily Routine

Have a daily routine that gets you moving. Start your day taking care of all the personal care things that need to get done, as well as any childcare issues that must be handled, and any chores you prefer to get done first thing. This keeps you from thinking all day about the things you need to get done that aren’t your home business.

For example, if I need to go grocery shopping, I do that right after dropping the kids off at school. I’m already out and about anyhow. Taking care of it first thing means I don’t have to think about it the rest of the day.

Have a daily routine for your home business as well. Set times to check your social media and email, and don’t let them eat up an excessive amount of time each day. Give yourself time each day for your routine business tasks.

Many people find it helpful to outline their tasks for each day. This can be easiest to do at the end of your workday for the next day. You’ve been working on stuff all day, and you probably know exactly what you need to work on next. Write that task list while your needs are fresh in your mind so that you don’t delay later.

Squeeze In A Little Work Where You Can

Running a home business often isn’t a strict 8-5 kind of thing. Many successful home business owners break up their workday to suit the needs of their family.

Make a list of all the little jobs you can do for your home business that only take up a little of your day. When you find time to work on them, do so. These should be things that you won’t mind so much when someone interrupts you. It’s better to get a small amount of work done than to do none at all.

Have Your Spouse Help

If you’re married or living with someone, you can ask them to be in charge of the kids when you need to work. It can be hard to get the kids to quit asking you for things if they have a habit of asking you first, but it’s good to get them used to the idea that either parent can care for them.

Depending on what your spouse does, they may not always be able to care for the kids right when you need them. I don’t mean that you should let them give any old excuse to not help – being tired from their own day at work or wanting to do something else is not always enough reason to refuse to do their share of the parenting. Other times they will have a good reason why they can’t care for the kids right when you need them to.

If your spouse is sometimes reluctant to help out, talk about where the problem is. Both parents have to shoulder their part of the parenting burden to make these things work. If your spouse truly supports the work you’re doing on your home business, they’ll help you get time to run your home business, even if that means they have to do work around the house or be the main parent while you get some business work done.

Have Family Help

Other family members can be extremely helpful as well. When we lived close enough, my inlaws took my kids overnight most weekends. We no longer live close enough for that to be practical now, but it was quite nice back then.

If you have a sibling with children close enough in age to your own, trading childcare can be nice all around. You get time to run your home business while the kids get time with their cousins. Once the kids are out of diapers, extra kids may not be that much more work for the parent in charge of them at the time. Sometimes it’s even less work, as the kids entertain each other, rather than relying on adults to play with them.

Trade Childcare

You can also trade childcare with friends. This can be done informally by taking turns, or you can use a babysitting co-op app or website to keep track of who has done how much babysitting. There are quite a few available, some free, some paid, such as:

Sit4sit
BabysittingCoop 
SittingAround
BabysitterExchange
Care.com co-ops

You can also set up your own co-op with a group of friends. Agree on some rules and set up a place where you can ask for babysitting time or tell someone you’re available. A secret Facebook group is an easy way to do this without having all your information out where just anyone can see it.

Of course, you will want to make sure you know the other families well. It is best if you all take a look at each others’ homes, so you know how child safe the home is, if guns are kept, what pets are there, and so forth. Most co-ops, once established, require a member’s recommendation for new members to join, and then they must be approved by an additional member. Some have slight fees to pay for basic supplies.

You will want to have your rules spelled out to keep members from feeling as though they are being taken advantage of by others. Sometimes one member won’t be good at reciprocating, which annoys the other parents as they feel that they’re being taken advantage of. It can also damage friendships.

This is why a co-op needs written rules and a way to track hours. It’s too easy to take advantage if others can’t directly point out where the problem is. Having clear rules and tracking can make it a little less personal.

Pay For Childcare

There are times when you will have to pay for childcare. Sometimes the free and cheap options just don’t work out with the time you need to run your home business.

For example, you may need a regular daycare situation for your kids because you work a lot of hours on your home business and can’t be distracted by kids. In that case, a more traditional style of daycare can be more practical than relying on family or friends.

You can look for local daycares on your own or use a service such as Care.com or SitterCity.com. These may be able to help you find a babysitter or daycare whether you need one daily or just once in a while.

Work While Others Sleep

If you’re a night owl or an early bird, you may be able to work while other members of your family sleep.

This won’t work for everyone, of course. The kind of work you do may not be suited to working nontraditional hours. Such hours may also not work for you personally. If you’re too tired at those times to work, working late nights or early morning is probably not for you.

Ignore Household Chores During Work Hours

One of the big ways work at home parents lose time to run their home businesses is by doing too much around the house when they should be working.

It’s not all about the kids. It’s the laundry and the dishes. Cooking dinner. Cleaning up stuff that really doesn’t have to be cleaned right now, but you decide to do it anyhow.

Don’t let the household chores get in the way of running your home business. Save it for outside your work hours.

I like to be efficient when it comes to making dinner. It’s not always possible, but using my crock pot, Instant Pot and planning ahead makes my days go better.

Some people like to set a day aside to prep freezer meals, for example. I very rarely do that. Instead, I try to make two meals while prepping one. The extra goes into the freezer rather than be cooked. It’s almost as easy to make two meatloaves as it is to make one, for example. Doing it while cooking another meal means that I don’t lose a whole day to meal prep, yet I often have an easy dinner in the freezer.

Don’t Turn On The TV

It can be tempting to binge watch your favorite show while you work on your home business. Don’t. Just don’t.

Having the television on is a huge distraction, and it will cut down on your productivity. At some point, you are going to start watching rather than working, more likely than not.

Save the TV time for when you aren’t working. You’ll enjoy the shows you watch more because your work won’t distract you from them.

If you want background noise, play some music from your collection or use a service such as Spotify. Many people feel they are more productive with at least a little background noise rather than complete silence. Music is generally far less distracting than a television show.

Set Aside Time For Reading Online And Social Media

While you should read relevant blogs and participate professionally on social media, there’s only so much of that you should do during your regular working hours. You need to set aside an appropriate amount of time for these things that won’t eat into your day.

Separate out your personal use of social media from your professional side. Don’t get into chats with family or friends when you should be working. Do share your latest blog posts or work on some social media marketing in appropriate places. Don’t get sucked into the unproductive parts of your social media presence.

It’s Up To You To Make Time To Run Your Home Business

You have to do what it takes to make time to run your home business. Others may help by taking care of distracting children and household chores, but if you don’t take your work hours seriously, you’ll always feel as if you don’t have enough time for your business.

Whenever you feel as though you’re running low on work time, take a look at where the hours are going each day. The odds are good that you’ll find places where you can squeeze in a little more work. It’s amazing how productive you can be in a short time if you’re really determined.

The post How Do You Get Time To Run Your Home Business? appeared first on Home with the Kids Blog.

With the new year approaching, many people like to review how things have been going and make resolutions or set goals for how their business will go in the new year. It’s as good a time as any to do this; in fact, reviewing your progress and setting new goals for your home business is best done a few times a year in my opinion. You need to be aware of how things are going to make sure you’re on the right path.

I’ve been doing a lot of this lately. This past year did not go as well as I wanted it to, but some things I’ve been working on are showing signs of life. My income dropped this year, and that simply will not do.

You have to adjust your goals when things like this happen. It may not be only your goals for your home business that change, however.

Take a look at other things happening in your life, especially if they make it harder for you to work on your home business. Find the parts of your life that are making it more difficult to reach your goals for your home business, and try to change them too. Ask for more help around the house. Tell your family you need more work hours and come up with ways to make that happen.

Balancing a home business with your family is a team effort even if you’re the only one who works on the business side of things. Get everyone on board to make things happen. And always remember that there are a lot of quick tasks you can do for your home business even when you don’t have a lot of time.

Keep Goals For Your Home Business Realistic

Your home business goals must be realistic. Goals that you’ll never reach are only so motivating. Lesser goals that take you in the direction of your greater goals are necessary so you know you’re making progress. You may have a goal of becoming a millionaire, for example, but what are the intermediate steps. If you don’t have realistic goals that take you in that direction, eventually you will get tired of that goal and give up.

Let’s start with something simple, say, earning $5000 a month from your home business. It’s not an excessive goal, but it’s one many of us would love to reach.

Depending on where you’re at, that may be too distant a goal or it may be a perfectly reasonable one. For this example, I’ll treat it as a distant goal, something for someone new to running a home business might be dealing with. Most of us aren’t going to hit that goal quickly – in fact, most home businesses earn much less. You need goals you can achieve so you can really feel your progress.

There are many goals you can set that will help you to know that you’re making progress toward that $5000 a month goal. They aren’t all financial, although having a goal of even $100 a month to start isn’t a bad beginning if you’re still at $0 a month. Here are some goals to consider:

Writing Goals

Most home businesses require a lot of writing. There’s a reason why blogging is such a huge part of many online home businesses. Creating new content is often one of the best things you can do for your online business.

Setting a writing goal is not as simple as deciding that you will write 2000 words a day or whatever. Sometimes you will need to do more research than writing. Sometimes a quick post will be more effective than something long-winded.

The most important thing to remember is that quality is more important than quantity. A reputation for incorrect information is hard to shake. Show your website visitors that you care about giving them the right information by doing your research when it’s needed. Cite your sources. This builds trust, even when you aren’t doing academic work.

Website Traffic Goals

How much traffic would you like to generate? Keep it simple at first, then increase. You may also want to measure this goal by increases, such as increasing your website traffic by 10%, 25%, etc.

There are a lot of ways to generate traffic to your website. Social media is extremely popular these days, as it gives you an audience that has chosen to follow you. Done right, it’s incredibly effective.

But social media is not your only option for building up traffic. You should also consider how to get links from reputable sources in your industry.

There are lots of ways to increase your website traffic. You’re usually best off focusing on no more than a few methods at a time. You can’t master them all, and you probably don’t have the time to work on all of them at once. You certainly don’t have the time to master several different traffic generation strategies at once. Taking the time to learn each one properly will make your efforts more effective.

Social Media Goals

Social media is one of the best ways to bring traffic to most websites. You have a lot of power over how people see your home business on social media, and you should try to make the most of that.

The first thing to remember is that your social media goals should be about more than numbers. Look at what you’re accomplishing with it.

Your social media goals for your home business will vary by the platform. You should look professional on LinkedIn. Twitter is often better for building relationships between a customer and a business. Instagram is about building an image, and it doesn’t let you add links to posts, making it more challenging for traffic generation.

Pinterest is highly visual, and many find it one of the best social media sites for generating traffic. People often use Pinterest for inspiration and to remember things they want to buy.

Any social media website will require time and effort to build a following. Getting to the point where things take off is difficult for most people. You can experiment with the different websites, but there are two basic things I recommend. One is that you find a good quality course to learn about the social media sites you want to try. Udemy has a good range.

The other is that you use the right tools to make scheduling your posts easier. Social media can eat up much of your day if you let it. While you should still visit the sites you use regularly so that you can interact with people and posts there, appropriate automation can take care of the basics for you. I like Hootsuite because it handles a good range of social media sites.

Networking

Social media is important for traffic generation and reputation management, but it can be so much more than that. It’s an opportunity to network with potential customers as well as other people in your industry.

Other people in your industry aren’t only your competition. Sometimes you can boost each other. Odds are that you are not offering the exact same thing to your visitors or customers. If you have networked with others in your industry through social media, you may know when to refer people to them, and they can refer people to you.

You can also network in person, of course. Go to local events, especially if they relate to your industry. Check out your local Chamber of Commerce. Talk to people about what you do.

Don’t be that obnoxious person who talks about nothing else, of course. Overdoing your in-person networking can drive friends and family away.

Education

What do you need to learn to run your business better? Set a goal to learn and apply that new skill. Learning a new skill is nothing if you never apply it. Don’t set a new goal in this area until you’re actually using the information or have consciously decided that the new information or skill is not something you want to apply to your home business.

Check out Udemy and other online education websites to see what you can learn. Pick courses carefully and commit to finishing them. Then apply what you have learned before you move on to learning something else.

As you can see, none of these on their own is about earning $5000. However, they should help you get on the right path toward that more difficult goal.

Analyze Your Efforts

Whether you reach your goals for your home business or not, you should be analyzing what went right and what went wrong. This will help you keep from making the same mistakes over and over again.

You may find, for example, that in doing your research you tend to skip the step of applying the new things you’ve learned. That’s a lot of time and very possibly money wasted. It’s a very common issue for people running any sort of online business.

You need to figure out why you aren’t applying things you’ve learned to your business. Are you too quickly attracted to bright and shiny product launches? Do you always think they’re too hard to do? Are you really trying to learn the right skill sets for what you’re willing to work on?

Once you know your mistakes you have a better chance of not making that same mistake in the future. That improves your chance of success.

Sometimes things will be beyond your immediate control. You may fail to generate the traffic you hoped to gain because your site fell in the search engine rankings for your best keyword. You can work on that problem once it’s noticed, but it may take time to fix. Knowing where the fall happened will help you figure out what to do about it.

Be sure to hold yourself accountable for your failures as well as your successes. It’s important to acknowledge both.

Even when you aren’t reaching your goals as quickly as you’d hoped, it’s vital that you set some sort of reachable goal. It’s one of the things that can motivate you to keep working on what is probably a very challenging business.

The post What Are Your Goals For Your Home Business? appeared first on Home with the Kids Blog.

Being productive is one of the great challenges of working at home. There are a lot of distractions, and usually no one to tell you to get to work. You may not even have an exact time that you have to be logged on, depending on what you do. It’s all too easy to let things slide. If you’re serious about your work, you need to plan to have a productive work at home day.

Treating your work as seriously as you would any other job is vital. You wouldn’t take random time off work in an outside the home job, at least not if you expected to stick with it. Don’t do that with your work at home job or home business, or it won’t get you anywhere.

Tips For A Productive Work At Home Day

There are a lot of little things that go into a productive work at home day. I don’t worry about what I wear, although some find it beneficial to dress professionally. That’s one of those “do what works for you” things.

Eat First

Have something to eat before you start working. It’s hard to be productive when you’re hungry and all too easy to take an early break if you haven’t eaten yet. A good meal or a solid snack, depending on the time of day you start working, will give you the energy you need to get off to a good start.

If you prefer to start your day off with some coffee or other caffeine, get that too. You may prefer to keep your drink with you at your desk, but you can prepare it before you start to work. I keep a bottle of water at my desk so that I always have something healthy to drink.

Settle The Distractions

Who or what is likely to distract you while you work at home? The kids? The pets? Laundry or dishes? What about the television? Do what needs to be done to handle these distractions.

With kids, you may need to have childcare to keep them happily out of the way while you work. This may be as simple as having your spouse or other family member take care of them, but it could also mean paying for daycare. Older kids can simply be told to let you work during your work hours and to only interrupt if necessary.

Household chores shouldn’t be allowed to mess up your productive work at home day. Best is if you can handle them at other times of the day, or assign them as chores to the kids. Your spouse should also be handling an appropriate share. How these things are handled depends on the ages of your kids and your spouse’s availability, of course.

Get Some Exercise

A little bit of exercise before you start your workday can make you more productive. I used to walk my kids to school each morning, but we no longer live that close to the school. Two hilly miles in each direction is a bit much, especially for the kids. Exercise has to be more planned now.

A quick walk around the block or a short trip to the gym may be a good plan. You can also exercise at home with little or no equipment.

Define Your Work Hours And Stick To Them

Having a defined work schedule is a huge boost to your productivity. Starting on time is especially important. A late start makes it too easy to let other things slide.

Your Browser Can Help With A Productive Work At Home Day

Your internet browser can make it easier or more difficult to be productive. I have mine set up so that it opens with the pages I like to start my work day with. No irrelevant distractions the instant I start it up, just what I need to work. I may not always choose to start work with the pages my browser opens for me, but at least they aren’t giving me a chance to go in the wrong direction.

Don’t let social media distraction you. If you need to set up posts and reply to work related things, that’s one thing. It’s entirely another to start socializing with friends on social media.

Have A Plan

The more you know about what you need to get done, the easier it is to have a productive work at home day. You’ll spend less time sitting and staring at the keyboard, trying to figure out what to do.

There are many ways to plan for the next day. If you have a work at home job, what you do may be defined by the job, no need to plan on your own. In a customer service or technical support job, for example, your plan is probably to log on and help customers.

If you run your own business or have a more creative job, you need to plan. You can write out what you need to do each day, for example. You might have a daily or weekly routine you go through. A day might be set aside for a particular task that isn’t a part of your routine.

Having something of a daily or weekly routine is a huge help. Many bloggers, for example, will write blog posts in batches and schedule them out. This leaves them free for marketing and promotion the rest of the week. Others will prefer to write and promote every day. Your routine is something you create yourself and test to make sure it works well for you.

Some things will be of higher priority than others. Get these done first, even if they’re not your favorite part of the job. Sometimes especially if they aren’t your favorite part of the job. You still have to get everything done. Consider what’s most important to get done each day when you make your plan.

Keep Your Work Space Comfortable

Having a comfortable place to work helps a lot. This includes a good office chair and desk, along with pleasant decor. If clients never see your office, it can be all your style. If others do see your office, even if only over video, you need to to be comfortable, yet professional. Your decor shouldn’t get in the way of your productivity, of course.

Don’t Multitask

Multitasking is not effective. Don’t try to work on two things at once. It’s not a good use of your time.

If you need to write something, write. Don’t have a chat with someone open – you’ll lose your train of thought. Background music is fine, but don’t try to watch videos while you’re working on something else, even if the video is relevant to your work. You won’t benefit as much as you should from the video, and your work will progress more slowly than it would otherwise.

Don’t Let A Bad Start Ruin The Rest Of Your Day

We all have bad starts to our days sometimes. The key to having a productive work at home day is to not let it ruin the rest of your day. You may have started work late due to a sick kid, your internet going down or other household emergencies, but that doesn’t have to keep the rest of your day from being productive. Do the best you can to work around problems as they come up.

The post How To Start A Productive Work At Home Day appeared first on Home with the Kids Blog.

One of the great challenges of working at home is all the distractions. You sit down at your computer, and the whole internet is available to you. It’s all too easy to start off with something fun rather than something productive. But when you want to have a productive day working at home, you need to do your best to start off right.

Set Your Browser For Productivity

One thing that I have found works for me is to have my browser open up to pages that are productive for me to start on. Right now that’s my work at home job board administration page and a job search page. They aren’t what I need every time I open my browser, but what page is?

Those are the pages where I start my day. If I were to start my day out writing, I would start out in Google Drive, as I do most of my writing there.

The idea here is to make sure that you aren’t starting on a distracting page. Don’t start out on Facebook or any other social media unless you know you will start out working there.

Where’s the Caffeine?!?

If you need coffee to start your day, have your coffeemaker ready to go for the morning, or go get it as soon as possible if you prefer to buy it at Starbucks or some such. Don’t sit about delaying things over something you have every day – get moving.

The same goes for breakfast. Make sure you have the supplies on hand and easy to get together. You don’t have to eat breakfast right away if that’s not your routine – if you get up earlier than the rest of the family, you’re probably waiting for them – but make time for it in there somewhere, and make it convenient to prepare. Or teach the kids to do it once they’re old enough.

Plan for Distractions

You work at home. There are going to be distractions, that’s just the way it is. But you can decide which ones you will allow to distract you.

Kids are generally a distraction, especially when they’re babies. If your work can’t allow you that kind of distraction, have someone available to care for the baby.

As kids get older, you’ll probably need less help with the kids, at least if you don’t need a totally quiet environment in which to work. Teach them age appropriate ways to decide if they can interrupt you or not.

Try not to let basic household chores distract you beyond what you’ve planned for. I do laundry on certain days, and that’s when I know I will be getting up regularly to deal with it. I won’t touch it other days – if someone has an urgent need to get something washed, pretty much everyone here is old enough to handle it themselves. I only handle laundry at all on weekdays because I like our weekends free for family stuff, even when it’s just working around the house.

Sometimes you won’t be able to avoid interruptions. If something has to be repaired around the house you may not be able to decide what the best day is, or have your spouse home to deal with it. But when you have time, try to make sure such interruptions are planned for in your goals for the day.

Close the Door

This is one of the things I love about our new home – I can close my office door. We haven’t had a room that could also be a home office before.

Closing the door when you’re working is a good way to tell kids, spouses and pets to leave you alone as much as possible. Okay, maybe not the pets. At least, my cats consider a closed door more an invitation than a barrier. We’re working on that part with them.

Plan for the Next Day

Plan out your work day the day before. It’s a good way to wind down each work day. It helps you avoid indecision first thing in the morning.

If I have to stop in the middle of something and have a bunch of tabs open in my browser for it, I’ll bookmark the group to make it easier to continue the next day, or just leave the browser open. Bookmarked groups are dated so that I know when I did it if I don’t get back to it right away or forget to delete the group once I’m done.

The post How to Make Your Work at Home Day More Productive appeared first on Home with the Kids Blog.

When we bought our new house last October, one of the things I adored about it was the space for a home office. It’s a nice size room in an awkward space for any other use – that is to say, pretty much the perfect space for a home office. Just a little private from the main flow of the house. Naturally, its first use was to store all the stuff we didn’t have a place for right away when we moved in. But no more. I have it pretty much cleaned out, and the first piece of furniture in.

The first piece of furniture isn’t office furniture as such, however. It’s a futon, because this room will also be a guest room. Not often, but family circumstances dictated that I make it ready as a guest room even before I buy a desk and get it in there, because it may be needed for a guest soon. But the futon folds up into a rather nice couch, and so I can use the room itself as intended while we don’t have company.

Yesterday was the first day I was able to do that, and it was wonderful! My husband wasn’t feeling well after a blood draw at a doctor appointment, so he left work early and came home. I arrived home from grocery shopping, and there he was in the living room, sitting on the couch watching a movie. He offered to turn it off, but I pointed out that my office was now a perfectly good option for me.

The futon isn’t the perfect solution for my office, but I have plans to buy a standing desk soon. I even think I know which one – the price is great, and the company even has an office less than 10 miles from me, which was a big shock. Usually nothing is close to me except maybe the grocery store.

Still, I was able to work pretty well in there. A door to close really does help with distractions, which I have known for a long time. Before, the bedroom was my only choice if I needed to close my door, and that’s just not as good as a dedicated office space.

With summer vacation not all that far off, I really have to get this office set up the rest of the way. My desk will take some time to arrive, but it looks as though I’ll be able to pick it up rather than pay for delivery, which is wonderful. Here’s hoping I can have a really productive summer in my new home office!

The post I Can Finally Use My New Home Office appeared first on Home with the Kids Blog.

One of the things that drives people who work at home absolutely up the wall is being told that they aren’t really working. Too many people assume that you’re sitting around, surfing the internet or watching television. No paycheck you receive can convince them otherwise. Talk of all the hours you work doesn’t convince them. Some people are still just convinced that working at home means a lot of goofing off.

Of course, sometimes that’s true for many of us. Sometimes we fall into that trap.

It’s so easy to do. You start socializing on Facebook, Twitter, or forums. You read blog after blog, never taking action on what you read. You excuse all of it as being for your business, but are you really getting things done? Exactly how are you benefitting your business?

Now, a certain level of these activities is normal and healthy for many online businesses. You can’t network socially online if you don’t use social websites of one sort or another. You can’t keep up with new developments relevant to your business if you don’t read up on it.

It’s when you overdo these things, or do them without a focus on how they benefit your business that they become a problem.

Stop Goofing Off

If you’ve sunk into this trap, it’s up to you to get yourself out of it. You must put limits on the activities that keep you from taking action with your online business. Remember that they’re tools for your business, and limit the playtime.

Also focus on the things that do improve your business. Depending on what you do, this may be closely related to the ways that you goof off when you lose focus, but if that’s the case, look at ways to ensure you don’t start playing when you should be working. I mean don’t start checking the Facebook statuses of your friends when you only meant to work on your business’s Facebook page; save it for when you aren’t working.

Really Look at Your Productivity

What is it you’re doing when you think you’re being productive? Are you really getting it all done, or is there an awful lot of play and wandering going on? If you’re having trouble earning the income you’d like, this could be a big chunk of the problem.

This is something I’m working on too. I know I get distracted when I ought to be working. Some of it’s due to having kids, but other times it’s simply not paying attention to the things I ought to be getting done.

Lucky (and unlucky, if I take things too far) for me, it’s my business. If I don’t work, nothing gets done, and the consequences are mine to deal with. I don’t have a job to lose. If you have a work at home job and you goof off too much, you stand to lose that job. It’s something you really need to watch out for.

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