One of the major reasons people want to work at home is to have a flexible schedule. The problem is that not all home based jobs are as flexible as you might hope. Some are downright strict about their scheduling in fact. When you work from home for someone else, your schedule is often subject to their needs. Some have more flexible needs, while others need more of a routine from you.

Full Time, Regular Business Hours Work

Some employers will expect you not only work full time, but to stick to regular business hours, starting about 8 or so in the morning, finishing around 5. Things such as picking the kids up from school that many people want to do when they work at home, may not be possible at these jobs. Childcare of some sort is probably a necessity, so that you won’t have too many distractions. Then again, that’s a good idea for most work at home positions.

The good: You know when you’ll work. You might sometimes have overtime, but that’s true at many jobs. You’re working full time, but you don’t have to worry about horrible traffic during your commute.

The bad: It’s not flexible. You can’t decide to start work when it pleases you.

Full Time, Off Hours Work

Some jobs are full time, but the hours are nontraditional, maybe late night or early morning, but still a fairly regular schedule. These jobs can be great if they match with your preferred work hours or make it possible for you to work when the kids are asleep rather than pay for childcare.

The good: If you need to work slightly nontraditional hours but also want a predictable schedule, you may enjoy working an off hours schedule.

This may be a help if you need to drop children off at school or pick them up, or if you just like working different hours from the traditional schedule.

The bad: It may involve working overnight, which may not suit you. The schedule may be set up more to accommodate people working at the main office rather than remote workers wherever they may be.

Full Time, Flexible Hours

Other employers want a full time schedule out of you, but when you work may be more up to you. If you need to change things up, they don’t mind so long as your work gets done. There may still be scheduled meetings that you have to attend online. Communication and collaboration are important, after all.

The good: If you have obligations during the day, you can still meet them, so long as you work enough hours. That’s great for parents of school-age children, so long as the kids don’t interrupt you while you’re working.

The bad: Flexible hours doesn’t always mean flexible in your favor. Sometimes it means you work the hours your employer needs you, not the hours you want to work.

Part Time, Regular Hours

Many part time work at home jobs still require that you work a regular schedule. You have your days and times to work, and that’s when you work. If you need to change your schedule, you have to plan in advance with your boss, just like with an outside the home job.

The good: You know when you have to be at work.

The bad: The hours your employer wants you to work may not be the hours you would choose if you had the option.

Part Time, Changing Schedule

Some part time work at home jobs expect you to follow a schedule, but you choose the schedule on a weekly or other basis. Once you’ve signed up for hours, you’re expected to work them, and if you need to make a change, make sure you clear it with management.

The good: If you get to pick your hours, you can select ones that work with your needs. Want to chaperone a field trip? Sign up for a schedule that allows it, and hope you get it.

The bad: You may not always get the schedule you want. Some employers may not be all that understanding if you have to make a change in the schedule you selected.

Part Time, Flexible Hours

Other part time home based jobs are more flexible. You may not have to report your schedule, just so long as you get the work done. Sometimes all you have to do is sign on when you’re ready to work, making for a super flexible job. If you can’t commit to a regular schedule, that’s a great thing.

The good: You need to run an errand? Do it! Work when you want.

The bad: Some jobs that let you pick your own schedule only have limited work available. If there’s nothing available when you sign on, you’re out of luck. It may be difficult to earn enough money in these cases.

100% Flexible Hours

Full time, part time, what’s that? Who cares about schedules?

Some jobs aren’t much concerned with when or how much you work, just that the work gets done. The challenge may be getting work when you’re ready, as some jobs like this have a bunch of employees, and if there’s no work available when you want to work, that’s just your tough luck.

The good: You can set up the schedule you want. That’s great if you prefer to break your day up more than usual.

The bad: They expect you to get how much done? By when? Sometimes the demands are high when you’re given a lot of control over your schedule. It’s also easy to work too many or too few hours for the needs of your job. Then again, you may be competing with others for available work,

Also, remember that some flexible jobs are flexible in favor of your employer’s needs, not yours. They may change your schedule to suit their needs, not yours.

On Call

Not all jobs really have a schedule as such. Sometimes you’re on call. There should be some sort of schedule for the days and times that you’re on call, but they may be pretty broad, depending on how much work comes of being called on. You have to be ready to work when your employer needs you.

The good: You know when you’re going to be on call in most cases, so you can plan around it to a degree.

The bad: You never know when you’re going to work or how much you’ll need to do. If a call comes in the middle of the night, you still have to handle it.

Know What’s Right For You

When you accept a work at home job, be sure that you can handle the schedule expected. Few things lose you a job like being unable to handle the expected workload.

Think carefully about what kind of schedule you can handle. Be realistic about the demands you expect on your time, especially if you have children or aging parents to care for. There are situations where working outside the home makes more sense, even if you want to work at home with all your heart.

The post What Kind of Schedule Should You Expect When You Work at Home? appeared first on Home with the Kids Blog.

There’s an image many people have of working at home – sofa, bonbons, television, pajamas… we all know the stereotypes. But the reality is different for many. Many people have a lot of trouble separating their work life from their home life when they work at home, and often overdo it on the work side of things. It’s just so easy to go back to work in the evenings when the house is quiet at last, or excuse yourself from the family because you just want to get a little more done. Before long, you’re working so much that you aren’t making enough time for your family, and feeling overworked.

Just about any job will give you those times when you feel overworked, even if you don’t work at home, of course. Retail workers have the holiday season, software developers have deadlines, and so forth. It’s often not different when you work at home, except that some people find it too easy to overwork when they don’t need to and really shouldn’t. Your office is right there in your home, and it’s all too easy to go back to it when you should be living the other parts of your life. How do you avoid this?

Set Goals Beyond Work

It’s good to have goals for the work you do. It’s one of the most effective ways of getting things done. You should also set goals for other things in your life, such as time with your family, leisure reading, leisure activities and so forth.

These don’t have to be very strict – in fact I recommend against making too strict of goals for most personal things as you don’t want to take away the spontaneity that makes life more fun. Goals can be as simple as stopping work every day by a certain time so you can be with your family. You don’t have to plan things for each day, just know that you will make time for them.

Cut Back on Makework

We all have things in our routine we do that we really don’t need to do. Maybe you’re checking your social media accounts more often you should; maybe it’s your email. Maybe you spend too much time trying to learn new ideas for your business and not enough time trying to make it work. Seek out the things that aren’t really necessary in your work day and cut them out.

Automate… Reasonably

There’s a lot to be said for well done automation in your work day. If you post a lot on social media, some of that can be scheduled in advance. If you type a lot, you can set up macros for words and phrases you type frequently, and greatly increase your typing speed. You can set up stock replies for questions you commonly receive by email, so that you only need to adapt them to answer the exact question asked, rather than start the whole thing from scratch.

Things like these can save quite a bit of time. They cost a little when you get them set up, but should pay back nicely in time saved later.

Know What Can Wait

If you’re running a home based business, there are probably always more things you’d like to get done than you possibly can get done in a day. Odds are, some of it really can wait until later. Figure out what’s really not that urgent and find a better place in your calendar for it.

Hire Help

When it can’t wait and you can’t automate it, sometimes hiring help is the best way to get things done in your home business. There’s always some stress in hiring someone – there’s that bit of training and explanation you have to do even with an experienced virtual assistant. Once things get going, however, having that help can really ease your workload.

Know How You Work Best

It’s hard to work effectively if you’re pushing yourself to work at the wrong times or in the wrong ways. Early bird, night owl, get off to a fast start or start things slow, we all have our own ways of working that are best for us. When you have the option, pay attention how you work best and use that to your advantage.

Do the Most Important Things First

You should always know what you most need to get done and prioritize that, whether it’s a long term priority or an emergency that just came up. Sometimes these things will mean that you can’t pay attention to your preferred work times or styles, but when you have to get things done, that’s how it goes.

Take Breaks

Get away from your work regularly through your day. Go for a walk in your neighborhood or hit the gym for a little while. Do some household chores; just not so many or so often that they’re a problem for your work day. Do some leisure reading. Just relax during your lunch or snack breaks.

Giving your mind time away from your work is a big help in being more productive. This is especially useful if you’re dealing with a difficult problem. Focusing on it too long can actually make it harder to solve, while a break gives your mind time away from the problem directly which can make it easier to solve.

Set Boundaries

Set boundaries – not only about your work time, but about your personal time. Know when you’ll allow the personal to interfere with the professional and vice versa. You probably shouldn’t let a chatty neighbor or a door to door salesperson distract you from your work day for long at all, while a sick child or crying baby probably needs more immediate attention.

Similarly, when you’re off work, be off work. Don’t head back into your home office at times you should be enjoying the rest of your life without good reason. If there’s a crisis, yes, you may have to step away from family time. If you just want to check your email and aren’t expecting something, you’re probably better off staying away, because that one little thing can turn into a dozen little things and then you’ve missed out.

Schedule Social Media and Other Time Sucks

Social media has its place when you work at home, but it can turn into a huge time suck. Set limits on how long you can spend on social media, email and anything else that tends to suck up more of your day than it should. Pick times to work on those things when they won’t interfere with more important things you need to get done. Social media and email can be very important themselves, but odds are there are more important yet things you need to work on most of the day.

The post How to Make Sure You Don’t Overwork When You Work at Home appeared first on Home with the Kids Blog.

We’re heading into the holiday season, and that means lots of distractions. Shopping to be done, school events for the kids, parties… it’s all pretty hectic and when you work at home, that’s a problem. How can you keep on track with your work while still enjoying the holiday season?

Take Your Work Seriously

The first thing to do is to take your own work seriously. If something wouldn’t have been a distraction if you were working outside the home, should you let it distract you just because you’re working at home? Possibly so, possibly not.

One of the frequently stated advantages to working at home is the flexibility. This is the time of year to take advantage of that, so long as you don’t go overboard with it. Don’t skip work you can’t make up later, especially if it needs to get done. Take care of any obligations to your employer and/or clients. Forgetting them is not professional.

Know When to Say No

Too many people don’t understand that when you work at home, you aren’t always free to do things for them. You might be on the PTA/PTO and get a lot of requests to help out on committees, or you might have family or friends asking you to run favors. Just like the rest of the year, you need to know when to say no because you have to work.

This certainly doesn’t mean you say no to everything. If you can spare the time and want to get involved, do so. Just don’t do it at the expense of your work.

Rethink Your Schedule

Sometimes the schedule you usually keep won’t cut it during the holiday season. You may need to make more time for fun, shopping and so forth. Those work hours while the kids are at school, for example, may be better spent shopping for presents. Not every day, of course, but odds are you wouldn’t want to do all your shopping after the kids are in bed. Sometimes you have to make time during the day.

You may have to decide to stay up later or get up earlier so that you can handle daytime extras better. Pick whichever works best for you. I’m no early bird, so I stay up later if I can’t get things done during the day. That’s hard if I’m tired out from running errands or doing other things throughout the day, but it can be necessary.

That said, I love online shopping. No worry about store hours, I just do it when I feel like it. It doesn’t always replace shopping in person, but it’s a pretty good option most of the time.

This can be a great time to write out the things you need to get done each day even if you don’t normally do so. With a lot of extra things you need to do, sometimes you need just a little extra help in making sure you actually get it done. Writing it out may be just the boost you need.

Hire Help if Appropriate

Depending on the kind of work you do from home, you may be able to hire someone to help you get it all done. This is a great time to try hiring a virtual assistant for your business. It may add a little stress as you locate and train the right one, but it can be worth the effort.

Remember to Have Fun

Lots of people get far too stressed out about making the holiday season just perfect for their families. Don’t worry so much about perfect, just try to keep it fun.

Get out with your family and do something special, such as looking at holiday displays. Make a special treat together. Find something that fits into your schedule and make it special. It doesn’t have to be grand or expensive, just fun.

The post How to Keep Yourself on Track Through the Holiday Season appeared first on Home with the Kids Blog.

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.

The post Make the Most of Back to School When You Work at Home appeared first on Home with the Kids Blog.

Most of us procrastinate, at least from time to time. It’s a habit that’s hard to avoid. When you do too much of it, however, it seriously limits your progress.

When the procrastination impacts your home business, there may be a more direct financial impact. Just think how much better your business could be doing if you just cut out the procrastination.

Try Scheduling

One way to avoid procrastinating is to create a schedule for working. Pick times that you’re going to work and plan what you’re going to work on. This bit of time invested can help you get more done.

There are different ways to schedule. Some like having a physical planner to look at. Having things written down on paper is just that much more motivating. That one drives me nuts. I don’t do so well with schedules on paper.

Put it on the computer and keep it more general, and I’m content. My schedules are more general, with tasks and/or priorities and I’ll deal with it. I think it’s mostly that a schedule on the computer feels easier to change when things aren’t working out. My daily life is generally not that amenable to a strict schedule. Three kids will do that to you, especially when they’re young.

Your schedule can help you to limit the time you spend on activities that are good in moderation but can easily become a time suck. Schedule an adequate time for things such as checking email, blog commenting and social networking, and don’t let the time you spend on these activities become excessive. You may need to schedule multiple times throughout the day for these depending on how you’re using each.

Have an Overall Plan

Having an overall plan is a help in general. I plan not only what is most important to me, but have options for those times I have a mental block in one area or another. It really helps when writer’s block is driving me nuts to work on something else… so long as I don’t overdo it and avoid writing tasks for too long.

With a plan you can think both short and long term. You can see if you’re making the progress you’d like. It can be motivating to see if you’re approaching the goals you set up in your plan, whether you’re way behind and know it, or see the end in sight. Just don’t make short term goals so challenging that they’re frustrating rather than motivating.

Know What Encourages Procrastination for You

There are probably some things in your life that make you more or less likely to procrastinate. If you can spot the troublemakers, you may be able to avoid or control them.

That said, sometimes procrastination is worth it when you have kids. Time with them is usually well spent, even if it puts you a bit off schedule, so long as it’s not going to destroy the income your family needs to get by. You do need to be realistic about your financial needs and that the kids will usually be just fine if you tell them you need to work. But adding in a late night or early morning so that you have time during the day for the kids isn’t always a bad thing.

The post How Much is Procrastination Costing You? appeared first on Home with the Kids Blog.

Working at home means taking on a lot of extra work, especially with kids running around underfoot. It means long days and working into the nights.

My family is used to me doing this. What has some people telling me I’m nuts is that I’m about to add homeschooling into the mix.

They’re probably right about the nuts part.

I’m expecting this to be challenging and exhausting. It’s going to mean a new balance. It’s going to mean telling my wonderful, patient husband to do a lot more housework when he’s home. I’ll try to not do the evil laugh out loud about that part.

I know I can make it work because I tested the schedule before signing my daughter up for homeschool. I don’t doubt that there will still be challenges, but I know I can deal with the basic interruption in my schedule.

Figuring out when you’re overloading yourself is a personal decision. I’ve worried people a few times about if I’m overloading myself. I’ve worried me a few times about overloading myself, right now included. I haven’t let it stop me or beat me yet.

Challenging your limits is a part of running a home business, even when some of the limits you challenge aren’t about your business.

This is where scheduling comes in. A good work schedule and a good school schedule will help me quite a bit. My schedules have been pretty lightweight in the past, but now, they will have to be more. There won’t be time for dawdling.

On the plus side, I’m usually at my most productive when things are craziest in my schedule. When there’s no time to goof off, the goofing off vanishes. I’ll have to make sure it stays that way this year.

Most work at home parents have schedules that amaze outsiders and family members alike. It’s not easy working at home. It takes dedication to bring in an income, raise a family and keep a home. But I know I’m not the only homeschooling work at home mom out there.

The hardest part is always adding something new to an established schedule. Just think back on how your life has gone.

I’ve worked at home since my first pregnancy. My work schedule changed tremendously with the birth of my daughter, which was quite overwhelming at first. It changed when I started a home business on top of my medical transcription job. It changed with the birth of my son. I can still hardly believe how much more it changed with the birth of my second daughter, and she still messes with my routine pretty often.

Homeschooling is one more change that I’ll deal with on a personal and professional level. I don’t intend to let the strain defeat me.

I don’t worry about it becoming too much because it’s incentive to become more efficient in my work. I’ve already picked up some tools so that I can work faster in some areas. I really think I can make this into a good thing for my family and my business.

Sometimes it’s hard to remember that people ask if I’m working too hard or taking too much on out of concern. No one wants me to burn out on any of what I do. It’s hard for them to see the appeal of the challenge.

Do people tell you that you work too much? How do you handle it?

The post Do People Tell You That You’re Working Too Much? appeared first on Home with the Kids Blog.

The hardest part about trying to work right now for me is dealing with a changed schedule. Evenings are still my preferred work time, at least out of habit, but they aren’t currently my best work time.

I’m figuring this out bit by bit. It means a lot of changes in how I run my day. I’m thinking I need to blog and work earlier in the day, and read other sites later. That’s rough, as it means trying to blog with the kids awake.

On the plus side, things have been going well for my personal income, if still a bit rough for my family. If I can work things up just a little better, I can keep us in this house despite my husband being unemployed. That would be huge, although the COBRA health coverage is still a big issue for us. He’s looking at some retail jobs just to get some other coverage going, as well as income. I’ve told him to ask for afternoon/evening/weekend hours so that he can still easily interview if a good job comes along. Not good for family time, but for the long run it could be important.

The post Blogging on a Changed Schedule appeared first on Home with the Kids Blog.

Being productive is one of working at home’s greatest challenges. There are so many distractions, especially when the kids are younger. Productivity isn’t so much a given as it is a habit you need to build.

All the things that can get in the way of being productive at home are a lot of why so many people fail when they try to work from home. They just don’t have the focus or the drive to make themselves productive. All the fun stuff at home as well as all the work around the house that could be done are allowed to pull them away from the work they know they should be doing in order to succeed.

The best thing to do is to come up with some sort of schedule you can keep to. How specific this is will depend on several factors, such as the age of your kids, when you focus best and your other obligations. But I can give you some basic tips to get started.

The very first things you need to look at are the things you absolutely have to do at certain times. This can be things such as picking the kids up from school, taking them to activities, any classes you may be taking, any meetings you may have. These are the times you know you can’t work on anything else and you shouldn’t try to plan around them.

Another consideration may be the non-work things you need to do around the house. This may include things like cleaning and preparing meals. Hopefully these will be more flexible, aside from the fact that dinner must be served sometime before the children declare that they are starving to death. But you may be able to get some help with that, depending on how your family is run. Do be sure that everyone is pulling their weight in keeping the home and family running.

Now it’s time to think about when you are most likely to be productive. For me it’s late evenings into the night. I’m just not an early riser. But others will prefer early mornings and some will do best in the middle of the day.

Next consider any times that your home business will need you to be working. If you’re calling people on the telephone, the middle of the night or extremely early in the morning won’t do for that aspect of your work. You’re going to need some work hours at times that meet the needs of your customers or clients.

And of course consider how many hours a week you plan on working. Not everyone pulls a 40 hour week from home. Some only want part time while others will go at it as many hours as possible, and have to be reminded to stop.

Combine these various factors into something of a work schedule. As much as possible have your best working hours be when you plan on working. Write it out if that helps you, or use an organizer. Many people do well with a daily to-do list.

Babies and toddlers will generally make sticking to your schedule quite challenging, of course. You do have to be more flexible when your children are of an age that they need you more. And at any age kids are prone to emergencies that may require your attention. Just be glad that working at home often makes responding easier.

Do not force yourself to stick to a schedule that just is not working for you. If it’s making you miserable, see if you can identify the problem and move things around.

You may also want to consider scheduling the kind of work you do by day. My own work routine varies by day of the week as well as of the month. It allows me to focus on particular activities regularly. Many things are easier to do if you can work on them without interruption or feeling like you should be working on something else. Other times you want that break.

Just taking the time to work out even a partial schedule can really help you to be more productive. It takes one of the excuses for being unproductive out of the way, and sometimes that’s all you really need.

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