Work at home moms are susceptible to distractions while working.
Young children, other family members, friends and business opportunities can all create distractions that take you away from your planned work.
Distractions Facing Work at Home Moms
Children. Even with the best pre-planning of daily activities, there will be times when particularly younger children come before your work. There are the (wonderful) questions of a curious child that need answers, meals to prepare, diapers to change and those scrapes and bruises that need kissing and cleaning.
Other family members. Unexpected and unannounced visits, phone calls or text messages from family members that interrupt your work. Usually, well-meaning, but distractions nonetheless. And of course, these are the kinds of visits that most relatives would never think of making if you were employed in a traditional workplace outside the home.
Friends. See “Other family members”
Business opportunities. One of the most difficult decisions for some work-at-home moms is the decision about what business opportunity to choose. There are so many options. And it is easy to fall into the pattern of starting one, but soon stopping it to start another one that looks better - the dreaded “shiny object syndrome.”
Any of these – and more – can create interruptions that result in work scheduled to get done today is delayed and pushed to another day. But this does not mean that moms cannot be productive in the work-at-home environment
Here are some tips for dealing with distractions.
Tips for Dealing with Distractions
Setting Your Work Schedule
Most work-at-home opportunities allow you to establish your own dress code, and, also set your own work hours. When you’re ready to set your work hours, consider the following:
- What hours are the most productive for you personally?
- Review and factor in what times of the day seem to produce, on average, the most interruptions
- Build in some time in your daily schedule for distractions you did not consider or expect.
Set clear boundaries with your friends and family. Make it clear you have "work hours" and what they are.
Resisting the Shiny Object Syndrome. More than enough business opportunities exist. The question is which one is worth your time? The challenge for moms is to choose the program that suits them best and avoid jumping from one opportunity to the next one that catches their eye. (And of course, men are also susceptible to the shiny object syndrome!)
- Assess your personal gifts, life experience and values to discover what work you do well and would enjoy doing every day.
- Research the market. Are there people interested in what you do well and would like to do every day? But more specifically, are people both interested and actually paying for services and products in the area you’d enjoy working?
- If people are not paying for products or services in the area you have skills and passion, then you have a hobby, not a business. Keep looking for the sweet spot where actual buyers and your skills and passions overlap.
Mobilizing Your Network. Typically, work-at-home moms have many contacts that are also work-at-home moms. And if you don’t have this network when you begin, start building it.
- Discuss ways to stay home and make money. This exercise can create many new businesses due to the needs of this group.
- Barter time for child care services – or do direct billing for babysitting services for another work-at-home mom.
- Barter or bill for services you offer that other work-at-home moms may need. For example, web or graphic design services, copywriting, social media management
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Commit to your success and deal with the many distractions that come with working from home.
And in doing so, you can build a business that provides solutions and value to people and produces income for your family.
In addition to providing financially, there are other rewards. You get greater flexibility for family, hobbies, and charitable work. And quite possibly, you get greater job security than traditional jobs offer.
Upcoming...
In future articles, we’ll look at:
- Reasons for becoming a work-at-home mom
- Assessing your readiness and personality for working at home
- Turning your skills into a business
- Organizing your home office
- Types of work at home businesses
- and more...
Image by innerwhispers from Pixabay