Is this you?  You took the leap and decided to start your own company, be a consultant, work at home managing investments, or another job that has you office out of your home.  You loved the idea of flexibility and managing your own time.  You’re juggling the demands of home and work in the same space and feeling unproductive and overwhelmed.  How do you maximize your productivity?  Here’s 4 key tools for work at home.

 

Family calendar and family meeting

The blend of family and work blurs when you work at home.  While it’s a blessing to be available for volunteering, it’s also a challenge to get your administrative tasks complete.  A family calendar is required that includes all commitments. Using Google calendar or Cozi, you and your partner can add commitments in real time.  Take this to the next step by adding in routines that help you complete family tasks like meals, exercise and family bedtime routines.  When you add in these routines, you are sure to complete these too.   Take the final step of printing this out for you to see the calendar. This visual reminder will help you stay on track.

 

A family meeting insures communication and collaboration.  Set a time that works best for you and your partner. In the beginning it might just be you two and then add in the rest of the family.  Your family meeting is a combination of communication and collaboration.  Make it fun with a snack, walk after or time together.

 

Creating a team

I love the story of Who Packs Your Parachute.  The best work we do is in collaboration with another.  It’s how we accomplish more because of all the little things we do for others and what others do for us.  I encourage you to do what you do best and find others to help you get more done.  Your team can be your family, working from a chart for family clean.  Or you can find help in a myriad of ways like Care.com.  Choose helpers who are above all trust worthy.  You can train someone with a skill.

 

Most important task list

When we are in the blur of life and work, we often lose track of what’s most important. A simple Most Important Task list, written the night before, keeps us on track.  How do you know what’s most important?  It’s typically the task with the most steps, more difficult to accomplish, and more fearful task.  When you write it down on your paper or digital list, it’s a commitment to the task.  All lists are too long and we feel unproductive, so a short list that can be accomplished makes all the difference.

 

Know the One Thing

What’s the One Thing that makes your life run smoothly? Is it exercise, doing meditation, writing in your journal each morning? Or maybe it’s being sure the dishwasher is unloaded every night, or relying on your partner to drop off the kids each day?  Whatever that One Thing is, be inflexible and committed to making that happen.  It’s not surprising that each of us has One Thing that makes life run smoothly. Identify and commit to making that happen.  My One Thing is exercise each morning. I walk for 45 minutes with a trusted friend who shares my enthusiasm for volunteering, mentoring and leadership.

 

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