Scheduling Your Time

Being a work-at-home mom is one of the toughest positions you may ever take on. Life, both professionally and personally, pulls you in a million different directions. It can be hard to stay focused enough to complete the tasks at hand. One trick to being successful as a work-at-home mom is learning how to balance your time. This is often not as easy as it may sound, and many women find that they struggle greatly with it. Below are some tips and tricks to help you schedule in your conflicting home and professional lives when you are a work-at-home mom.

Part 1: Understanding the Time You Have
The first step to budgeting your time is to understand just how much time you really have available to you. Many new work-at-home moms think that because they are home, they will instantly have time to complete everything for the house and their business and it will magically all get done while the baby is napping or the kids are in school. What veteran work-at-home moms know is that that is never the case. As much time as you think you have, cut it in half and then in half again. To get a rough estimate of how much time you may or may not have, map out an entire week's schedule in 15-minute increments. That means that for every 15 minutes for an entire week, you are plotting out your schedule. This will be very challenging the first time you do it, because you will miss many important things. The time you forget to schedule in will mostly be the time you need to get ready and the time it takes to get everyone else ready. Once you have your schedule filled in as best as you can, add up the time that you really and truly have free to work. The answer may surprise you.

Part 2: Scheduling Work Tasks in the Time Available
Now that you have determined approximately how much time you have available to work, take into consideration emergencies, crying babies, ringing phones and all the other interruptions that will pepper your day. With that in mind, you can realistically expect to have about half as many hours or minutes available for work as determined in Part 1. Now, think about the things you must complete for your business. Make a list of everything, from phone calls to emails to writing notes and filing, that you need to do. Put a blank calendar in front of you and highlight the time you have available to work in green. In this case, green means go work. Schedule in all the projects and small business details that you need to complete that week in those green spaces. If you cannot fit everything in, you either need to cut back on the work you have or enlist help to free up time at other points in the day.

While every work-at-home mom thinks that working at home will enable her to take care of all her family's needs at the drop of hat, the reality of the situation is very different. While it is important to schedule in all the family things that need to be accomplished, it is equally as important to schedule in all the family events that are also happening. Being a work-at-home mom is a tough role, but with realistic expectations and an understanding of how much time you have to spend on different tasks, you will be able to balance life a little easier.

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