10+ Time Management Tips For The Work At Home Parent

As a work at home parent, one of the biggest things that I struggle with is….TIME and Productivity. I write books, blog and sell on Etsy. And while I don’t always have deadlines put on my work, it is important to put self-imposed deadlines in place and follow those. But I seriously struggle with those deadlines and have to stick my head down and accomplish my deadlines. So I compiled this list of time management tips for work at home moms or dads.

Check out the 10+ Time Management Tips For Work At Home Parents

1. Establish a schedule. – You schedule yourself office hours so to speak and for example from 8:30 am – 12:30 pm everyday you are in the home office working and are not to be disturbed. This way family and friends know that you are working and it is the sometime everyday.
2. Work when you feel most productive. – Are you a night owl? Can you get more of your tasks done when the bus leaves the curb? Or when the kids go to bed? Scheduling work time when you are most productive saves time and helps you get work done.
3. Use a timer. – Race the clock, seriously. Plenty of writers myself included will have writing sprints, where for an hour the timer is going and we are trying to write as many words as we can. It’s fun, and it works. It can also be done for blog posts as well. Do you have your photos ready to go and the post just needs written and put together? Well go for it, race that clock.
4. Have a designated work area. – If you are a serious work at home parent and your are making a full time income or that is your goal, this one is essential. Having a dedicated place to work eliminates distractions and can keep you focused on the tasks that you need to complete.
5. Take breaks. – I know, I know, you are thinking that this one seems a little silly, but seriously if you don’t take a break here and there you will get drained and lose focus and we all know that lack of focus kills productivity.
6. Productivity Apps. – Apps that can help keep you on task and to make sure goals and tasks are accomplished.
   • Cozi – A shared family calendar to keep the whole family scheduled.
   • Time log – Perfect for anyone who needs to manager their time, especially when they are working for multiple clients.
   • Wunderlist – A really cool app that you can use on your phone, tablet or computer to make to do lists to stay on task in the office or out.
   • Intuition – An app designed by busy moms as a personal assistant to help you get things done.
   • Drop box – An awesome online file storage service that keeps your files available at the touch of a button at home or on the go and saves you tons of time in the even of computer malfunctions, because you should be backing up to Drop Box.
7. Identify daily time wasters. – Do you spend more time on social media than you should? If you spend an hour on Facebook or Twitter just browsing the feed? If the answer is yes, then save those for non-working hours just like if you were working out of the house.
8. Turn off notifications. – This one should go without saying. Shut down email notifications, social media notifications or any of them that could be distracting. The only one I really leave on is my ringer for the school in the event that there is an emergency with my kids.
9. Make time for the kids. – One of the biggest reason most of us want to work from home is because we want to have flexible hours and be with our families. This one is important because we don’t want to feed into parenting guilt while we work, we need to focus during work, not worry that we aren’t spending enough time with our kids.
10. Designate a time for emails. – All day I am getting emails, important but mainly un-importatant emails. Designate a time in the mornings and afternoons where you quickly go through emails and then delete the emails that aren’t important. And of course respond to the ones that need a response.

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