Managing a Mother’s Home Office
You may be part of a growing segment of the workforce. You may be a working Mom who maintains a home office. In the alternative, you may be a working Mom who is in the process of setting up a home office.
With this in mind, if you are working mother who is or will be utilizing a home office, there at some vital strategies that you need to employ to effectively manage your residential workspace. By employing these strategies, you will be in the best position to effectively work from home and to be on top of your game as a mother as well.
Create a Definitive Office Schedule
When it comes to being a mother and effectively managing a home office, you cannot be haphazard about scheduling. In other words, you need to create a fairly specific schedule of your office hours.
The ideal course to take when it comes to scheduling your office hours is to do it on a weekly basis. If you do it daily, you will lack necessary stability and predictability. If you do it monthly, you will lose a good deal of the freedom that you deserve to be able to take advantage of by working from home.
A weekly schedule provides appropriate structure to your professional needs, goals, and objectives. A weekly schedule also permits you the ability to plan appropriately in advance those things that are necessary to address the needs of your kids while you are working.
In addition, a weekly schedule provides your children with a better understanding of when you will be at work. They will have a better appreciating as to when you will not be as readily available to them during the course of an upcoming week. This level of predictability is helpful for children. It enhances their comfort level and overall sense of security when they can rely on your own plans more than just a day at a time.
Establish Clear Office Boundaries
Another vital strategy that you need to employ as a working mother using a home office is to establish clear boundaries in regard to the workspace. You need make certain that other people in your home fully understand that your home office is for work. You should discourage family activities from being undertaken in your home office.
On the other side of the coin, you should endeavor to contain your work-related activities to the confines of your home office. You serve your professional interests, your personal interests, and the interests of your family, including your children, by clearing segregating work activities from family and personal ones.
There is also an important tax-related reason for employing this tactic. You are able to write off a pro rata portion of your rent or mortgage payment from your taxes as a bona fide business expenses based on the square footage of your home office. You must keep in mind that you are capable of taking this deduction only if you truly use the space as a home office and not for other purposes.
Carve Out Specific Time for the Kids During the Workday
Kids are kids. Even though you are diligent in preparing a solid weekly schedule, when you work from home, they will want to see you during the course of any given workday. Therefore, you should build time into each workday to spend time with your kids. For example, perhaps you can have lunch with your kids. You can schedule specific time to spend with them directly after they come home from school.
There are a myriad of options available to you when it comes to scheduling specific time during the workday with your kids. The key is making those times a part of your overall work schedule and not something that you do in a haphazard, not very thoughtful manner.
Plan Activities for the Kids Away from the Residence During Some Work Hours
You can enhance your productivity in your home office if you plan at least some activities away from the residence during your work hours. School naturally will take a bit older children away from home for part of the day. You still need to consider activities away from home for younger children and during those times of the year when school is not in session.
Familiarize yourself with programs and activities that are age-appropriate for your children. Consider including your extended family, particularly grandparents, in participating in activities for your kids away from home from time to time during your scheduled work hours.
Jessica Kane is a writer for Handicapped Pets, your most trusted source for dog wheelchairs and harnesses.
