For many mums the ability to work from home would be a dream! being able to take the kids to school and pick them up, put a load and dinner on, and all while making enough money to live the lifestyle of choice…
But for many mums who work from home, it just doesn’t always seem to be all it’s supposed to be. The stress and pressure of trying to juggle everything with not a soul around to ask if you want a cuppa can be too much.
Here a four tips to help you stay sane when working from home starts to take a toll:
Be honest with yourself
Just because you read how easy it is or should be doesn’t mean that it is easy for everyone. Some people thrive on working on their own most or all the time, but others start to get lonely and/or bored without the office banter a ‘normal’ workplace provides.
If you’re not enjoying it as much as you want to, find a way to make working from home work for you – schedule meetings outside the four walls, go for regular walks (even if it’s just in the back garden) to help break up the day…
If nothing helps, then maybe it’s time to consider a different way of working.
Get into a routine
It may sound boring having a schedule for working from home, but it can help to bring som perspective to your day and plan how your day will be most productive and enjoyable for you. If you have something to look forward to every day because you’ve scheduled it in to your daily work routine, you’ll start to look forward to doing it and it will brighten your day a little more.
Get a mentor
If working from home is due to running a business and you’re not enjoying it, you need to work out what is making you feel that way.
A mentor can help to put a different perspective on things, and can help you work out how to achieve your goals easier, therefore taking some of the hassle and stress out of running your business and feeling like it’s just little old you against the big bad world of business.
The Mothers Who Work Club has a support membership, which may be just the thing you need.
Know when to switch off
If your work hours are 9.30am-2.30pm, try to work really hard during those hours, and plan the work you couldn’t finish for the following working day.
If you were working for an employer, it would be a rarity that you would work through the night every night, and at the weekends…if you found yourself in that position every single night and weekend you’d be asking for a pay rise, a promotion, or would be resigning from the job because of stress!
