Tweet

Finding a balance between work and family life

Guest post by: Moon Loh

Article Overview: Are you a work at home mom and still trying to come to grips with your busy schedule? Here are some useful tips to help you organize your day:

Finding a balance between work and family life

Your family is first priority

Think of the main reason why you wanted to be a work at home mom. Is it to spend more time with your family and always be around for your kids? All work at home moms let go of their full time regular jobs to be with their kids. Since your kids are your main focus here, avoid giving too much of your time and attention to work. Trying to reach a balance between work and family life is the key to your happiness. Work at home moms need to always remember that their kids need their time and attention, and work can always wait. If your kid is running a fever and you need to talk to an important client; you will most definitely choose to nurse your kid and request your client to wait.

Creating more time

If your family demands a lot of your attention and you feel that your work is absolutely not going ahead, a great idea is to create some time in your busy day. It could be that you stay up a little later than your usual sleeping time and wake up a little earlier than you are used to. This will give you a few extra hours to sort out your work, and you will be amazed in the way you get a lot of work done during this time. Being a work at home mom is all about creating ample time for your work and family. You may feel that it is practically impossible to find some free time, particularly when you have mountains of domestic duties to fulfill. When you also need to think about your home based business activities- your day feels like an overflowing cup. The trick is to not wait for that extra time to come, but to create it.

Sharing the work

Most work at home moms are very much eager to do everything by themselves. While the drive to do everything by yourself is impressive, however it is highly unrealistic. You cannot afford to take up all household responsibilities on yourself, especially when you also have your home based business to take care of. The wise thing to do is to share your work with your family. If your kids are old enough, you can send them to do odd jobs such as collect the groceries or do the laundry. You can also get your husband to cook a meal every once in a while.

Babysitting

One great way to ensure that you get some time for yourself and your work is to go for babysitting. The best thing to do here is to trade babysitting with a relative or friend. Trading babysitting is a perfect situation as you not only save on extra babysitting fees but also get your children to have a great time with their friends.

Avoid excess TV watching

Children tend to get glued to the television and that can be very harmful for their health. Encourage your kids to watch less of TV and indulge in more outdoor activities. When you don't have enough time to accompany them to the park, get them to go along with your friends who might be taking their kids out to the park.

Finding the right balance between work and family life can be easy and simple once you know how to manage your time. As a work at home mom you need to ensure that your family is healthy and happy, and at the same time your work moves ahead.

Related Articles
  Lessins Lessons for Life Balance
  Balance Yourself With Your Life Wheel
  Less Working Hours Do Not Improve Aussie Work Life Balance
  Put Life Into Your Work And Put Work Into Your Life
  Just Say No!
  Coaching And Work Life Balance
  Feld-Weiser One-on-One: Feld on Work-Life Balance
  Strive for Harmony, not Balance!
  Are You Seeking Work and Family Balance?
  Living the Balanced Life
  WorkLife Balance isnt a PR Slogan Its LIFE
  The Myth of Balance
  How To Dramatically Boost Your Chances Of Having A Successful Career
  Living a Life of Balance and Happiness is at Least AS Important As Financial Goals
  BALANCE.
  Work-Life Quality and Balance
  Life Balance What Is It
  There's No Such Thing as a Balanced Life
  Work Life Balance: Calling Your Energy Home
  Leadership Success Strategy - Your Winning Leadership Formula to a Balanced Life

Article Tags: busy schedule, work at home, work at home mom



Related Forum Posts
Re: Great video on work-life balance - Hi Evan, Thanks for the video link on Work-life balance, I found Nigel’s presentation very enjoyable and his style kept your interest all the way thru. I must admit I saw a lot of myself in what’s wrong today and the only thing that was a bit unrealistic is when he said he took a year off work to discover more about family life. Other than that it was a great video and very thought provoking. There are some very basic things we can all do to look at life differently and value the right things before we are too old to make it happen. I suppose that is why so many of us want to work from home. regards, Mal.
Re: Getting *back* to the next step - Take time out to enjoy life, family, friends before you get back to the 'next step'. I know a lot of people can lose focus on the task at hand by taking a break, but balance is key. Balance is integral to maintaining overall success in business and life!
Strike a balance... - I hear you. The sometimes ugly flip-side to complete independence is... complete independence. There's no sick pay. No 9-5. No weekends. No grievance pay. No insurance. And if you want to take a vacation, you'd better be able to bring your work with you. If you're not working, you simply don't get paid. And in my field, most of my customers are either business owners or overworked executives... so if they're working at two in the morning, many of them expect me to be as well. This summer, I had to travel a significant distance to visit an ailing relative. Aside from the visit being difficult on its own, it also happened to be crunch time for not one but two of my biggest long-term customers - so I had to juggle trips to the coffee shop to catch up on work with constant phone calls with family issues and travel time. And then there's your own health to consider... I'm not even thirty and there are some concerns about my heart and stress levels. There was a time I would work minimum 14 hour days and pull all-nighters to keep up with the work load... neglecting myself, my friends, my family and my husband. Frankly, it's not worth it. You can look at the most successful CEO's and think you want what they have, but at the same time, you have to think about whether you want to live the life they do, with no time for family or friends, failing health, all work, all the time. Makes it difficult to enjoy that big mansion. I know I'll never get rich doing what I do. But at the same time, I love the life I have, and I still love what I do. The trick is to have a backup plan in case of disaster, and in all other things, try to strike a healthy balance.
How do you balance your life? - How do you balance your life when you're an entrepreneur who also has a full-time job during the day? When do you have time to relax or have fun? Or spend time with family and friends? And more importantly, where do you get the energy to handle so many things? Thanks
Worklife Balace - To create balance you have to set priorities and be realistic. When I first started my business I was also working. I worked almost everynight until 3 or 4 am on my business because I just couldn't get any work done until my nocturnal daughter went to sleep by 11:30 pm. After doing this for two years I got so burned out that my productivity and the passion I had for my business plummeted. I also realized I had been doing nothing for me such as exercise. So I made a decision to slow it down a bit. Things will get done that need to get done. It just may take a little while longer. Now me and my family are happier and I am healthier with a lot more energy since adding exercise to my routine and reducing stress. I also use spending time with my family/friends as incentive to get things done. I will work first thing in the morning for a designated period of time (including weekends) and then have the rest of the day free (both mentally and physically). It takes work to consciously be in the moment but you have to take the time to get out of your work headspace so you can come back to it thinking clearly and with more creativity.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Log On

Winning Market Share in a Tough Economy

The Strong Leadership Formula

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.