Managing any kind of business requires dedication, effort, and time. Being a mom is also a full-time job. The question is how do divorced moms do it all? The secret to their success is finding the optimum balance between professional and private matters. Without great organizational skills and strong will, it is impossible to juggle work, kids, and household. Let’s have a look at how you can give your business and your kids all the attention they deserve.
Setting Ground Rules for Kids
The first thing you should do is setting some ground rules and boundaries for your kids. Since you’ll be managing your business from home, you don’t want them interrupting you all the time. The rules are simple. When they see you sitting behind the laptop or talking over the phone, they shouldn’t yell or scream. Instead, they should wait patiently for you to finish the call and then request your attention. Similarly, if the doors of your home office are closed, that means you are too busy and what they have to say or ask can wait. Also, they shouldn’t play around your desk and touch your computer at any cost. Bear in mind that your kids won’t behave the way you want them too right away. Even though they’re quick learners, they’ll still need some time to internalize all the rules. Be patient. Your children will in no time get a hang of things and let you focus on your work.
Staying on Top of Things
Now that you have established rules for your kids, you can deal with your business affairs. Building blocks of every successful business are organization and communication. Without them, hardly any business can exist let alone thrive. As a remote worker or manager, you are at a disadvantage since it comes with too many challenges to overcome. However, regardless of the location and the distance, you can still run a successful business. The key is in finding the right tools to ensure effective communication and great organization. For example, an intranet portal can be your sidekick in connecting employees, delegating tasks, and monitoring their work. You can also keep them posted about the latest projects and management decisions. More importantly, you can track their progress to stay on top of things. When they ask for help, you’ll be ready to jump in and help them out.
Taking Care of Kids
Juggling jobs and kids are difficult and energy-consuming. All the more so if you’re doing it all by yourself without any support. You may think you’re alone in this but you’re not. There’s no need for you to stress out about not being able to handle it all. The pressure rises during summer or winter breaks when children don’t go to school. To avoid burnouts and panic attacks, you can ask for help. Don’t be afraid or embarrassed to arrange paid child care. If leaving children with strangers makes you uncomfortable, you can always ask friends or family to help you out every once in a while. This way you will be relieved knowing your children are in safe hands. Once you stop stressing about your children, your productivity increases so you can smoothly get all your work done.
Combining Work and Kids
If you have small kids, then you know how demanding they are. In most cases, they like having certain daily routines regarding eating, napping, playing, and sleeping. Most parents use their kids’ routines and make their own schedule around it so can you. It will give you enough time to run errands, do household chores, and work. For example, you can get up early and work a few hours in the morning before they wake up. During their nap time, you can squeeze in a couple of hours. In the end, you can finish the rest of your work after you’ve put them to sleep.
Another great way to combine work and kids is by engaging them in all sorts of activities throughout the day. You can let them watch their favourite cartoons for an hour, or colour some pages in the colouring book. Also, you can arrange to play dates with other children. Letting them participate in different activities buys you a few hours each day to catch up with work.
If your kids quickly lose interest in the activity, you can always establish a reward system. Make a deal with them. Allow them to eat one scoop of their favourite ice cream if they colour three pages. Or take them to the park if they watch three cartoon episodes. Make sure you offer them something they like or want as a reward. Otherwise, they won’t be up for the challenge and you’ll lose precious time you need for meeting deadlines.
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