When you work at home, it can be a serious challenge to maintain a healthy work-life balance! There are so many things that can distract you and get you off balance. It doesn’t matter whether you are more devoted to work or more devoted to life. Either can lead to serious difficulties and burnout if left unchecked. Check out these top tips for achieving and maintaining a healthy balance for your work-at-home experience!
Set a Schedule and Stick to it
The best thing you can do to maintain that healthy work-life balance when you work at home is create a schedule for your days. You know what tasks you have to do for your home and business, and you need to schedule times to do them.
Spend time observing how long it takes you to do things. Think about ways to increase efficiency in the more repetitive tasks that need to be done (Hint: You might need to develop some systems for your home and business if you don’t already have them). Try to find chunks of time during the day to complete business tasks that need different amounts of time.
Figure out what interferes with your ability to complete your tasks. If the interference comes from small people that always seem to be around, try to find some time when they are otherwise engaged. Whether you work while they nap, attend school, watch a TV show, or play in the room by you, there are ways to find time to get things done, even with kids.
[bctt tweet=”The very best thing you can do for your kids, your business, and your work-life balance is to create a schedule that works!” username=”mvirtualassists”]
When you are creating your schedule, be sure you are including plenty of time to interact with your family and complete your tasks for your home during the day. It is not practical to try to spend all of your time during the day working your business if you are also responsible for caring for the kids and household chores. Kids come first and falling behind on household chores is the worst (personal experience here! 🙋), so including those in your schedule definitely contributes to a healthy work-life balance.
If you need help with planning a schedule, be sure to check out Organizing the WAHM Life with Trello! I share how I use Trello to organize my schedule and you can grab a copy of my free weekly Trello board.
Ask for Help When You Need it
Another thing that can help you maintain a healthy work-life balance is asking others for help. If you have a spouse or partner, be sure to communicate with them often about your needs and challenges. If you need help getting things done, ask for it. When you have extra work coming up and need them to watch the kids, talk with them about it. If your business is growing and you need outside childcare more often, discuss it with them. You are partners for a reason!
Super-important tip: Do not wait to talk to your spouse until you are frustrated and overwhelmed. Set aside a time when you are both able to think and communicate clearly. My husband and I take time at least every other month to discuss all sorts of things. They’re our State-of-the-Union talks. 😂 They are incredibly helpful for communicating with each other and supporting each other.
If you are a single parent or don’t have a supportive partner, ask for help from those that do support you. Whether it’s family members, friends, or other work-at-home moms, you can find support in lots of places. Maybe you need to start a babysitting co-op with friends to take turns watching each others’ kids for an hour or two every so often.
Set Boundaries for a Healthy Work-Life Balance
Having boundaries in place will save your sanity! Setting them helps you evaluate what you need, putting them in place helps you communicate with those affected by them, and sticking to them helps you maintain that healthy balance.
Check out other reasons you need boundaries when you work at home. Plus there are tips to get you started with creating boundaries if you need help with that!
Make Time for Family Time
To maintain that healthy work-life balance, make time for family time. Spend time enjoying your family, not just taking care of your family. Whether it’s an outing to the park or a family game night, designate a time to be together.
It is incredibly easy to get caught up with the day-to-day grind that you miss out on the family time. These are your people, and spending time with them can go a long way towards refreshing you and achieving that healthy balance we all need in our lives.
Don’t Forget to Do Things You Enjoy
When you are working at home to build a business, it can feel like you need to devote all of your time to that goal. Don’t do it! Your business is not worth sacrificing your own mental well-being.
Take time periodically to do things you love. There are lots of simple ways to rejuvenate yourself and maintain a healthy work-life balance, and many of them are very inexpensive or free.
To help get you started with self-care ideas, here’s an infographic you can download or pin.
Summing It Up
There are many things that you can do to maintain that healthy work-home balance, but I definitely think the top five are:
- Sticking to a schedule
- Asking for help
- Setting boundaries
- Protecting family time
- Doing things you love
If you aren’t doing these five things, it’s a good idea for you to start here. It might help to begin with one thing and then move on from there. I want you to have a healthy work-life balance for yourself!
If you need more ideas for work-life balance, check out this Pinterest board.
Now, it’s your turn. What are your favorite tips for maintaining a healthy work-life balance? Share your ideas in the comments or on my Facebook page!
Until next time,
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