One of the greatest advantages of working from home is saving time. One of the greatest time savers in not needing to travel to and from work, it takes you 2 seconds to get to your office at home. This allows you more time with your family. However, there are challenges as well. Working from home with children, needs adjustment, for you and your family. How do you accomplish it? Here are 6 pointers how to work from home with children.

Use your study at home as your office.

Alternatively, if you don’t have a study or room to use as your office, create an area in the home that is your office space. When you are working in the office, it is as if you are not at home at all, you are at work. The office is off limits to the children and vice versa.

Make the child part of creating boundaries and limits.

Do a project with your children where you assist them in creating a sign for your office door. The sign will indicate to the children when they are not allowed to disturb you, and when they can come in even though you are still “at work”.

Use headphones to help you to concentrate and allowing the children to be children.

You can’t expect them to stay quiet all day, but you can use headphones so that external noise doesn’t interfere with you concentrating on your work.

Create a work schedule and follow it.

Working from home requires self-discipline and motivation. By following the work schedule, you won’t waste unnecessary time. When your work is done for the day, “come home” and leave your work behind in your office. This is a perfect time to play with the children, and give them all your attention. It is a great incentive for your children to leave you alone to work, because they know when you’re done working, they will have you to themselves.

Teach the children to keep quiet when your cellphone rings.

This will keep your work at a professional level, if you can speak to clients on the cellphone without children interrupting.

One of the advantages of working from home is that you have the time to have lunch.

Use this opportunity to share a meal with the rest of the family, and to take a break from work. You will return refreshed, and will be much more productive in the afternoon.

Remember, you are at work, so the office is off limits to your spouse as well, during working hours.

Discuss it with your spouse and decide on communicating via instant messaging or emails during office hours. This will be advantageous to both of you. You are not the only one with a full schedule; your spouse has one also. By communicating via email or instant message, you both are saving time. There will be enough time after hours to spend in each other’s company.

What do you do to have a productive day working from home with children? What pointers do you have to share?

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At Out of the Office, we are committed to providing earth-friendly administration and offer ideas and ways to increase your productivity, decrease your workload, and work more efficiently. We nurture a successful business relationship, while continuing to grow as your business partner. We are focused on streamlining your administration, social media planning and execution, and offering creative solutions for your business success.

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