Working at home and staying at home watching your baby (at the same time) will drive you crazy, leaving your brain numb at the end of the day from singing The Wheels on the Bus for the 100th time, while desperately trying to focus your mind long enough to complete your first client email of the day.
If you’ve chosen to work and stay at home, here are a few of my top tips to successfully make it through the day without cursing off the Pandora ‘Baby Einstein’ station forever.
Learn to type with one hand
No, really. I am currently typing this blog with one hand, while feeding my baby girl. Without improving my one hand typing I wouldn’t be nearly as productive. Sometimes my one hand typing & feeding sessions are my most productive because I don’t have Lottie whining wanting 100% of my attention.
Make lists
I make a must do list every night. This doesn’t include items that would be nice if I got done, this is the bare bones list of things that I need to do the next day. The next day, start with your most important and start crossing todo’s off that list. At the end of the day start again with a new list with whatever you didn’t get done and a few more items.
Stay hydrated and well nourished
This sounds obvious but when you are working during every spare moment, and tending to baby in those other moments, that leaves you with little time to eat. Drinking water becomes low on your priority list and suddenly its 6pm and you’re light-headed and cranky from starvation and dehydration. In addition to staying hydrated and nourished for your energy, your milk supply is desperately depending on you refilling your water bottle and not skipping lunch.
Coffee
Have your first coffee in the AM, and second coffee after lunch… and as many coffees in the middle as you want. Don’t substitute coffee for water! Still stay hydrated with loads of water, but I swear by coffee.
Front load the week
The first rule in successfully working from home, while staying at home with your little jelly bean, is never overloading the week. Always plan to get your work done early in the week. If items get pushed back to Thursday and Friday it’s OK, but if you finish all of your work then you have those days to play with your babe.
Let your clients know
All of my clients know that I work from home while watching Lottie. and I’m always clear with them that it’s very hard for me to get on the phone, so most of my work is done via email. I sometimes have to respond to emails at odd hours and work late nights and early mornings, but despite my odd work schedule, they know my work will always be done on time.
Accept Help
If your family wants to come hold your baby while you can get an hour of work in, let them. If grandma wants to take them out for the day, let her do it. Don’t try to be supermom and do it all. It takes an army to raise children and the only way to work at home and stay at home is to accept help when it’s offered.
These are a few of my best tips to work at home with baby and still run a business. What would you add to my list?
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