10- Tips for Balancing Work and Home Life

When you work a regular job out in the corporate or labor world, your life takes second place and fills the areas around your demanding and predetermined schedule. You have to fit appointments, social activities, and caring for your home and family before and after work. This can present a challenge, as often we are exhausted after work. I know, I used to work two and three jobs outside the home.

Now, I have the challenge of getting work done when I work from home. It seems that when you work from home, there's more mess to clean up, there's always something weighing on your mind to do, like should I go wash those pans from last night or take out the trash, or should I sit here and write an article for another hour. All too often I find myself forgetting to stop at 5 pm and take a break to work out, shower, and eat dinner. Conversely, I find it hard in the mornings not to be distracted by house work, emails, and just plain wanting to go back to bed and dig in my "don't wanna get out of bed" heels.

I found, after two years of almost only working from home, ten little rules I live by to get things done and not leave anything out. At first, some were very hard to live by, like taking the time each weekend to make a project list for the week, or going to bed on time every night (still working on that one). I can only imagine how hard it is for those who have kids (I only have a clingy, talkative cat), a husband (I don't even date, sorry can't help you there), and a home to keep up.

With bills to be paid, a house to keep clean, stuff to organize, a body to keep in shape (HA!), I have had trouble with keeping up with getting the income rolling in. I not only write, I set up websites, use social networking to promote my work, and do obscene amounts of research and reading daily. One of my two big distractions is getting caught up in reading the research and forgetting to stop and finish my articles.

My ten tips for a balanced work at home life are:

1-Take time for yourself. You may have kids, a spouse, and a house, but you can't properly take care of them unless you have taken a shower, gotten adequate sleep, and eaten healthy and well balanced meals. Take some time out of each day to be completely alone. Even for 15 minutes, sit down away from the computer, family, and in a clean room (so you don't think about cleaning it) and rest. Breathe deeply, stretch, and think. But don't think about work, bills, family, or another other daily life things.

2-Get your S.E.S, sunshine, exercise, and sleep. Think of it like SOS for life.

Start out your day with 20 minutes of sunshine and your hot coffee or tea. On cloudy days use a full spectrum light bulb or SAAD light. I often use a relaxation tape designed for morning wakefulness with includes upbeat music and affirmations.

Then get your afternoon exercise when the sleepy slump starts to dwindle your energy. For many this is around 3pm, for me it's about 4 or 5 pm. Go get a minimum of 20 minutes of full blown exercise. I do 12 minutes of surge/burst training, core and back exercises, and some gentle stretching, followed by a hot shower and then dinner and hot tea.

Finally, get your sleep. If you have a hard time falling asleep at a "normal" bedtime, don't worry, that can be changed eventually, but do try to get 6 to 8 hours of shut eye every night, no matter what. You wouldn't drive your car without tires, you can't drive your life without sleep. (For tips on improving sleep, see the book "Sleep Management Plan" by Dale Hanson Bourke.)

3-Divide your time wisely. You have several years of your life, decide how much time you can afford for each. Be sure to include: spiritual life, (even if your atheist, spend some time in this area), personal (your S.E.S), family (time with husband and kids), home (appropriate house chores for your contribution), and work.

You may have up to 7 areas of your life, strive to spend a certain amount of time each day and each week, build solid yellow lines around them and, just like driving, let nothing interfere with that. This may be hard at first, but you must persevere. If your family rolls their eyes, get them in on the action. Your life will be amazing, I promise.

4-Use a schedule and a notebook. I use outlook and google calendar to set up a schedule for daily activities. I'm at the computer nearly all day and the little pop up with a chime reminds me to stop and eat, sleep, or more on to my next project. I use the notebook to outline the actual projects for each day.

It helps me divide the big things, like work, housework, fun stuff, social activities, and large projects, into bite sized pieces I can gleefully check off a list. The calendar is to remind you when it's time for work, lunch, dinner, and so forth, like your boss would at a "job" and the notebook is like a personal assistant giving you bite sized pieces which seem easier to manage than huge chunks of projects. (trust me, try it for a month, at least, you'll be surprised how much more you accomplish this way, I sure was).

5-Don't sweat the small stuff, but don't neglect it either, and it's all small stuff. If you don't meet a project deadline you gave yourself, don't worry. Set your project deadlines ahead of when the projects are actually due, and if you don't get it done in the time you allotted, stop and move on to the next project. Be sure to leave a little wiggle room in your schedule to finish things up. You'll be surprised when you come back to unfinished projects how much faster you can get it done.

Researchers have estimated that even a well trained person can only concentrate on one task for 45 minutes at a stretch. That's why most college courses are broken down into 50 minute sessions.

The problem usually is that your mind is bored or needs time to simmer on the subject. Give it something else to do by moving on to something else. Give your mind the other activities to do when you hit a wall with a project, rather than forcing it to continue. This will actually make things better in the long run. Try it, you will be surprised at how much faster things seem to go when you break them down into smaller pieces. Just don't try to multitask.

6-If you work from home, dedicate a portion of your home just to your job. Make it clear to everyone what that space is. If you are like me, you probably don't have the room to dedicate an entire room to an office space. I have dedicated a corner of my living room to be called my office, and there I have a computer armoire which holds all the tools I need to work, but can be closed up when I get off work. If you have a family and kids, this will help you too.

Select a space which is off limits to others to set up for work. Keep the space uncluttered and clean and remove all other distractions, such as TV, cell phone, and things which will make you want to fiddle with them. Have what you need to get your work done that week, at your disposal so you don't have to be interrupted by getting up to get it (or tagged by a family member when you are found outside of your "don't bug me" space.

Be sure the family knows this is your space and what times you have set aside to work. Let them know where they stand in your life and schedule. And how important this time and space is to them and you. This may be a tough act to follow at first, but if you stick with it, and stick to the routine of paying them attention outside of that time and space, it should work after a while.

7-Be sure to eat well and avoid late night caffeine and sugar rushes. These can interfere with a good night's sleep, hampering your next day's work ethic. Avoid junk food, candy, sugar, and other traps during the day too, these will make your brain sluggish and you sleepy. Even more of a reason to stick to a healthy eating plan, not just to maintain your figure, but also to maintain your efficiency at work.

Opt for fresh fruit, whole grains, leafy green vegetables, and protein sources. Avoid eating more than a small serving of carbs during the day, as this will increase serotonin levels and make you sleepy.

I personally eat protein, coffee, fruit for breakfast. Salad/soup with lean protein and lots of veggies for lunch. Tea and a light snack in the afternoon. And a nice carb meal like pasta, potatoes, or starchy vegetable with a tryptophan protein at night (chicken, turkey, etc.). If I need a late night snack, I opt for frozen blueberries, bananas, or toast and 100% real maple syrup.

8-Don't bite off more than you can chew. If you plan too many projects for the week, you might find yourself depressed than you didn't fulfill your quota. So prioritize and do what's important and have a secondary list of lesser important projects. Once you figure out how long it takes you to get the projects done, divide them by type. For instance, I can usually do 6 to 10 blog posts in under 2 hours, this is a week's worth of blogging. And I can do 5 small articles in 2 to 3 hours or less. Larger projects, such as researched articles, or newsletters for clients take a bit longer and I know to schedule them accordingly.

9-The 20% rule, this rule is that it takes 20% longer to do any one thing than we plan. So if you think something will take you 60 minutes, give yourself 80 to 90 minutes. If you finish in record time, (less time than you allotted) give yourself a mental star on your chart and move on to the next project right away.

10-Give yourself recreation. Think of the time as Re-Creating yourself. This time is important. I often find that watching TV does just the opposite, but sometimes it does improve my focus. Find something you enjoy and schedule it. This may be game night with the family, going to a movie, going out with friends, taking a walk, or pampering yourself. Don't think of this as the dessert of life, think of it as an integral part of life. Without the time spent each week getting out of your zone, you may begin to feel depressed, weighed down and bored. And that's not a good place to be.

I hope these ten tips have helped you, trust me, I have many more rules to working at home. You will too. Be sure to round out your daily and weekly schedule to include improving aspects of every area of your life. From family, to spiritual, to social, to being fit, to household, to financial, and even developing yourself as a person is important and integral to being effective and efficient at your profession.

Be sure to spend time with those you love, form new friendships, and care for your health, both physically, mentally, and spiritually and you will begin to lead an amazing life and accomplish more than you ever thought possible. Don't box yourself in and feel that you can't have any other part of your life until the work is done, or you will wake up to no life at all. Fully realizing your potential includes fulfilling every need.