Over the past two years, remote job has gained significant popularity across the world. Workers, especially in the US, visit trusted job pools such as Roaming Talent to find remote jobs in different industries. These jobs enable them to do away with commute costs and enjoy more time in the house with the family. In particular, parents get the chance to take care of their kids and perform house chores concurrently.
There is no doubt that most parents are more satisfied with the opportunity of working from home. However, achieving a work life balance is not always easy. Depending on your circumstances, it might be overwhelming to combine family life and work life.
However, a survey on remote job productivity showed that parents had a smaller decrease in productivity compared to people without kids. How is that possible? Well, there are several techniques that help parents to organize their responsibilities effectively to attain a perfect work life balance.
Tips for Work from Home Parents
If you are a work from home parent, these tips will help you to find a balance between work life and family life.
1. Establish Routines
One of the first things you need to do when working from home as a parent is to establish working routines. No one wants to compromise on their remote job due to family responsibilities or vice versa. Both are important for any parent. That is why it’s necessary to come up with a routine.
When you figure out the right time for your remote work and family care, everything will become easy on your end. You will be able to perform all your tasks efficiently and meet your targets. Furthermore, you will have some free time to attend to unforeseen mishaps.
Talking about routines for working from home, life can be overwhelming if you don’t have a way of performing different tasks. Thus, you need to get organized and stick to the procedures you have established to achieve projected results.
Establishing routines will help you to be productive in your remote work and also attend to the needs of your family and kids. Your family is as important as your work is. So, it’s essential to create time for both.
2. Make Transitions Easier
Effective transitioning is another pro-tip for managing your home and family without disrupting your work life. One of the key things here is to have some time between activities in order to transition well from one task to another. For example, a parent who takes kids to school may not be available for an early morning call.
Similarly, not every parent can resume working immediately after picking up kids from school. So, make sure to have time intervals between different activities, particularly when switching from family life to your remote work.
Psychologically, combining a full-time remote job with parenting can be tough for anyone. But having breaks between house chores and remote work makes it easier. These breaks facilitate smooth transitioning between different activities by allowing parents to refresh and gather energy for the next task.
3. Be Upfront about your Environment
Parents with babies shouldn’t worry so much about their kids. These young ones will always be in the house. They can enter your home office and cause disruptions in the middle of a call or meeting. Luckily, most organizations nowadays do not have a problem, for instance, if a child shows up in the middle of a video call.
Many employers will not be upset when your kids show up on the camera during a meeting or call. It is totally acceptable and understandable. So, when your kid throws a tantrum during your zoom meeting, you should not be confused. Nonetheless, there is a fine line between focusing on the meeting and attending to the kid when they show up in one’s office.
Although they are generally allowed in a home office, it’s important to check with the company to know their level of confidence with those settings. Also, be upfront with your colleagues about your situation or make a genuine request regarding your setting, if necessary.
4. Adjust your Schedule
You might have tasks you need to do for the kids yet you are performing your remote job. For instance, there are times when babies need feeding and cleaning before the set time. Doing these parental responsibilities during your remote work hours can be quite disruptive. A great way to respond to such disruptions is to adjust your schedule. This works well for remote workers who don’t work during certain fixed hours. Adjusting your schedule allow you to accommodate family duties that arise in the middle of your working session.
But whenever possible, make your kids get used to your schedule. Try to be strict with your set routine. Adjusting your schedule will allows you to create time for the task that was interrupted. Remember that meeting your targets is very important. You don’t want to get into trouble with your employer because of failing to achieve your set goals time and time again.
5. Manage other Family Life Demands
Not every parent may have kids or children around. Some people work from home while looking after the elderly or attending to other family needs. Whichever the situation, a strategy similar to that of parents with kids is necessary. Ensure that you are able to take care of your family life needs and work productively as well. If you spend extra time taking care of your family, be sure to compensate for the remote work hours spent.
Otherwise, you will not achieve your weekly or monthly goals. Sometimes, unavoidable circumstances arise. For example, you might be required to rush someone to the hospital during your working hours. Whenever such special situations come up, it is important to inform your employer to make them aware of the issue behind your unavailability.
6. Set up a Dedicated Workplace
You are killing productivity if you don’t have a dedicated workplace in your house. Set up a space from where you can perform your remote work. You don’t have to stick to this condition 100% if you don’t have or expect disruptions from other family members. Generally, having a dedicated space helps to boost your productivity, particularly for parents with kids.
A home office provides a quiet and peaceful environment where you need to focus on your work. A study by Standford showed that a quieter working environment can increase productivity by up to 13%. You can perform your tasks faster than you would do when kids or other family members are all around you. If there are potential distractions in the house, you simply need to get into and lock your home office. That way, you can call, attend meetings and perform your work comfortably without fear of interruptions.
7. Share Family Responsibilities
Are you living with your better half or other members who can help you with some family demands? If so, you can ask for help with handling your kids at specific times when you are working. You may request your relative to take care of other family responsibilities while you perform your remote work. Doing so relieves you a great deal of stress. By sharing family duties, you are able to do more work and ultimately become more productive.
8. Organize Activities for your Kids
A great way to work peacefully at home is to keep your kids busy with activities to divert their attention away from your work. Create some playful activities that your kids love. Young kids love toys. So, buy them toys that will keep them busy for the better part of the day. Besides, your kids can switch between playing and watching their favorite plays or shows.
Fun activities such as painting, coloring and drawing can also help to keep your children busy and undisruptive. You can set up a play area in one of the rooms or outside the house, whichever works best. Activities may also involve assigning your kids daily exercises, which you can review after a work session.
9. Prioritize tasks effectively
Life doesn’t remain the same when one becomes a parent. Kids demand a lot of care from parents, besides fulfilling other house chores. A parent becomes busier when her/she starts working. Thankfully, effective prioritizing of different tasks helps parents to perform their work effectively and achieve a work life balance.
If you want to perform excellently in your remote work as well as take care of your family as you wish, you need to prioritize your daily work and parenting activities. To start with, make a list of all the things you want to accomplish. Then, arrange them according to their order of priority. That way, you will know what needs to be done first and what should come last. Good prioritizing helps parents to meet strict deadlines and achieve their goals.
Conclusion
Different home working environments present diverse challenges to parents. The important thing to remember is that companies care more about results than anything else. As long as a parent is delivering results, and maintaining regular communication with the client or company, there should be no issue in combining private life and remote work.
Are you ready to work from home as a parent? Roaming Talent is the best job search platform on the internet where you can find plentiful remote job opportunities.