Solopreneurs Working From Home & Have Small Children - Secrets to Increase Productivity and Quality!

Anyone running a business, blogging, creating, or going above and beyond from the break of dawn until the candlelight burns out in the evening realizes the difficuties being much more than anyone imagines! Working from home is definitely not an exception to this especially with one or more small children in your office every day. As I began writing this post today in my art studio at home, my toddler was jumping all over the place, his tablet's volume was on full blast and I had mac n cheese in my hair with it barely being 10am. I couldn't be happier though! For those entrepreneurs that work from home while sharing your workspace with your little ones, I'm here to share some ideas to increase your productivity while keeping the kiddos smiling and getting better quality results with the energy you're putting into your hard work.

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Schedule, Schedule, Schedule

This seems to be a reoccurring topic that I keep bringing up, I don't mean to sound redundant! However, just making a schedule for your appointments and tasks for work isn't going to cut it. I have a flexible tentative schedule just for my 4-year-old son that I intertwine with my own schedule of blogging and creating original artworks. Once I combine the two of those into a master schedule and shuffle around some conflicting times, we actually set into motion the schedule that is on paper. I will admit there has been a few days I was lagging and we didn't do the schedule but I felt so guilty that the next 2 months we were back on track!

A fellow blogger who featured me on her blog last month, MomBlogFromHome, wrote a really good post about 4 Easy Ways to Find Time to Blog. Her post goes beyond just blogging though she gives some really good advice about scheduling and accountability that anyone could utilize especially those going the extra mile!

Set up secretly educational stations around the house near transition tasks

I mentioned Misty Anderson's blog in my last post regarding transition tasks in between priority tasks. For example, finishing a painting or a blog post is a priority task on my work schedule. In between layers of paint drying, I scheduled a transition task of engaging with my son at one of the educational stations I set up the prior evening after he goes to sleep. Keep in mind that this does not replace the times throughout the day that I do have priority scheduled with just my son, these are in addition to those precious moments.

These educational stations usually consist of Emilia Reggio inspired ideas such as a letters or numbers printable worksheet with rocks, clay, or beach glass in baskets so that he can make the letter or number with these materials as well as another basket of coloring materials so that he can decide what he wants to do with it. I am in no way a preschool teacher but I came across, An Everyday Story about 2 years ago when researching different preschool options and absolutely loved this approach! Since I live in a small town in Ohio the closest preschool that does anything close to this is 5 hours away which just was not an option so I tried to improvise.

I call these secretly educational because I have found that if you do not push this upon them but set them out in strategic locations throughout the house so that it piques their curiosity and they end up trying it even though you didn't instruct them to do so they are secretly learning when they think they are getting into something they aren't supposed to. I try to locate these stations in between the areas I consider transition tasks, your transition tasks are going to be much different or maybe even the same, for example, a few of mine are washing the dishes, cycling laundry, and figuring out a new sketch for next weeks art club that I lead at a local library. When I hear my son start to rummage through the basket of beach glass and I hear the clinking on the table, that's my cue to peak around the corner while washing the dishes, when I see that he's almost done or gets stuck then its time to lend a helping hand.....see its a secret after all!

Always hold an internal locus of control

An internal locus of control is when you don't let anything ruin your day that is outside of your own hula hoop, as opposed to an external locus of control which is when you let factors such as having to unexpectantly mop the floor because someone made a trail from the freezer into the living room with a popsicle. I love how toddlers get really quiet when they're doing something sneaky! I first read about an internal locus of control years ago in, 7 Principles of Transformational Leadership: Create a Mindset of Passion, Innovation, and Growth. The man who wrote this book does not work at home nor have children but I wanted to share where I came up with this phrase that sounds like rubbish.

Turn a business inspiration mini trip into a toddler educational event

Everyone needs a breath of fresh air after so many hours before you start to grind your own gears. In the winter, that breath of fresh air is usually cold, dry, and doesn't feel refreshing. Summer is a different story, however, its still February. To keep your mind fresh and continue doing what you're passionate about its important to do something different at least a few times a month.

To keep both my son and myself from a stagnant creativity block, I schedule a mini business journey every other weekend. I call it a mini business journey however, I do not conduct business while on this journey, I derived the title for it as such because to be able to continue with my passion I must regroup my mindset with different views in the world, different human interactions that I notice going on while we are out, how others react to one another, and absorbing the entire experience. These mini trips don't have to be anything huge that involve an overnight stay anywhere or super expensive either. Just something to look forward to and get you both out of the house doing something different. Typical trip ideas: Children's museum, art museum, science museum, the zoo, Chuck E. Cheese (depending on where you live many locations now serve beer/wine to adults, have stuffed crust pizza, and sensory sensitive 1st Sunday of the month), train museum, ice skating rink, or story hour at a local library

I hope that this post is able to increase your productivity, enhance the quality in your solopreneurship efforts, and keep both you and the little ones smiling! Follow me on Twitter or Facebook!