How To Stay Productive When You Have Family Responsibilities

**In Collaboration** 

Working from home can be a great move for your career. However, if you’re new to it, then you may find that there’s one thing you really have to work on. And it’s productivity. When you’re in an office environment, it’s often easier to stay productive. Because you’re ‘at work’, you’ve got others working around you, and your mind knows what you’re there to do. But, when you’re at home, your mind can be tricked. It knows that you’re at home. So if you find yourself going to do chores to getting distracted by others, your mind kind of lets you. After all, you’re in your own home. But this can be a nightmare for at home workers! Instead, you need to make sure that you are killing it with your workload. However, that can often be easier said than done.
When you’re someone that has a ton of responsibilities, you may find that it’s even harder to stay focused on your work. Maybe you have children or elderly parents to look after? When you have family responsibilities, you may find yourself putting them first before anything else. And it can be really tough. But, you need to be able to find a balance. So if you know that you want to be able to stay as productive as possible without skipping out on the responsibilities that you have, take a look at these seven points.
1. Create A Set Working Space
The first thing you need to do is create a home office. Because when you have a set working space, you will find that your mind gets into that same ‘I’m at work’ frame of mind as you do when you’re in a company office.
2. Give Yourself Working Hours
Alongside that, you absolutely need to have set working hours. And sure, the idea of working from home or working for yourself is to have freedom. But we’re trying to be productive here. So setting work hours will make your mind realize that you can only work during X amount of hours each day. So think about setting your work hours in your calendar so that your mind can stick to them and that others will know too.
3. Know Your Family Schedule
When we’re talking about the responsibilities side of things, you need a schedule for it all. The more organized you can be with your responsibilities and when you need to do them, you can then slot in your working hours to fit around them.
4. Hire Some Help
If you find that you’re struggling, get some help. Get a virtual assistant to take some of your workload from you. Or hire help around the home so that you can firmly allocate yourself to the work you need to do and taking care of your family. When you have that support, it may be more easier to get your work done in the set time, because you have less to worry about.
5. Focus On Your Family’s Needs
Now, you know that you want to be able to productive during the time that you work. So why not make sure that your family is covered off at the same time too. When you turn to the right associations, such as Dementia Australia, you may find that they can support you. Maybe different groups or support staff can be great for you here, so that you know you’re working when your family member is at a group or being looked after by a specialist.
6. Take Time Out
But then also, you need to make sure that you’re really making the most of your evenings with your family. Whether we’re talking about your parents or children, you do need to make sure that you finish your work in time, and totally switch off. Because when you get to allocate your evenings to family, you will be able to keep on top of your responsibilities.
7. Keep Your Distractions To A Minimum
But then, you’re going to want to make sure that you’re keeping distractions to a minimum. You know that you have a ton of things on your plate. So you need to balance your time well and stick to your schedule as much as possible. So even if you want to make sure that you’re working during those set hours, do not let yourself do chores and make sure that others know you’re in work mode. And this will help you to stay as productive as possible during that time.