TOP 10 Helpful Work-From-Home Tips for Working Mom With Kids

Being a working mom with kids is almost impossible to focus on your work while working from home.

Creating an amazing home office may help you to focus on your work.

But often, working moms who work remotely can sometimes get overwhelmed by the list of meetings and young kids who will probably call “mummy” every 5 minutes.

It is not easy to keep a balance between work and family if you are working from home.

Here are some of the best tips that may help moms like you who work from home (WFH) to get things done much more faster and effectively.

Working from home can be fun and effective if you know how.

Let’s Dive In!

Recommendations: How to deal with pregnancy discrimination?

10 Tips for Work At Home Mom With Kids and Babies

1. Get your Kids on a Routine

I know this can be quite tough for any parents. But if you plan to work from home and get your work done with your kids at home, I can’t stress this enough.

Young kids are hard to get on a strict time-based routine. They need lots of attention. But once they get used to a certain routine, things start to change.

You will notice that you will start to stick to a relatively natural routine; eat, play, and sleep.

Kids will give cues if they are feeling hungry, or want to have a nap.

Knowing these cues is important to be able to return to work and maintain your productivity.

Recommendations: Good acceptable reasons to call in sick when pregnant!

2. Dress for Work

One could argue that it doesn’t matter what you are wearing since you are working from home. Anyway, there will be no one who is going to comment on what you are wearing today, be it if you are in your pajamas, or in your work clothes.

But sometimes dressing for the occasion can really help you to switch from a ‘home mom’ to a ‘working mom’.

You may want to leave out the details such as doing makeup or wearing a shoe at home. But wearing what you used to wear at work can allow you to switch to the ‘working’ mode much easier.

Not only do you look professional, you feel professional. This will translate to you being professional at your work.

Although this may sound strange, it is true. This one small change helps you to work much more effectively than when you are wearing home clothes.

Try it!

Recommendations: Best Networking Tips for Introverts

3. Create a Working Space

I agree it is hard to concentrate if your kids are screaming for your attention every 3 seconds. (No, I am not asking you to ignore your kids, you should never ignore her if she is hungry, or need to change her diapers.)

Sometimes what you need is a delegated place to help you transit from ‘home mom’ to ‘work mom’.

Creating a working space that keeps you away from distractions can be quite simple.

Here are some tips for creating your own workplace:

• Clear your working table of all distractions, such as novels and things that are not work-related.
• Do a simple rearrangement of your work table like adding a potted plant so that it is visually different than it used to be.

These simple ‘triggers’ allow you to switch from a ‘home mom’ to a ‘working mom’.

Next, let your kids sleep or play somewhere you can see but, she cannot see you.

(Kids and Babies look for attention when they can see you, you won’t be able to concentrate if they keep crying for your attention every 3 seconds)

Nowadays, we have lots of high-tech gadgets that can help us to monitor our kids without them knowing. Use these gadgets to your advantage, so that they can help you concentrate on your work while taking care of your kids.

Recommendations: How do you introduce yourself on your first day of work at a new job?

4. Create a Ritual

Creating a ‘working mom’ ritual is some of the simplest ways to help switch your mind from ‘home mom’ to ‘working mom’.

Sophia, a very successful work-at-home mom of 2 kids taught us how.

After she drop off her kids at a preschool in the morning, she would drop by a cafe nearby. This marks the ritual that transits from being a ‘home mom’ to a ‘working professional’.

Your ritual can be even simpler, as moms with babies or very young kids, may not want to send their few months-old babies in the care of a stranger.

Your work ritual can be as simple as turning on the music, using a different perfume, getting a simple cup of coffee to mark the start of your work day, etc.

The possibilities are limitless.

The key is to find something that can help to transition you from ‘home time’ to ‘work time’.

Recommendations: Examples of workplace discrimination against pregnant mothers!

5. Create a To-Do-List

Planning ahead is usually what differentiates a person who is successful and another who is not.

Create and keep a to-do list. In fact, it is much recommended to create Two to-do-list:

1. Create a Work To-Do-List
2. Create a Home To-Do-List

You can have 10 or 20 items in each of the to-do-list, but each day select only 3 to 5 that are the things that you truly need to get done.

You might be surprised, how effective you can be if you focus on just a few items each day.

Recommendations: How to Handle Harassment at Work?

6. 3-Minutes Rule of Productivity

The 3-Minutes Rule of Productivity is a simple rule that allows us to get things done fast and effectively.

Created by Antony C. from HQHire.com, the 3-Minutes Rule of Productivity is a time management system to aid you in productivity mastery.

The 3-Minutes Rule of Productivity says:

“If the task at hand can be done within 3-Minutes, no matter the priority, complete it first.’

Why is it important?

By using the 3-Minute Rule of Productivity, you will be able to concentrate better which improves the quality of your work, while getting more things in a day.

In fact, you will get approx. 20-times more things done than any of your peers at work.

If you are interested to know more about The 3 Minutes Rule of Productivity, I highly recommend you to check out our article “3-Minute Rule of Productivity | Productivity Mastery“.

We challenge you to try this time management system for a week and see the difference it made in your life.

Recommendations: How do you write FAST Goals to work effectively?

7. Set Schedules

With a hundred and one tasks to complete in a day. it is hard for us to complete everything effectively. Especially for working moms who are working at home. We have to take care of our kids as well as our boss’s expectations.

Sticking to our daily schedule is the best way for us to ensure both our kids and our boss are happy.

Although, getting into a schedule, especially when caring for your kids can be tough. Trying your best to stick to the schedule is important.

Not only you will help your kids to understand when is the time to play and when will mommy be working (no disturb zone). It helps your boss to understand what you will be doing for the day and what to expect of you when you are working from home.

Fortunately, most bosses are understanding enough to know that a work-from-home mom with kids has a lot to deal with.

A nice and clear schedule will help your boss to be more confident that you are able to effectively finish your daily task, even when you are working from home.

Recommendations: Phases of remote onboarding when you join a new company!

8. Set Timers

Probably not everyone needs to set a timer. But for most people, a timer helps to ensure that you complete a certain task within a predetermined time frame. It helps you to ensure you won’t lose track of time while handling different tasks.

Here are some examples of when setting a timer can be useful:

• To ensure you will not miss an important online meeting
• To ensure you will not miss preparing meals for your kids
• To ensure you set a break from work for some mommy and kid’s time

Recommendations: Can you get fired from your job while pregnant?

9. Wake up Early

Yes, you didn’t read that wrong. Although, you don’t have to waste time traveling to and fro your workplace, which saves you a few hours per day. Your work time during the normal ‘office hours’ is greatly shortened as you need to make time to take care of your kids.

Use that ‘extra’ time which is usually used for traveling to start working on your daily task instead. Although, most people don’t enjoy getting out of bed early. It can actually feel pretty amazing to start clearing your work ahead of the game rather than watching work pile up till noon.

Most people feel more refreshed by waking up early than working till late.

With your kids still sleeping, you will get much more things done, than when she is awake and calling mommy.

Recommendations: Young Professionals Career Success Best Practices

10. Only Respond to emails that truly need a response

2019 data set on emails conducted over 30 days shows,

“An average office worker receives 121 emails per day. That is 235.6 Billion emails sent and received each day.”

According to research conducted for the same data set, an average employee spends at least 1 to 2 hours of their time clearing emails.

For working moms, each minute of your time spent clearing emails is precious. Spending an hour just to clear email is just unthinkable.

Instead, you can separate emails according to those that require your attention, and those that don’t. Namely, sort by importance. This can be done in 3 simple steps:

1. Identify the people who will send you the important emails and create a dedicated folder for these.
2. Identify the people who will send you unimportant emails and create a dedicated folder for these.
3. Use the filter function provided by outlook, or Gmail to automate filtering of the important and unimportant emails. 

Effectively, you have just reduced your email by over 80%. You just earn yourself an extra hour per day, and that’s a smart working mom.

Recommendations: How to prepare for remote onboarding at a new job?

The 10 Best Tips for Working Moms with Kids:

1. Get your Kids on a Routine
2. Dress for Work
3. Create Work Space
4. Create a Ritual
5. Create a To-Do-List
6. 3-Minutes Rule of Productivity
7. Set Schedule
8. Set Timers
9. Wake Up Early
10. Only Respond to Emails That Truly Need a Response

Do these tips help you as a working mom? Let us know in the comments below!

Recommendations: 8 Best Questions To Ask Your Interviewer

• How to Become a Game Graphic Designer in the Gaming Industry?
• How to Become a Freelance Graphic Designer (Freelancer’s Guide)
• How to Become a Fashion Graphic Designer (Complete Guide): Your Path to Creative Success
• How to Become a Graphic Designer (A to Z Guide)
• 9 Best Email Service Providers (ESP) For Remote Teams & Businesses