Bridging the Gap between Family & Business

Working from home is not as easy as some would have us to believe. It is hard work and takes a lot of time and effort. Organizing your day is the first step to getting you prepared for the tasks at hand.

How do I do that? I have dishes, laundry, lunch, home school, sibling fights to referee, diapers to change, appointments, errands, advertising, web site maintenance, orders to fill, .. You get the picture, right?

Despite what some experts may say, organization can be learned, true some people are born with a natural "organize it" gene, but even they have to work at it.

The first step in building an organizational plan is to review your goals. If you don't know where you're going, how will you know when you get there?

1. What are my Goals?

In determining your goals, you need to factor in both personal and business goals. After all, you are now a work at home professional.

1. What are my personal Goals?
2. What are my family goals?
3. What are my business goals?

Next, you need to determine your priorities. Which is more valuable to you? What is a necessity? What can be laid aside? What personal or family goals come before business? What business goals are top priorities?

We have our goals and priorities set, now we need to start planning.

1. What are your work hours?
2. What are your family hours?
3. What are your family's daily tasks?
4. What business affairs need to be taken care of? When?

Once you figure out what needs to be done and the time in which it needs to be done, you can start scheduling. You will need a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly schedule. *Remember however, that schedules are not written in stone, if something comes up—yes, something always does-you can "go off" schedule until an appropriate time opens up for you to get "on task".

1. Daily
2. Weekly
3. Monthly
4. Yearly

You know where you are going, you know what you, your family, and the business needs, and you know you need to schedule out your activities/duties. Now comes the planning of your schedule. As we all know, with any road trip come the bumps, traffic and potholes. So to make our journey as smooth as possible, we need to "schedule" in float time. Float time is similar to the space cushion you learned about in driver's education. "Leave adequate space between your car and that of the cars surrounding you." This same concept holds true in scheduling your days-weeks-months-and years.

I'll use driver's Education again to show you this next concept. "Always have a way out" a.k.a. "Back up plan". When driving on a busy intersection, we need to know our surroundings—who is near, is there danger around the corner?—will I have enough room to make a sudden stop?—turn?—lane change?—

This kind of thinking can also help you in planning out your schedule. Keep in mind that things happen to wreck the best made plans. We get sick—relative dies—a child is in trouble—a husband looses his job—etc.

When things happen to divert your path, you just need to go with the flow or pass through the valley-work your way back up the hill-and YES---start again.

1. Make plans but also know of alternative "routes"
2. Expect delays
3. Get back on track

The following is what I have devised over the last 5 years of "lurking" online—learning about mothering, parenting, working from home, managing time, managing a home, etc... I hope that it can be of some use to you and your family.

1. WAHM RESOURCE AND ADVERTISING NOTEBOOK
2. Supplies
3. Binder 3-ring 1inch
4. Dividers 12 main ?Subcategories
5. Pen/Highlighters
6. Labels
7. FORMS*
8. Resources
2. Prepare Notebook
3. Label Jan – Dec
4. Print out Forms*
5. Gather your resources (web sites, books, contacts, etc..)
6. Place in Notebook
7. Begin Your Quest for Organized Living.

3. List of Forms to Download
*To Do List
*Weekly
*Monthly
*Yearly
*Catalog Log
*Follow Up Log
*Party Plan – Themes and Games
*Chat Schedule
*Groups
*Web sites/Networking
*Phone Log
*Expense Record
*Income Record
*Inventory
*Newsletter Schedule/Topics
*Advertising-Paid
*Advertising-Sold
*Free Advertising
*Offline Advertising Campaign
*Mom Packs
*Business Contacts
*Hostess Contacts
*Consultant Contacts
*Web host – Url – Email – Webmaster
*Template – Logo- Stationery – Business Cards
*Thank You Log
*Postage Mailing Expense Log
*Computer maintenance
*Budget
*Hostess Gift Log
*Contest Log
*Prize Log
*Discounts-Promos-Specials

2. FAMILY-HOUSEHOLD NOTEBOOK
? Chores
? School
? Doctors Numbers-Address-Appointments
? Babysitter Information
? Girlfriends
? Vacation
? Budget
? Cooking-Recipes-Plans
? Holidays
? Positive Quotes
? A Mother's Prayer
? Exercise Log
? Mission Statement
? To Do Daily
? Weekly
? Monthly
? Yearly
? Important Numbers
? Recreational Time
? Clothing size
? Medical Histories-Allergies
? Family projects
? Crafts
? Home improvements
? Volunteer

Creating these two notebooks to work together will hopefully bring about a more relaxed, organized, day to your family.

There are plenty of free printable forms online for the above topics, I have made my own very simple versions. If you would like access to my versions to get a creative spark flowing for your forms development process, please let me know and I will forward you my documents.

Reference:
http://www.advertisingmoms.com printable mom packs (type)
http://www.webmomz.com printable mom planner
http://www.organizedmom.com printable schedules for home and office
http://www.tipztime.com lots of printable schedules, homeschool ideas, work schedules, personal schedules
http://mompacks.com printable offline advertising tally sheet

©2005 Sara@mommie-care.com

Sara Duggan lives in California with her Family. She enjoys crocheting and writing in her spare time. You can visit her at http://www.mamasshoppe.com or http://directsaleopportunities.com.