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Lynn Terry from Clicknewz and Self Starters Weekly Tips is a well known work at home mom. She has been working from home for over 11 years now. She is also a single mom, making the challenge of balancing mom duties with work duties even harder.

She says that achieving that balance can involve much trial and error to find the system that works for you. Being home with your children can be very rewarding. It can also mean getting sidetracked easily when they need you. Having a schedule is an absolute must to her but what works for one person may not work for another:

Over the years I have gone back and forth between the flexible schedule (go with the flow), and micro-managing my schedule hour for hour. I’ve tried day planners, desk calendars, Outlook reminders, task lists, charts, post-it notes, egg timers, time logs - you name it. The flexible schedule is much more pleasant, I assure you - but its not generally as productive.
Micro-managing your schedule and pushing yourself to the limits has its drawbacks too, of course. The two main issues (in my experience) being disappointment and discouragement. If you get the slightest bit off track, you end up with a load of negative feelings, which can be very counter-productive.

She has found that a daily schedule, filled with items that she must do every day and flexible to do items, as well as a seasonal one works very well for her. She has discovered the tasks that need to be done everyday take around an hour or two. She fills the rest of the day with other tasks as she finds the time to do them. Lynn has also found that her workload goes up and down depending on the season. She does less work in the summer when her kids are home from school and more in the fall when they go back. This also ends up working great for going into the busy holiday shopping season.

Do you keep a schedule while working from home? What kind of schedule works well for you? I really admire Lynn and her ability to balance.

Warmly,
Mia