It might just be one of the biggest balancing acts that one person can undertake. In the age of the gig economy and freelancers reigning supreme, it is becoming more common too.
The freelancing career is created within the home. The home is also where pets, children, and chores live.
Learning to balance them is something that takes time and effort.
Writing a beautifully crafted piece of content while your child is emptying the content of the cupboard. Or trying desperately to meet a 6 am deadline, but your puppy needs some snuggles.
It can be challenging to balance what you have to do, what you want to do and ignore the feeling of guilt.
So how do you manage it?
Plan
Plan, plan, and then plan some more. Planning is essential for freelancers, learning online, including accelerated nursing programs, small business wonders.
Your schedule, while it should have some flexibility, it should be your guide too. Keeping you on track and working well with clients is essential.
Rather than create a single schedule and use that for your weekly template, create a penciled one each week. This means you can add things as needed.
Micro time periods
Small time periods are your lifeblood. Waiting in the car, any time toddlers nap, the small gap of time between the children going to bed and you going to bed.
These pockets of time cannot usually be planned but have a lot of value.
Keep smaller, less important tasks for these time pockets.
Think of these pockets as between 5 to 30 minutes.
You might be surprised just how many of these time pockets can help you make real headway in your projects.
It is also the perfect time for you to research tools that are cheap or free tools that can help you to automate many processes that you need to repeat often.
Micro time periods are perfect for social media updates, notes, creating to-do lists for the next few days.
via unsplash.com
Boundaries
You have to set healthy boundaries that keep you in a healthy space.
When people freelance quite often, they fall into the mentality that every hour should be spent working. In truth, freelancing gives you the freedom to kick back when you feel like it.
If you are setting healthy boundaries and working your small pockets of time, there shouldn’t be many occasions that you get snowed under.
If you do get snowed under regularly, this may mean that you may need to hire outside help.
Setting boundaries for when you are working and when you are free will help curb friends and family’s behavior.
People need to understand and respect that you need to have time that is protected for work purposes.
Every minute counts when you are a freelancer or learning online. Even more when you have children. Balancing takes time and care to create something that works for you.
What else can help? Makes sure that you take plenty of time to rest and don’t feel the pressure to take on more than you can handle.
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