I often get asked how to work remote jobs as a busy parent. This is a fair question, and one I once struggled with too. 

When I was an expectant mother, I knew two things for sure: 

1. I needed to work 
2. I wanted to be there for my child and save on childcare costs at the same time  

What’s a busy parent to do? 

The short answer? Work remote! 

The Staggering Cost Of Childcare 

In the fifth annual Cost of Care Study, it was found that one in three families spend 20% or more of their total yearly income on childcare. For many, this amounted to more than $200 a week. When you’re making between $10-$20 an hour, this is a substantial chunk of change. 

As a mom to be, I knew how expensive childcare was in my area. Instead of sacrificing nearly half of my paycheck (and 40+ hours away from my little one a week), I opted to work remote jobs to spend more time with him and keep more of my hard-earned money in my pocket. 

Unfortunately, deciding to work remotely and actually finding remote work are two very different things. The good news is, in the ten years since I’ve started my work-from-home journey, I’ve learned a lot about telecommuting as a parent. So much so that I found there are 4 things you have to know to work remote jobs as a parent. 

1. Not All Work From Home Jobs Are Created Equal 

You can search for work from home jobs all day long. In fact, you can find hundreds and hundreds of remote job leads every single day. But, they won’t do you any good if you’re not looking for the right types of jobs. 

You see, there are two main types of remote work jobs: 

1. Employee
2. Freelance

One of which is better suited for busy parents than the other. First up, let’s look at employee positions. 

Work Remote Employee Jobs 

Companies like Amazon, American Express, and Apple all hire remote employees. These workers are employees of these companies and are expected to work a set schedule with set hours. Basically, remote employee jobs are just like office jobs but instead of sitting in a cubicle, you get to work from your home office. 

As an employee working remotely, you will be required to: 

• Work your shift 
• Have a quiet home office 
• Be available during business hours
• Provide a distraction-free environment to get your work done 

As a busy parent with little ones in your care, employee positions often don’t work out. It’s impossible to keep a baby quiet during an eight-hour shift just as much as it is to keep toddlers entertained while you’re trying to get your work done. You just can’t be a parent who’s also on the clock at the same time. It just doesn’t work out. 

Consider Part-Time Options 

Now, if you’re the parent of older, school-aged kids, you might be able to work remote part-time jobs as an employee. During those 6 or 7 hours your little one is at school, you could devote several of them to work remote jobs.

Of course, this only works out if you can afford to work part-time and actually have part-time availability while your kids are at school. But, keep in mind, this isn’t always practical. After all, kids have various days off from school throughout the year for holidays and teacher planning. Plus, many schools let out for the summer. During these times,  you’ll have to plan and pay for childcare, which can make it difficult to work from home, even part time.

But, if you do have a desire to work part time and don’t mind planning childcare throughout the year when school is out, I highly recommend you check out FlexJobs for information on part-time jobs you can do from home. With a paid membership, you get access to real job leads that are 100% guaranteed to be spam free.  

Work Remote Freelance Jobs 

The other main type of remote work you can find as a parent falls under the freelance umbrella. As a freelancer, you sell your skills or services to clients. You get to set your hours, pick the projects you work on, and negotiate your own pay rate. Essentially, you are your own boss.

The flexible nature of freelance work makes it highly attractive as a parent. In fact, that’s exactly how I got my start. After my son was born, I started a freelance writing career from scratch. This allowed me to stay at home with him and earn money around his schedule. 

Without freelance work, I would have ended up putting him in daycare while I worked a 40-hour office job. Freelancing was, in a word, lifesaving. 

Get Started As A Freelancer

To be successful as a freelancer, it’s best to focus on one skill or service to start and build from there. For me, I chose writing because it was something I always wanted to do and genuinely enjoyed. I suggest you too go after a skill you already have and can develop into a profitable service-based business. 

If you’re not sure what skill you would sell, here are some ideas to get you going: 

• Proofreader 
• Virtual assistant 
• Real estate assistant 
• Pinterest assistant 
• Writer 
• Bookkeeper 
• Transcriptionist 

Remember, it can take time to get established as a freelancer. But, once you do, your income potential is limitless and you can work whenever and wherever you can. This is often the most important factor for busy parents who want to work remote jobs — flexibility! 

2. Be Realistic About How Much You Need To Earn 

I was shocked to learn that most workers have no clue what they need to earn to make ends meet each month. But then it hit me, I had no idea either. 

As a busy parent who wants to work remote jobs, it is important for you to understand how much you actually need to make. After all, you’ve got mouths to feed beside your own and remote work won’t do that unless you’re actually earning enough to survive. 

Too often we get caught up in finding remote work, that we don’t actually think about what we need out of a remote job. Sure, you might want the flexibility to be both a parent and breadwinner, but how much cheddar do you need to earn? 

Thankfully, you can figure it out pretty easily. 

Determine Your Living Wage 

The folks over at MIT developed a living wage calculator. It’s based on location (down to the county you reside in) and helps you figure out an hourly wage that puts you in one of three categories based on your household size: 

1. Living Wage 
2. Minimum Wage 
3. Poverty Wage 

The figures they provide are based on annual expenses a family would have. This includes things like food, housing, medical costs, etc. 

There are even recommended earnings for those who only want to work part time. Use this calculator to guide you in your pursuit of remote work. There’s no sense in pursuing work from home jobs that don’t even come close to paying you what you need to survive!

3. Be Mindful Of Time And How Much Of It You Actually Have 

We tend to think we have more time than we actually do. That’s why we end up overworked, double-booked, and feeling like there just aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done. 

Often, the solution isn’t more time but better clarity. Many of us lack time awareness and set false expectations of what can get accomplished in a day. 

A Word Of Caution For Parents

I offer career coaching services for those who want to work from home but have no idea where to start. A recent client of mine, a mother of two, knew she wanted to work remote jobs. She also knew that she needed to earn about $1,400 a month to contribute to her household. As part of our initial interview I asked her how much time a week she could spend on her job. She very knowingly declared she could commit 20 hours to her remote work every week. 

I crunched the numbers and determined she had to earn about $18-$20 an hour to hit her target monthly income. We put together a great resume. Set up a service site for her as a freelancer. And lo and behold, she landed her first client who needed someone part-time, 20 hours a week, and would pay $20 an hour. How’s that for a win? 

But, as she began working for her client, she quickly became overwhelmed with the demands of her work coupled with raising a family. When I checked in with her after a month, she told me she couldn’t do it. She said there were just not enough hours in the day to get everything done and that both her work and family life were suffering as a result. This of course was not the outcome we worked toward. The whole point of working remotely as a parent is to earn money and spend time with your kids. So, what went wrong? 

The short answer, she had false expectations. 

Be Mindful Of Time Limitations

You see, we all tend to assume that we should be able to do everything we want to do. But this is simply unrealistic. There are only 24 hours in a day. No matter how hard you try, you will never be able to get it all done if you’re unrealistic with your time expectations. 

As a parent who wants to work remote jobs, get serious about time expectations. Figure out what your time limits are and embrace them. Then you can work to eliminate the things that are holding you back from reaching your personal and professional goals. Part of doing this is to gain clarity.

Remember, you don’t actually need more time in a day. You need laser-focused clarity on what tasks and activities matter the most and the conviction to say “no” to everything else. When you do, it’s amazing how much more time magically frees itself up.

As Steve Jobs once said, “Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do.” 

4. Get (And Stay) Productive

Even after you have a handle on your time and realistic expectations in place, it’s up to you to put in the work to get everything done. When you work from home, there is no one else there to oversee your day. You and you alone are responsible to stay on task and put in a full day’s work, even when no one else is looking. As a telecommuting parent, this isn’t always easy. 

Fortunately, there are some tricks you can use to help you stay on task. 

Don’t Multitask 

As parents, we tend to be multitaskers by nature. We’re feeding our kids while doing a load of a laundry and answering texts from friends. And while we’ve been conditioned to think multitasking is a good thing, it actually derails productivity. 

Study after study shows that smart people don’t multitask. Instead, they focus on one activity at a time. When we focus on one task at a time we become more productive and more effective at what we’re doing. Multitasking, on the other hand, slows down our brain and derails progress. 

While it’s tempting to try to do multiple things at once, don’t! Focus on one thing at a time and your productivity will soar. 

Create To-Do Lists 

A simple pen and paper can easily help you keep track of your day. Either the night before or morning of, make it a point to right down everything that needs to be done by the day’s end.

Be sure to prioritize your list — place the most urgent at the top. That way, if you don’t make it through your entire list (and you probably won’t), you can move the unfinished tasks onto the next day’s list. 

Before writing your to-do list, always keep your time expectations in check. Don’t jot down everything you want to do that day. Instead, focus on those tasks that must be done. And don’t forget to cross off items as they’re completed! This simple act is gratifying and propels us forward to complete the next item on the list and so on and so forth.

If a pen and paper aren’t your style, that’s okay too. There are a number of time management apps that fuel productivity and help you manage your day. 

Work Remote Jobs As A Busy Parent 

I’m not going to lie, it is tough to balance a career as a parent, especially if you want to work remote jobs. Remember, working from home is not a substitute for childcare. You will still need to find distraction-free time to work. For you, that may mean freelancing around your kids schedule. Or perhaps you can swing part time work while the little ones are off to school. 

Whatever path you decide to go down, keep at it! A work from home job won’t just fall into your lap. It requires a plan to get from Point A to Point B. 

And, as always, if you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask. Leave your inquiries in the comments below or consider signing up for career coaching. You’ve got this! 

Happily, 

Ashlee 

P.S. This post contains affiliate links. Learn more about them in my disclosure statement.

The post How To Work Remote Jobs As A Busy Parent (4 Things You Have to Know) appeared first on Work from Home Happiness.

You’re lucky, you know.

Not everyone has the luxury of taking their work home with them. In fact, most people don’t. To earn a living, most people depend on a cubicle or a classroom, a sales floor or a boardroom…

But you don’t — at least not all of the time.

You’re lucky: you have a valuable, remote-friendly skillset, one your company happily lets you exercise from home.

The caveat? You have to be on. You have to be equally productive, creative, and effective in your chosen space, which is easier said than done. It requires a calculated approach; preparation. It’s still your job, after all. You want to get it right.

In any case, until you’ve gained some work-from-home experience, don’t wing it. Instead, arm yourself with some best practices. This article will highlight the fundamentals: what tools to use; how to situate yourself; how to organize your time.

More importantly, it’ll give you a snapshot of a healthy, productive work-from-home environment, one that you can fearlessly emulate.

We’ll focus on three crucial success factors:

1. Your Structure

Are you naturally self-motivated? Because if you’re to autonomously work from home, you better be. You don’t have a choice in the matter. You need to be disciplined with your time and task management.

Here are several strategies that’ll keep the juices flowing and the distractions at bay:

Get dressed.

Wearing pajamas while working remotely will cost you more than the comfort is worth…

What we wear impacts how we feel and, in turn, how we behave. A suit, for example, can evoke confidence; sunglasses can ease anxiety. That said, don’t start your home workday predisposed to coziness and lethargy because you refuse to lose the sweats. Instead, wear a dressed-down version of what you’d wear to the office.

Point is: be comfortable, but not too comfortable. You’ll be more productive for it.

Stick to a routine.

Keeping a routine is a potent and practical way to stay consistently motivated and focused — to be on. Once ingrained, your routine will keep distractions in the background, helping you stay on-task.  

To create a routine, begin by breaking your day into hour-long blocks, like an agenda. Up by 8:00 AM, showered by 8:30, then coffee and breakfast before sitting down to answer your first email at 9:00.

That’s “Hour: 1.” How will the next hour play out? Answer that question through “Hour: 8” and you’ll have in front of you a freshly minted routine. Now commit to it.

Over time, you’ll find yourself bending to the comfort of your routine. You’ll catch yourself not thinking, just doing. That shows you’re growing productive, and each time you realize it, you’ll be reminded of a valuable lesson: getting started is almost always the hardest part.

Set micro-goals.

Have you ever attempted to set weekly, daily or, perhaps, even hourly goals for yourself?

These are called micro-goals, and they’re designed to keep isolated workers constantly challenged, driven, and improving.

2. Your Space

Most people don’t like their work to bleed into their personal lives. But it happens all the time, especially among remote workers who mismanage their “hoffice.”

To avoid blurring the lines, try:

Dedicating a work desk.

Don’t work from bed. It could short-circuit your brain, confusing it to think that bedtime is actually work time, and vice versa.

Don’t work from the couch or at your kitchen table, either. Those are your spaces. That’s where you go to unwind, relax, and take your mind away from the job.

A dedicated work desk, on the other hand, will flip a switch in your head every time you sit down at it. It will make you feel like it’s time to work.

Closing the door behind you.

It’s a simple concept, but that doesn’t make it stupid.

Think of it this way: closing the door behind you is like locking in a deadline or like committing to a goal. Ultimately, it’s setting the stage for something powerful: focus.

Anything could be happening out there — the PlayStation could be purring; Netflix could be on; dishes could be piling up — but none of it matters on your side of the door, in your space, behind your dedicated work desk.

You’re in the zone at that post — and that means 10:00 AM is the new noon.

Your Tools

If “Your Structure” is really about managing your motivation, and “Your Space” is about maximizing your focus, then “Your Tools” are about optimizing your communication.

Remember: as a remote employee, you’re still expected to work fluidly on a team. As fluidly as you would if everyone was sitting in the same office together. Thankfully, there are tools to help you do that.

Here are a few that, when used correctly and consistently, can make your remote communications seamless:

Slack

Slack lets you do all your team communications in one place, combining multiple forms of messaging and file sharing.

The app lets you create “Channels” that help isolate topics and people for discussion. It also integrates with DropBox and dozens of other tools, allowing you to send documents in an array of formats.

Zoom

Zoom is a popular video and web conferencing tool.

The service brings cloud video conferencing, online meetings, group messaging, and a software-defined conference room solution into a single platform.

Google Hangouts

Like Zoom, Google Hangouts brings people face-to-face.

Hangouts also has the added benefit of integrating with your Google Calendar and Gmail. That said, it’s not as robust as Zoom, cutting your meeting size to a maximum of 10 people.

You can browse a complete comparison list here.

You really want to know how to conquer working from home?

Conquer yourself first.

After all, working remotely is a deeply personal and unique experience for everyone who does it. We all have our own routines, our own idiosyncrasies. Experience teaches them to us.

This article highlights several important concepts and tools — the fundamentals of working from home — but there’s a lot of empty space in between. Fill it! Color in the nuances that make your remote reality better.

In the process, be thoughtful and stay diligent. You’ll be an old pro in no time.

The post How to Conquer Working from Home: A Beginner’s Guide appeared first on Work from Home Happiness.

When work and home are one in the same, it can be a little too easy to allow insanity to creep into the mix. Contrary to what some may believe, working from his is not all Netflix and Twitter wars.

With family life, personal life, and work life taking place under the same roof, the results can be a bit overwhelming – even on the best days.

Fortunately, you can get it all done while saving your sanity (what little you have left, anyway). All it takes is some planning and determination.

Get Dressed

Whether you’re new to working from home or a long-time remote worker, there are times when working and sleeping within the same walls wears on your sanity. Do you work from home? Have a tried and true sanity-saving tip that I missed? Please share it in the comments below for sanity’s sake. You can also stop the insanity by sharing these tips with your friends.

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