When you are a WFH mom, your daily schedule can feel overwhelming, leaving you lost in a sea of tasks that you never get done. If you have ADHD, it’s even worse. Add in kids that are always underfoot, pets, and trying to run a small business (in my case several), and it’s easy to want to throw your hands up in surrender and give up.
If you have a dream of working as a successful freelance SAH solopreneur, there are specific skills you should possess. I have identified five necessary freelance skills that can help you be successful when working from home. If you don’t already have these five crucial freelancing skills in your repertoire, do your due diligence to refresh your memory to improve these talents. You should never quit expanding your knowledge and skill level.
My Struggles as a Work From Home Mom
One of the most frustrating things about working from home is that it can be difficult to establish boundaries. My ADHDOCDWTF brain causes me to have to impose strict restrictions on my time and my attention. There is always so much to do and not enough time to do all of it.
My high anxiety used to cause me to experience decision paralysis. I would have so many things I needed to do that I’d end up overwhelmed. Then one of two things would happen.
One – I would start a task, get distracted, start another task, and then I’d get sidetracked again. Before too long, I would end up with a hundred tasks and activities partially started but none that got completed.
Or two – I would spend so long trying to figure out where to start with my task list that I’d stall out and not do any of it.
Necessary Freelance Skills to Work from Home
I’ve been working as a stay-at-home freelancer for nearly twenty years. I started as a romance writer and book reviewer. These days, I run several businesses and manage multiple clients. I also have a few e-Commerce stores to sell goods for people just like me.
When I’m not working, I am running my busy household. From doing the daily chores to deep cleaning and decluttering, meal planning, shopping, cooking, and organizing.
Then there’s the busy lifestyles of each of the four kids, from jobs to friends to extracurricular activities. Then throw in a few surprising visits from the police about the oldest girl’s illegal curfew breaks – she’s figured out how to sneak past our multiple security cameras, motion sensors, dogs, and spotlights.
And as if four human kids isn’t enough, I also have four canines. We installed a doggie door with the intention of making life easier for all of us. A fenced in backyard should keep the dogs contained and allow them the freedom to go in and out to enjoy the outdoors as they want. And reduce the need for me to take them for bathroom leashed walks. Boy, did I not think that one through!
If you keep up with the adventures of our pups on their website, you’ll know that the two young ladies have an obsession with being outside, especially if there’s water, mud, or something to chase. So, that means I have quadrupedal the mess to clean up. Because apparently, the doggie door acts as a bristle brush as the dogs come in. It knocks a lot of the dirt and debris from their fur – right into the house, my floor, and my furniture.
Skill One – WFH Freelancers Must Have Adaptability
Any parent – of a human or pet variety – will tell you that life rarely goes according to plan. You can make a schedule laying out all of your day, down to the minute. But more often than not, you’ll get thrown a curve ball that causes an interference.
Maybe it’s a sick kid that stayed home from school. Or your dog got into the trash overnight and now you have unidentified stains across your living room carpet, a few hours before you’re scheduled to host this week’s book club. Or you could have a Zoom call scheduled and you wake up too late to prepare to be camera ready, so you end up in front of your entire team and boss wearing PJs from your high school days that’s two decades past season.
If you don’t have the ability to adapt to random issues that pop up on a daily basis, it can become difficult to succeed as a WFH mompreneur.
Skill Two – SAH Mompreneurs Need The Ability to Plan
Planning is crucial as a WFH mompreneur. You have to know how to stick to a schedule but be able to adjust that planning to accommodate surprise events.
There are several ways that you can work out a successful plan to give you a balance between motherhood and work-life. Many people try to use a daily planner that schedules their day down to the hour.
I make and sell several designs like this for those who need to be able to keep up with hourly plans. I use a copy to keep up with things I need to track by the hour, like doctor’s appointments, kids sports activities, vet visits, tutoring, kids jobs and pickups, and home services (pest control, repairmen, installers, etc).
But for my daily schedule, I’ve found that I can’t do with an hourly planner. My life – and my brain – don’t work that way. Unfortunately.
Brain Dumps Allow Free Thinking
I prefer to do a brain dump the night before, outlining the goals and tasks I need to finish the next day. I break these down into categories, which makes it easier for me to track and plan. How many categories I use will depend on what I need to accomplish the next day. I typically include:
- Housework
- Emails
- Work for clients
- Tasks for my small businesses (broken down by brand)
- Out of the house trips (shopping, errands, kids extracurricular activities, doctor visits, etc)
- Research
- To-do list
Skill Three – Being Organized is Crucial for a Successful WFH Career
When you have a work from home career, it’s essential to be organized. For the first seventeen years of my SAH journey, I didn’t bother with trying to have organization. I figured it wasn’t necessary when I worked for myself.
But because I didn’t take the extra few minutes needed to organize, I ended up making a lot of extra work for myself. I wasted a ton of time on searching for content I lost in my hard drive, only to redo the work when I couldn’t find it. I’ve junked up multiple flash drives, computers, and online storage accounts with repeated downloads because I misfiled the previous version.
I can’t tell you how many copies of my resume I have in my documents. As a freelancer, I have to constantly pitch to new clients if I want to keep a steady income source. Cold pitching can be frustrating, especially when you have to repeat the same information and then customize the content to the client’s needs.
In the last two years, I’ve learned how to work smarter. I take the extra few minutes it requires to file my materials in the appropriate places for easy finding. I have a dedicated file for my resume and a Google Docs full of pitch queries that I can grab and customize to account for my different niches. By having content saved with the same basic information always required for my pitches, I save a massive amount of time by not having to type it all up again.
Skill Four – Look for Ways to Set Up Shortcuts
When you’re trying to balance a life-work-from-home schedule, it helps to have shortcuts set up to save time and make life more simple.
Besides for the shortcuts I have set up for fast resume and job pitching, I also have other shortcuts in place. I use PLR and purchased digital graphics to make things faster when I’m short on time or inspiration and need something to post or stock in my store.
These cheats have allowed me to publish three books in the last two weeks. One book of homemade dog food recipes, another that teaches how to draw cartoon characters, and the third piece is an adult mandala coloring book to encourage relaxation and mindfulness.
Today, I hope to stick to my trend and publish another book. I’m thinking about another coloring book or a digital planner. There are so many options that I often get distracted when wanting to do multiple jobs. Instead of using what I have, I get excited by all the new stuff available. Experts call it shiny object syndrome. It’s exhausting and requires a major implementation of self discipline – skill 5.
Skill 5 – Working from Home Requires Self Discipline
There are many advantages to working from home. My favorite is that I never have to change out of my PJs, put on a bra or makeup, or take my hair out of its forever-messy bun.
But there are some drawbacks too. A lot of people don’t understand how it can be extremely difficult to work at home, especially if you’re new to it. The global shutdown in 2020 forced a major percentage of people to implement makeshift home offices and work from home strategies.
Most of the world has gone back to their normal daily lives and regular work schedules. And that means a lot of people forget about how difficult it can be to stay on task and get your work done when there are a ton of distractions.
So, you may often get phone calls from friends wanting you to do lunch or to stop by for a visit. “It must be so nice to still work from home. You can do whatever you want, when you want.”
True. But unlike a full-time out of the home job, when you’re a freelancer with your own business, you only get paid when you finish your tasks. Incomplete jobs result in no payment, a potential loss of clients, a bad reputation, and even a failed business.
I’m an introvert, so I don’t have to deal with the lure of friends very often. My crew knows I need plenty of time to mentally prepare.
Learn to Manage Distractions instead of Ignore Them
My biggest distractions are those of my own making. Usually, it’s housework that gets me off task the most. There always seems to be something to clean and most stuff is things I just finished. I have two methods for handling these issues.
First, I do burst cleaning, which is when I do a quick cleaning or straightening up of one thing. Maybe I take the time to fold a basket of laundry in between writing pieces. When I go into the kitchen to get a drink or a snack, I take a few seconds to organize the pantry, clean out the fridge, wipe down surfaces, or other quick tasks.
Once I get up from working, I take a few seconds to straighten up in the living room. Maybe I tackle a pile of clutter and paperwork stacked up on my bar or the side table. Or I do a fast dusting to eliminate the 1″ pile of dirt lingering on every surface from the dogs forays outside.
In the bathroom, I wipe down counters and sinks, clean off mirrors and glass, do a quick scrub of the shower or toilet, or sweep and mop. Since we have 3 bathrooms, I try to remember to go into each one throughout the day. Once I see a mess, my brain has gotten into the habit of cleaning it up without me having to think about it or force it.
Cleaning in bursts allows me to get multiple areas tackled while appeasing my ADHD brain that refuses to focus on something more than ten minutes. It may mean that I have two or three things cleaned up in one room while another is completely trashed. But knowing that I’ve done some housework eases my guilt enough to allow me to finish my work tasks.
Another way that I handle not getting distracted by cleaning while making sure that the whole house gets thorough attention is to have days dedicated to different rooms. By knowing what rooms I want to devote attention to each day, I can prep my mind for the tasks ahead without getting lost in my head.
I have several printed checklists laminated for the days when I need to keep track of what I’ve done and haven’t done in a room. Some days, I use these down to the last checkbox. Other days, they stay put up in the vanity or cabinets as I just do the essentials. Or whatever the hell I feel like doing that day, depending on my energy levels.
Working From Home Can Be Stressful Without the Proper Prepping
As anyone who transitioned from a normal out-of-the house job to working from home during Covid will tell you, it can be extremely challenging to be a stay-at-home working parent. No matter your job title, the age and species of your kids, or your daily habits, without the right preparations, you’re going to experience a major source of stress while working from home.
Being a full-time WFH solopreneur requires a certain set of skills if you want to be successful and profitable. I’ve outlined the five biggest skill assets I use to operate my freelance business and several brands. You can draw on all of the career, social, and personal skills you possess – or want to learn – to make a success out of a freelance WFH career path. The main thing you require is dedication and determination.
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