How To Set Boundaries As A Freelance Writer And A WAHM
Balancing Your Business And Your Family
When you are a work-at-home-mum (WAHM) the lines between work and home life often become blurred. I mean, working from home means it is so easy for your work life to bleed through to your personal life. You can become distracted by family, neighbours, social media, laundry and other household chores.
You need to remember that you are a professional. You are running your own business. You NEED to set boundaries to ensure that you are productive and can balance your time better.
These boundaries will protect your working time, set expectations for you, your family and your clients, and help you effectively manage time and build your business.
You need to be intentional with how you spend your day and ruthlessly protect your working time.
How do you do this?
You set boundaries.
Declare your boundaries!
When you sit down and brainstorm how your work-at-home business is going to look, you must put boundaries at the top of your list.
You have to be organized, know what you need to do and when, and communicate with your family what your “working hours” will be.
What kind of boundaries do you need to set?
Boundaries to eliminate distractions.
First and foremost you need to set boundaries that will help to eliminate distractions during your dedicated working hours.
This is where a lot of work at home mums struggle.
You know what I am talking about.
You are constantly trying to move between mum and businesswoman, not able to commit to one or the other as the busy demands of both pull you in different directions (unless your children are away for the day)!
The problem with this is you can never fully focus on one or the other. That blog post you need to write for a client may take a back burner to reading stories to your child. Or your child may take a backseat to that article that needed to be written yesterday.
Mums (and women in general) are amazing people. Superwoman even. But we cannot do everything at the same time. At least not to the best of our ability.
You must set boundaries to eliminate distractions.
What does that look like?
Set goals such as I will not answer personal calls or emails during working hours.
Or put your phone and computer out of reach when it is “family time”.
Once you are able to dedicate your time solely to one task or the other you will not only be more productive in terms of your business, but your family will appreciate the undivided attention and are more likely to be understanding of your need for peace and uninterrupted time during working hours.
I have also found that if I can give my children my undivided attention for an hour, I can then work for almost an hour without them needing me. However, if I try to work the whole time they become more needy and unsettled.
Try it for a week. One hour of undivided attention for your children. No phone. No computer. Just you and your children. See what happens.
Know when to disengage.
OK. Truth time. I struggle super hard with this!
It is so hard to completely disengage from your business, especially an online business such as freelance writing. Your computer or smartphone is just there, always in reach.
So you think….
I will just quickly check my Facebook page whilst the kettle boils.
While I wait for my daughter to finish her poo I will flick through Twitter.
The kids are eating lunch so I will answer a few emails.
However, this is not healthy! For one, you cannot actually 100% focus on the task at hand. I mean if you are distracted whilst a 3 year old is sitting on the toilet doing their business who knows what could happen. Some finger painting perhaps (and I don’t mean with paint either).
You need to be strict with disengaging.
If it is family time than do not pick up your phone. Do not check social media. Do not start drafting out a blog post.
Concentrate on your family and disengage from your business.
It is not going anywhere. You can take an hour or so to spend quality time with your family without negatively affecting your business.
And do not forget that it is a two-way street! You can spend time on your business without negatively impacting your family too. It is all about setting those boundaries.
Leave work at “work”.
Close the office door (if you have one). Put your computer or smartphone out of reach. Try your hardest to switch out of businesswoman mode and back into mum/wife/partner mode!
Work time is work time.
Family time is family time.
Set “office” hours.
When you work from home, it is so easy to be distracted by the chores and laundry that need doing. Or to give in to temptation and answer emails or complete client work until midnight. And if that works for you, then keep doing it!
However, I found that if I stayed up until midnight answering emails and working I was only sleeping about 4 hours a night. And there is not enough coffee in the world for that to be sustainable for me.
Not to mention that if you are answering client emails that late it sets the expectation that you are ALWAYS available. This should not be the case.
When I first started my freelance writing business, I sat down and worked out what hours I would be “available” for clients, and what hours I would dedicate just for work. I also set a strict cut off time for work (currently 9 pm). As my family has expanded and my children grow, those hours change and they will continue to evolve to suit our lives.
By setting “office hours” I ensure I create boundaries with my clients, as well as my workload. My family knows when I am working, and when I am not. It helps to establish a routine that we are all comfortable with and that helps us to be organized in all aspects.
Having said that, you do need to be flexible. If illness strikes or a quick deadline turnaround is needed than that can drastically change your working hours.
So whilst setting strict office and working hours is important, so too is learning how to go with the flow.
Part of setting work time is a schedule. You need to have a schedule, and stick to it. Even if you can only set aside one hour a day for your business, it is worth it. So in order to be as productive as possible, you need to know what you intend to do with that one hour.
This is where I absolutely LOVE batching. Use batching for time management to focus your time and effort and you will be surprised by how much you can achieve in one short hour!
Protect your working time.
Setting boundaries is not just for you, but for your family as well. I have found that I need to “protect my working time”.
What do I mean by this?
I need to clearly communicate to my husband that from x time to y time I am not to be disturbed unless a dire emergency. This is my writing and/or working time. You need to set this clear boundary; otherwise, you will have constant interruptions and NEVER get anything done.
I find that it also helps to establish with your partner that this is serious. That you really are working and not just fluffing about on your computer. You are a professional and need to be treated as such.
Another truth (yep, there has been a few in here!) I didn’t do this when I first started my writing business. And because initially, I wasn’t making any money from my business, my husband was not truly on board. He didn’t see the merit if there was no income, and because I didn’t set proper boundaries I felt like an imposter too. Just tapping away here and there, but never really committing.
But once you sit down and establish your “office” and “working/writing time” you must protect it, I promise it will go a long way to boosting productivity and making you feel like you are running a business!
Give yourself days off!
It is so hard when you are working for yourself and trying to build and maintain a business to take a break. Even if it is one day.
You will be itching to quickly check your social media profiles. Or answer a few emails. Or you think to yourself, I will just work on this piece for 10 minutes. But you need to take days off. Every employee has days off (or should anyway)! So you should too!
As part of setting boundaries in your business, you should set limits on how many days per week (or month if you would prefer) you will take off. And make it ONE FULL DAY.
I try to take Saturdays. And yes, I know I am telling you to take a break and that it is something I am so guilty of NOT doing. But my goal is to get better at it. I hope.
Balancing your business and home life as a WAHM comes down to setting boundaries and expectations. I know that I still struggle with sticking to the boundaries I set for myself. It is so hard to step away from my computer at times. But you need to know when it is time to work and when it is time to play!
It is vital to make time for your family and yourself, just as much as for your business.
Declare your boundaries, leave your work at work, take breaks and most importantly BE KIND TO YOURSELF.
Rachel Maree is a writer, mum and registered nurse. Bringing you the real truth to parenting, nursing and writing (even when it is downright ugly). You can read more articles or hire her to write amazing content for you — Rachel Maree.
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