No matter how strong you are or how determined you are to do everything, you\u2019ve just popped a baby out of you\u2026if you\u2019re lucky. If you\u2019re unlucky, you\u2019ve had a C-section and had the child ripped from. You now have a baby and a war wound. Accept it.![\"\"class=\"size-full](\"https:\/\/www.benchmarkemail.com\/tw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2020\/02\/wahm1.jpg\")
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I don\u2019t just mean understand the situation, I mean accept it. Accept that you\u2019re broken and bruised, torn and mentally bound to live in baby land for the first month to two months at least. Take the time to heal and to relish your new baby. You\u2019re going to be exhausted in every way possible. If you\u2019ve never had a child, imagine being a Stockholm Syndrome P.O.W. Life is hell but you love it and the last thing you need or want on your plate is anything else that doesn\u2019t revolve around the \u201csun\u201d that is your new child.<\/p>\n
Put work on hold. Make the arrangements to transfer responsibility. Don\u2019t take on new assignments until you\u2019re ready to be your best again. I made the mistake of not taking this advice simply because I didn\u2019t know any better and thought I could do it all. I couldn\u2019t and my work suffered. It took me eight months to be myself again.<\/p>\n
2. Finding the Right Company<\/strong><\/p>\n Find a company that accepts telecommuters without unnecessary in person meetings. Find someone that trusts you to do what you do best and leaves you to it. Find a company that can help you with the tools you need and is willing to work collaboratively when needed. I cannot thank my blessing enough to have found Benchmark. Not enough good words can be said about them.<\/p>\n 3. Learning More<\/strong><\/p>\n One of the biggest bonuses in working for yourself is that you end up doing and learning a lot more. I\u2019ve learned more in just these past two years than I did at any job or in school over ten years combined. And I\u2019m motivated daily to learn more.<\/p>\n Learning trends, networking socially and reading up on news, opinions and developments in any industry is part of your job. Take it one step further and start following a few more related industries. You\u2019ll be surprised by how many connections you start making, which makes you a more informed analyst and an on-the-ball trend spotter. Plus, it helps boost neuron activity to feed different kinds of ideas and information, making you a smarter, faster and more creative thinker.<\/p>\n If you can afford it or save up for it, get the right tech tools \u2013 a Kindle, iPad, iMac, a great camera to create your own images and the right programs like Adobe Photoshop. You\u2019re going to need it and it\u2019ll make you a more valuable asset. You don\u2019t have to wait for a boss to approve it, or to have a boss waste your time with monkey work. What you do and how far you go depends entirely on you; and people who are driven will take advantage of this opportunity.<\/p>\n 4. Learning the Art of Time Management<\/strong><\/p>\n Any half-decent mom will excel in time management after having her first child. But work from home moms transform into highly skilled ring leaders capable of anything. We\u2019re master managers juggling multiple streams of information that would make the Matrix look like DOS. There\u2019s one nemesis though and that\u2019s time.<\/p>\n This point is called \u201cLearning the Art of Time Management,\u201d but that\u2019s a load of hogwash. There\u2019s no such thing. Time cannot be managed. Rather, you learn to manage yourself better by wading through the chaos that\u2019s now your life. (See Embracing the Chaos<\/i>, below.) Grab fifteen minutes wherever you can and you\u2019ll be surprised how much you can do in just the 15 minutes that your child is amused by grabbing fistfuls of spaghetti and sticking it up in the air with the zealous enthusiasm of a savage hunter who\u2019s just experienced a prized kill. So there\u2019s spaghetti everywhere. It\u2019ll get cleaned up and you\u2019ll get over it. The kid can be dumped in the tub, clothes and all where that mess can be cleaned up and he can spend the next 30 minutes splashing running water while you finish your email. Make that 45 minutes.<\/p>\n Managing yourself and your baby is one thing. First, learn what works for you best, and work around your baby\u2019s schedule. I wake up early and stay up super late if I\u2019m not too tired. Reagan wakes up at 10 (thank God), and from 10 am to 2 pm, I\u2019m committed to playing with him, feeding and bathing him. From there on, it\u2019s back to work and here and there work tending to Reagan\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n 5. Explaining What You Do<\/strong><\/p>\n People don\u2019t understand what working from home means. They think it means you wake up late, watch a lot of TV, play with the baby and are free for them to drop in whenever you want and stay however long they want. Don\u2019t try explaining it because no one understands it unless they\u2019ve lived through it or see a week in your life. Managing other people\u2019s respect for your time is quite another. I don\u2019t allow idle visitors or phone calls during the work week. I\u2019m very very<\/i> strict about that and you\u2019ll have to be too. Whenever possible, meet visitors outside your home because God knows you need to get out of the house; plus it\u2019s a lot easier to leave because it\u2019s his \u201cnap\u201d time or some other made up excuse than to ask your guest to leave \u2013 which comes across as rude no matter how polite you try to be.<\/p>\n Work-from-home moms will also frequently find themselves chugging away through the weekend. It\u2019s not an ideal situation but it\u2019s a sacrifice you have to make at least a part of the time in exchange for getting to be home with your kid. Don\u2019t expect people to be understanding though. Social visits get cut short because you have work to do. Family time with everyone over means you may be on your computer half that time. The people who love you will come to understand it.<\/p>\n 6. Knowing When to Get Help<\/strong><\/p>\n As much as you\u2019ll try to do it all, you simply can\u2019t. And if you can\u2019t, you\u2019re burnt out. So make the smart move and get a babysitter or some trusted high school kid to come play with your child a few hours a day \u2013 keeping him busy and played with and giving you some free time.<\/p>\n Or try getting a maid once a week so you\u2019re not wasting 5 hours a week on manual labor. If you try doing it all yourself, something will suffer and most likely it\u2019ll be your sanity and your once good looks.<\/p>\n Do not rely on family and friends because then you\u2019ll just end up entertaining them afterward or they won\u2019t understand that you\u2019re working. You simply won\u2019t get anything done and you\u2019re now babysitting two people instead of one.<\/p>\n 7. Getting Out<\/strong><\/p>\n Make sure you and your child leave the house once every day for at least a half hour. If you treat yourself like a prisoner you\u2019ll soon start hating your prison \u2013 and your child will hate you.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t take on any social engagements, play dates or actual outings during the week as it sucks up way too much time away from your work schedule. That\u2019s what the weekends are for.<\/p>\n 8. Keeping Your Kid Busy<\/strong><\/p>\n If your baby is 0 to six months, get a swing. I didn\u2019t do this and I suffered for it. Make sure your home environment is very stimulating to a child. Lots of toys, bright colors, a garden and pockets of interest especially near your desk. In one stroke of genius, I finally made some space for Reagan on my desk recently where I gave him an outdated Blackberry and a kiddy laptop. He loves being with me and now he\u2019s at my desk and satisfied, rather than clamoring at my lap for me to pick him up so he can see my computer and then randomly wage war on various keys.<\/p>\n 9. Embrace Chaos<\/strong><\/p>\n If you were a once neat and tidy person, forget it. Your home will look like a crime scene and you\u2019ll learn to function around it. Don\u2019t waste your time trying to make everything perfect. Perfect is a happy kid who\u2019s had you the whole day, and happy clients.<\/p>\n 10. Respecting Your Role<\/strong><\/p>\n If you\u2019re lucky enough to be able to work at home, then respect it. You\u2019ve got to respect your colleagues, go above and beyond expectations and work harder than you ever would in a traditional office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I was always a very calculated career driven and self-involved person. But when I abruptly learned of my pregnancy via ultrasound at three months, I was gob smacked and teary eyed \u2013 and perhaps speechless for the first time in my life. Here was this little life that had already claimed a place in the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":309,"featured_media":11688,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2186],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2186"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"class=\"size-full](\"https:\/\/www.benchmarkemail.com\/tw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2020\/02\/wahm3.jpg\")
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