How to Have a Successful Work-Life at Home With Children
Updated: Jun 5, 2024
Written by: Kamladevi Sharma, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Work-life balance has been one of the most challenging aspects of continuous success. More so, creating space for your work life at home, especially with children's distraction, can be an overwhelming experience if you’re not prepared mentally and emotionally.
Personally, I’ve had a chunk of this to deal with when scaling my business in the past 2 years, having two toddlers, being pregnant with a third child, and subsequently managing an after-birth experience with three children.
Being frustrated, confused, angry, depressed, impatient, and lacking energy and focus was my story for a short period of time. Being fully aware that staying in that momentum for a prolonged period can take a toll on my mental, physical and emotional well-being, I decided to change my approach deliberately. I also recognized in the process that my initial reactions were impacting my confidence, self-worth and self-esteem at an underestimated deeper level.
4 successful tips for work-life at home with children
1. Analyze the energy in your work-space
How do you generally feel when you enter your workspace, and what charges its energy? Is it like a pressure cooker where issues are often boiling up, and people are constantly triggered negatively? Do you often feel lethargic and unfocused or, is it charged with an overflow of joy, ease, flow and positivity?
You want to understand the current feel in your space because that will be the basis of your work momentum and your ability to be productive in meeting your work goals.
Additionally, knowing what sits in your space can help you shift its energy. So, is there too much clutter that can suffocate, drown or overwhelm you? Or, are there too many red objects that can heat you up unnecessarily?
Accordingly, when analyzing the things you have in your space, check in on how you generally feel about them and whether they align with what you want to manifest in that space.
For example, if you want to be successful, you may want to have a portrait of a successful personality in business on your wall. You can also improve the lighting in your space, shift things around, open the windows to allow more airflow and bring in live plants with soft, luscious leaves, to feel the support, ease and flow you need for your work focus.
2. Analyze the energy in your relationships
Who is easy to communicate with and who needs extra care in crafting your words? Additionally, what generally triggers your anger, sadness, fear, and frustration when dealing with your children? Now, how much control do you have over these feelings? And how well do you communicate your feelings, expectations, and reasoning behind your expectations?
Poor communication, because of a large power distance with children, is a significant cause of conflict. In particular, communicating your expectations by demanding that your children listen to you, without facilitating their understanding of your ‘why’, often breaks down the relationship and causes them to do the opposite of what you expect them to do. This, in itself, can be a major deterrent to a successful workflow.
So, face it, get clear on the current relationship with every child, take steps to improve the strenuous relationships, and use your strong relationships to strengthen the others by asking those children to support you. Creating this space for ease in communication with your children will help you to get them to cooperate with you in critical moments of work delivery.
3. Planning is essential
How are you dedicating your daily hours to what you need to get done? Planning is essential to a smooth workflow at home. When you plan openly with your children, they have a better understanding of what you will be focused on and when, so they can also plan their focus.
Mindset and physical activities that help with energy flow can be a shared experience. For example, you can do positive affirmations together, create vision books together, jog/walk while they ride their bicycles, meditate, and so on. Including them in your work journey helps prepare them for their work-life and inspires them to be more responsible.
Additionally, you can share your story with your children and, how you can overcome your challenges at work. If you’re working on a project or proposal for the office, you can ask them their opinions and, how your decisions would impact people and situations. This strengthens your relationship with your children and helps them be more critical in their thinking, and that’s a life-long skill needed.
4. Be as present as you can in the moment
It doesn’t matter how much you plan. If your mind is not present in the moment as much as possible, you will find it challenging to be productive at home. Specifically, you will find that your thoughts overlap on various matters and it’ll thief the time you have available to get specific things done or the time you spend with your children. So, take control of your time and set intentions for your next period of focus. Visualizing your next activity is also a good way to keep a high vibe going for productivity. This way, you’ll have more flow and productivity in your work and, your children will feel connected to you when you are with them.
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Kamladevi Sharma, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Kamladevi Sharma is an international speaker on work-life balance, a certified professional life coach and qualified business consultant. She helps entrepreneurs and people in management globally, including you, to eliminate burnout and, achieve balance in their personal and professional lives. Her dedication to achieving clarity, alignment and results for her clients, ensures that they can thrive and feel more fulfilled and successful in their life, career and/or business. Additionally, her expertise in mindset and personal development strategy has benefitted over 4000 professionals globally in personal growth and, over 250 businesses in jumping start a momentum for success in her signature momentum trainings at Revive. She has been featured on several podcast shows on various platforms like Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts and, the Guyana Times Sunday Magazine. Kamladevi holds a MBA in Business Administration from the University of Bradford, Bachelors in Social Psychology, Social Research and Business and, certificates in Professional Life Coaching and Counselling. Prior to co-founding Revive, she was magnificent in upper management positions in Guyana and lectured at several tertiary institutions there.
