If there's one thing most moms and dads know, it's that sometimes you have to multitask. This is even more true when you work at home. Your work isn't going to do itself. The house isn't going to take care of itself. Neither are any of the kids too young to care for themselves, and you can't always assume older ones will behave.
It's hard to fit everything you need to do in a 24 hour day and still get some sleep, never mind taking a break. Often enough you're going to do some serious multitasking.
What Goes Together?
Your first consideration when multitasking is knowing what goes together. Putting the wrong tasks together slows them all down to where you would have been better off doing them separately.
If something should require your full attention, don't start multitasking. That includes listening to your kids, spouse, friends and other family members.
Reading can be great for multitasking. You can read while waiting to pick your kids up from school if they're still young enough to need that. You can read and even type while breastfeeding a baby... although you should beware of flailing limbs hitting random keys on your keyboard. This gets more deliberate as babies get older.
Brainstorming is also great for multitasking. Keep a pad of paper or something else you can jot notes on available as you do chores around the house. Think about whatever it is you're brainstorming about as you work on the chores, pausing to note ideas.
You can occasionally combine playing with your kids with working, especially if they're at an age where they love to imitate you. Talk about what you're doing even if this means talking to a pre-verbal toddler who only babbles back. They'll love hearing your voice and feeling involved in what you're doing.
Involving your kids in general in your work can be a good thing if done right. They're learning a bit of the reality of your life. They're learning about earning money. They might even be learning some skills as they get old enough to really help you.
What Doesn't Go Together?
I've already mentioned that it's not a good idea to combine listening to people with most other kinds of work. People know when you aren't really paying attention to them. It's easy enough to pause in your typing or whatever you're doing to let your kids tell you something they think is important, and they'll appreciate that you gave them your full attention... even if they don't show it.
It's not good to combine activities that really need your full attention. You're more likely to slow the progress on both. This often isn't so much multitasking as it is switching between activities anyhow.
If you have a few things you're trying to get done, you can switch between when you need a break from one to go to the other. You can write an article, then work on research for a new website, then write another article, for example. But too often if you write a few sentences, then do a touch of research on something unrelated you're just going to mess up your train of thought for both.
Stephanie Foster blogs at
http://www.homewiththekids.com/blog/ about working at home. Learn more ways to [
http://www.homewiththekids.com/blog/2009/10/work-at-home-productivity/]improve your work at home productivity at her site.
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http://EzineArticles.com/?How-Much-Should-You-Multitask-When-You-Work-at-Home?&id=5055160] How Much Should You Multitask When You Work at Home?
