If you’re thinking of working at home, or have recently started working from home, I’m about to tell you something you probably haven’t heard before. At least, I haven’t – until recently.

Here goes: working at home is dangerous to your health!

Lexi, Have You Lost Your Marbles?

I’m serious, and I’m not the only one who says so. Scott Tousignant of FatLossQuickie.com, says that most people gain 30 pounds their first year of working at home.

While I didn’t gain 30 pounds, I did notice some alarming things about my health in the last 18 months of being a work at home Mom:

• I’ve gained weight even though I don’t snack as much as I used to when I was working in an office
• My clothes were getting tighter
• I was getting flabby everywhere – my arms, stomach, butt, legs…
• I felt tired all the time
• I wasn’t getting enough sleep and having a hard time getting up in the morning
• Even though I had more time to exercise (than when I was employed), I wasn’t motivated to exercise

I’ve always been an exerciser. I’ve been a gym member. I own a dozen exercise videos. But this time, I just couldn’t stick to it somehow.

So a couple of weeks ago, I decided I would do short 10-15 minute workouts whenever I was taking a break between the chunks of time that I did work. So when I saw Scott’s Home Office Workout, I thought it was just perfect.

But Does It Work?

Scott and his wife both work at home, so they know what work at home parents need: quick but effective workouts you can do at home. This is what I like about the Home Office Workout:

• Each workout – one strength training and one cardio per day – is only 10 minutes long, which means you’re done for the day after only 20 minutes
• There’s a lot of variety. You do a different set of workouts every day for a week, and then cycle through the weekly workouts for a month.
• You don’t need a lot of space. Scott says you only need a 6 x 4 feet of space to do the workouts. In fact, I ‘ve done them in even smaller spaces (but then I’m only 5’1″).
• You don’t need expensive equipment. You’ll need dumbells, a stability ball, and a jump rope. I’ve been doing the workouts with only a stability ball, using two cans of beans as weights and an “invisible” jump rope. I will go out and get everything eventually, and it won’t cost me more than $35 for all of them.
• It works. After 3 days of doing the workouts, I could comfortably wear one of my form-fitting shirts again. About 5 days into the workouts, hubby said I was feeling firmer (but because he’s my number 1 fan, I dismissed it). A week into the workouts, my 8-year-old daughter, who’s also my harshest critic, said “Mom, you’re getting unflabby.” That’s when I knew the workouts were really working.

I’ve also noticed that I’m much more motivated to exercise than I was before. I’m not sure why, but it must be the combination of the short workouts, the variety and of course, seeing the results that’s keeping me motivated.

Another thing: the workouts are strong but challenging. The first couple of days, I was whining and cursing Scott (via Twitter) about the workouts. But then one day, something happened. A thought popped into my head as my muscles ached and wobbled: “I can do this. I CAN do this!”

For somebody who always just wanted to get exercise over and done with, this is a real breakthrough.

I’ve noticed other things, too: I’m able to get up early in the morning (6 am), and I mean jump out of bed instead of dragging my “computer butt” out of bed. My moods have also improved. I’m more cheerful throughout the day. And – now I’m not sure if this is just my imagination – but I have been more productive lately, even though my girls are back in school and I’ve lost the best babysitters and mother’s helpers ever.

There are a couple of other benefits I’ve observed, but these are of the private nature and I’d rather not mention them here (wink).

The only disadvantage I see with the Fat Loss Quickie workouts is the lack of warm-ups and cool-downs. I know enough about exercise to do these myself. In fact, this is the reason I do the cardio right after the strength training workout – since my body is all warmed up already, I might as well do the cardio exercises as well.

UPDATE: Scott recommends marching in place for a couple of minutes for your warm up and cool down. But if you’re like me and want to stretch before and/or after you exercise, you’ll want to find some warm-up exercises, such as the ones here. You can do the same stretches for your cool down (but note, I’m not a personal trainer, so don’t take my word for it). I’ve asked Scott about this, and will update this post when I receive his reply.

If you’re interested in getting more fit, more energized and more productive, check out Scott’s Fat Loss Quickie Home Office Workouts here:

=> Fat Loss Quickie

PS: I forgot to mention that the Fat Loss Quickie workouts are videos you can watch online and/or download to your computer. Scott also gives nutrition tips, motivational videos, and blog with more useful tips. Plus, you can always reach Scott through Twitter when you have questions (or just to say, “My muscles hurt, I hate you Scott.” He doesn’t mind!). Click the link below to find out more:

=> Fat Loss Quickie

photo credit: Miss Gong & The Flickers

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Today I’d like to talk about something that’s huge as far as being a Work at Home Entrepreneur.

Actually planning your workday before you sit at the computer. (*gasp*)

This is, again, where Jimmy D. Brown’s report: “Homepreneur Habits: How To Run A Successful Home Business” is such a valuable resource. He shares his daily schedule, including what he does every day of the week to run a hugely profitable business in only 3 hours per day.

Let me back up a bit here before I get too far ahead of myself.

Why a “To Do” or “Action” List is Important.

Let’s take a peek into the work day of two twins: Silly and Sally.

Silly’s Day: Silly gets up, grabs a cup of coffee and sits down at her desk. She thinks “Hmm… I wonder what I should work on today?” and then wanders off to check email and twitter while she continues to decide what to work on. Several hours later, it’s time for her to get off the computer and she thinks “I didn’t get anything productive done! There’s never enough time in the day. I just don’t understand. I was busy all day!”

Sally’s Day: Sally gets up, grabs a cup of coffee and sits down at her desk. She picks up her action list of 6 items that she wants to get done for the day, and determines which one to tackle first. She then spends some focused time and finishes 5 of the items on her list. After that she decides that she’s almost out of time for the day, so she quickly checks email and Twitter. Then, she makes her list for the next day, making sure to transfer the item that didn’t get done to the new list.

Which one of those days looks more productive to you? It doesn’t take an efficiency expert to see that Sally is much more productive and gets more done (and probably makes a heck of a lot more money than Silly does.)

Both Sally and Silly are moms, so they’re interrupted more than a few times in the scenario above, but when all things are even – Sally is the winner by a long shot.

So are you Sally? Or are you Silly?

Now, I could talk forever about this topic, but I’m trying to stay very focused on what works the best, so I’ll try to keep it short.

Do it at Night.

A tip that I learned awhile ago is to make your to-do list at the end of your work day.

So, at the end of today, I will make my to-do list for tomorrow.

Why is this such an important tip? Well, just think of the alternative.

Did you notice that Sally sat down and was immediately able to jump into her action list? Not Silly. She had to sit and try to remember where she left off the day before. That’s not exactly the way to start off a productive day, is it?

Keep it Simple. Keep it Short.

I’m easily overwhelmed, so I like to write my action list for the day on a standard index card and limit it to 6 money-making tasks that I believe I can get done that day. I do not list everything that I need to do on that list or I’d just look at it and freeze and wander off to Twitter or grab someone on Instant Messenger to chat and stay “busy” but not “productive”.

I’ve tried numerous systems, including mind mapping, expensive day planning systems, and complicated computer programs. And, yes, I do use a larger system for planning my overall business.

HOWEVER… for the daily “to do” list tasks, I have found that simplicity is the one trick that works best for me. So, I run back to the simplicity of my wonderful index cards and my list of 6 items on it every time, simply because it works.

By keeping my list of 6 tasks in front of me and having it ready for me in the morning, I find that I accomplish two things:

I get more accomplished in my day. This is pretty self-explanatory.

I know when I’m done. If you don’t have a daily action list, how will you ever know when to leave your computer? There will always be more to do… Without my action list, I could grow roots to my swivel chair within a week’s time.

Finding your Way Back.

A daily action list also serves a busy home entrepreneur in one other way. When I get interrupted (and I do, often), I can very easily find my way back to productivity with one glance. Which of the six things was I working on? If I wasn’t any of them… well, then I was off track to begin with and I just busted myself.

When I didn’t have my daily list, I would have two major problems for a work at home entrepreneur. I’d be unproductive. And, I’d be unproductive for a really long time, since I didn’t know when I was done for the day. I know it sounds silly, but it’s practically an epidemic of colossal proportions when talking with online entrepreneurs.

The Moral of the Story? Don’t be Silly! Get your Work Done.

Your challenge for today is to buy some index cards and keep them by your desk. Every day before you call it “quitting time” make your list of 6 items to do the next day. Start your day with that list. See how much more work you get done and you can thank me later.

And, again, if you have $15 to invest for a whole lot of productivity, I highly recommend: Jimmy D. Brown’s report: “Homepreneur Habits: How To Run A Successful Home Business.”

Warmly,
Nicole

Nicole Dean on Twitter| Nicole Dean’s Blog & Podcast

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Last week, I found myself unable to empty my email in-boxes (despite what I had learned from Getting Things Done). I couldn’t focus on anything; I would flit from one blog or website to the next and then to an E-book. I wasn’t making progress on my to-list. What was happening to me?

I found the answer after my mind had cleared and I sat down in a quiet corner with my copy of Yaro Starak’s Blog Profits Blueprint. I had the plague also known as “information overload”. I had gotten seduced by the idea of having passive income through a work at home internet business. I wanted to learn everything right now. But as Yaro said, information overload makes you lose direction, forget your purpose, and keep you from working towards your goals.

It’s a good thing that last week, even as my eyes glazed over all those blog posts I tried in vain to digest, I found myself hitting the unsubscribe button instead. It was only the first of several things I did to help me regain my bearings.

Here’s a list of what I did to overcome work at home information overload:

1. Cut the number of emails by unsubscribing from all but 3-5 blogs

It was those blog and newsletter subscriptions that had clogged my in-box, making it impossible for a busy Mom to keep up. So this was the first and obvious way to de-clutter my email — and my brain. I realized that most of what I was receiving was not immediately useful to me anyway. And if I did need the information, I could easily find it on the Internet. I know bloggers are supposed to help each other out but I was subscribed to uber-popular blogs anyway and I don’t think I’ll be missed.

2. Stay on top of my email in-box by processing it the GTD way

With most of the blog subscriptions out of the way, I had much fewer and more manageable volume of emails. Ah, what a relief!

3. Went on an Internet diet by visiting only those sites that helped me complete my to-do list

I actually went off-line for two days, except to check my email. Then I only surfed when I needed to do research for my class materials, or to help with the kids’ homework. Oh and I went shopping for breastfeeding clothes — which was not overwhelming at all!

4. Got up and away from the computer and did something completely unrelated to Internet marketing

Doing the above made it possible for me to leave the computer for longer periods of time and get my mind completely off from Internet marketing … such as do yoga. Ah, that felt good!

5. I reviewed my priorities and goals

I have these written down in a notebook but I had stopped reading them last week. So I went back and reviewed them and realized I was supposed to be preparing for my demonstration childbirth class! That was the most important thing at that moment, especially since I aim to finish my certification this month!

6. I listed those topics that I needed or wanted to learn about and prioritized them according to importance

Just to get this Internet marketing thing off my mind, I did make a list of all the topics that I’d like to explore and learn more about. I also noted which ones I wanted to tackle first.

7. I set a schedule for doing research on Internet marketing

When I finished preparing for the first day of my childbirth class, I rewarded myself with one hour of surfing about Internet marketing, stumbling a few websites, and reading a couple of my favorite blogs.

Today I completed the first day of my demonstration childbirth class. I am one step closer to becoming a certified childbirth educator. And when I am, I’m sure the opportunity to begin Internet marketing will still be there.

Newbies are susceptible to information overload. We’re excited to learn, anxious to get going with the pros, and try to do too much, too soon. Have you ever experienced information overload? How did you overcome it?

Also check out these posts:

Skellie’s “Productivity by Elimination”
Leo Babauta’s “A Guide to Cutting Back When You Feel Overwhelmed”
Yaro Starak’s “Blog Profits Blueprint” (free E-book)

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I’ve been looking for productivity tips for WAHMs who are taking care of young children. By young children I mean anywhere from newborns to about 4 years old, or children who are not yet in school.

I must say that I have been disappointed. I have not found any help at all for Moms like me who have to squeeze in some work while caring for one or several young children. General tips for home workers are simply not applicable to me: Set definite work hours? Close the door of your home office? Quite impossible!

One successful WAHM whose advice I sought basically told me to lay low on my home business while my youngest child, 16 months old, is still young. The woman who gave that advice is an empty nester.

Certainly, my family comes first before my home business. But what if I were a single mother who had to earn a decent income but also wanted to stay home with my young child? Would working at home be impossible? Would office employment be the only solution? I refuse to believe so!

So I sat down with DH and brainstormed ways in which I could somehow manage our household, care for myself, DH and our three kids — including a toddler — and still get some serious work done. Many of these tips contradict productivity advice for home workers. I think that’s because such advice is usually given by either unmarried individuals or married men who are not primary caregivers of their children. DH and I came up with three general strategies:

* identify and create pockets of time when you can work with minimal disturbance
* double-task or piggy-back simple work tasks with household or child care tasks
* maximize your productivity during those times when you are working

Using these general guidelines, we came up with 20 productivity tips for work-at-home Moms of young children:

1. Work when your child is napping.
Nap times give Moms chunks of free time. Use these times to work. If your baby isn’t on a regular routine yet, find his natural body rhythm and encourage a daily routine. Pretty soon, you can predict roughly the times when your child gets tired and ready for a nap. Encourage long, peaceful naps by keeping the room a bit dim (but not as dark as if it were nighttime) and minimizing noises or masking them with music or white noise. I use a sleep CD by Dr. Jeffrey Thompson and my toddler gets at least a one-hour nap in the morning and another in the afternoon. When my toddler doesn’t nap peacefully, I let him sleep in my arms and nurse him while I work on the computer. A sling is very useful for this. If you have several young children at home, it can be a challenge to get everybody to nap at the same time. You may have to try the other tips instead.

2. Keep children happily busy when awake.
Even very young children can happily amuse themselves for a few minutes while Mommy works. Set up a play corner in your home office with fun, safe toys that he can play with even without your supervision. Rotate the toys every few days or so to keep them interesting. Young children love to imitate adults, so get him a small desk and chair, a toy computer, cellphone, and toy versions of other gadgets you use in your work.

3. Child-proof your home office.
Make sure all power outlets and table corners are covered. Keep breakable objects out of his reach. Anchor all big pieces of furniture. Basically just make sure the little tyke can’t get in trouble, hurt himself or break anything when he’s out of your sight. Some young children, like my toddler, are sometimes perfectly happy just walking back and forth in a room, toys in hand. If your home office is child-proof, you can work while your baby amuses himself.

4. Ask somebody else to look after your children.
Plan to work when DH is home and can look after the kids, or when older siblings are home from school. Even if they just bring the little one to the park for 30 minutes, you can already get a lot of work done. Or swap babysitting with your girlfriends. Or hire a mother’s helper or a babysitter for a few hours every week. See if you work better if you allot an entire afternoon to work and get a babysitter for half a day a week. “But I left my office job to be home with my child!” you say? Well, it’s only for a few hours a week and you’ll still be home with your child. So it’s not nearly as bad as leaving your child in day care every day while you’re in the office.

5. Work when the children are asleep at night.
I enjoy working after everybody’s asleep. The whole house is quiet and there are no interruptions. But I tend to overdo it and end up sleeping very, very late. Which means I’ll sleep with the baby the next day instead of working during naps. Plus, sleep deprivation is bad for your health. Besides, this is usually my time for DH. Therefore, I wouldn’t recommend doing this night after night. Maybe once or twice a week, or when you’re truly behind on your work.

6. Make your work mobile.
Equip yourself for mobile work by going digital. Buy a laptop and cellphone and subscribe to a Wifi Internet connection. This way, you don’t have to be in your home office to work. You can work in your kitchen, backyard, playroom, baby’s room, even in the playground. You’ll be surprised how much you can get done by sneaking in bits and pieces of work when you can get away with it. At the very least, always have a small notebook and pen so you can jot down your thoughts or add to your to-do list. I can often make outlines or mind maps for blog posts when I have as little as 5 minutes of free time.

7. Minimize distractions.
When you are able to work, make sure nothing short of an emergency distracts you. Turn on your answering machine. Put your cellphone on silent mode. Turn off your Email alerts. If necessary, put a sign on your front door that baby is napping and you can’t be disturbed.

8. Manage interruptions.
But it’s inevitable: the baby will awaken or need to be changed. Working continuously for hours at a time is quite impossible for a Mom of a young child. So expect interruptions but learn to manage them. I still find them so jarring and disconcerting, especially when I’m writing. When it happens, I take a few seconds to quickly jot down what my train of thought was. This helps me get back on track when I get the chance to return to my task.

9. Dress for productive success.
I know, I know, one of the perks of working at home is not having to get dressed to work. But let me tell you this: you still have to get dressed to work even at home. You don’t have to put on a power suit and high-heeled pumps, but you do have to get out of your pajamas and bunny slippers, and into comfortable casual wear that you can wear outside the house. The Flylady insists that you wear lace-up shoes. I even put on my basic makeup. My rule of thumb is: be presentable enough for a surprise visitor. If you’re physically ready for anything, your mind will be alert as well. Believe it or not, this will make you more productive. I’m going to write an article about dressing and productivity in a future post — watch out for it!

10. Delegate business tasks.
Sometimes it just makes better business sense to hire somebody to do some of your tasks. If there’s a work task that needs to be done and you don’t have the skill, why insist on doing it? It could mean spending a little extra to hire somebody to, say, design your website, logo and calling cards. Or write your press releases. Consider outsourcing anything essential to your business that isn’t your core competency. Even though it means paying extra, it will be worth it in the long run in terms of time saved and higher quality work. After all, you hire experts to fix your plumbing, install a new dishwasher, or exterminate termites from your house, don’t you?

11. Have an organized home office.
Make sure your home office is uncluttered, organized, and efficient. Have a place for everything and everything in its place. Otherwise, you’ll be wasting precious time looking for things. The book, “Getting Things Done” by David Allen has helped me significantly in this area. One of the most important things I learned was how to organize my reference materials into file folders arranged in alphabetical order. Before I learned this, I was creating piles of papers containing information I wanted to keep for future reference. GTD also helped me keep my physical and virtual (Email) inboxes empty! Leo Babauta’s productivity E-book, “Zen to Done,” which builds on GTD is also very helpful. It proposes a more gradual approach to better organization and productivity, and recognizes the role of routines (which were not mentioned in GTD). (You can help support my site by ordering either book through the links on the right).

12. Multi-task.
One of the principles of GTD is to do only one thing at a time, but mothers know that multi-tasking is sometimes necessary. We’re masters of multi-tasking and probably couldn’t go through a day without doing it. I wouldn’t recommend multi-tasking ALL the time, but there are instances when multi-tasking is plain common sense. Let’s say your little one is playing in the playground. You could make phone calls while watching him with one eye. You could be reading Emails while waiting for the pasta to cook. Well, you get the idea. Combine tasks that require minimal attention and concentration and you’ll get more things done.

13. Get and keep your home organized.
An organized home will demand less time for upkeep, while a cluttered home will require constant work, zap your energy, and bog down your mind. Don’t even think of starting a home business until your house has been decluttered and organized and your household maintenance systems are in place. Set up daily, weekly, monthly, seasonal and yearly routines for house cleaning, decorating, preparing for special events, etc. What I’ve found most helpful in this area are: “The Woman’s Day Help Book: The Complete How-to for the Busy Housekeeper” by Geraldine Rhoads and Edna Paradis; the Flylady’s website and book; “Hannah’s Art of Home” and “Total Mom Makeover” by Hannah Keeley; and “A Mother’s Rule of Life: How to Bring Order to Your Home and Peace to Your Soul” by Holly Pierlot. The Internet is also filled with free resources about getting organized.

14. Share household chores.
When I first became a mother, I wanted to do everything myself. I took care of the baby 24/7, cooked meals, did the laundry, and ironed clothes and cloth diapers (yup, I ironed diapers!)…. I couldn’t even find time to take a shower! Now with my third child, I know better. The two older children have chores, and I give hubby plenty of bonding time with the baby, especially in the middle of the night! As a result, I am better rested, the older children learn life skills, and Daddy and baby have a close relationship. Don’t feel that you have to do everything yourself. Nobody possibly could. Engage your husband and other children in running the household. Tell them it takes family team effort to keep the home a clean, warm and enjoyable place to live in, and to keep everybody well fed, clothed and happy.

15. Give your children your undivided attention.
Your young child will be more demanding and clingy if you’re always busy and distracted. Make sure your shower him with lots of undivided attention. Meal times, for example, should be relaxed, fun affairs. Read to your child several times a day. Take a break from your work to get down on the floor and play with your child. If your child’s basic need for attention is met, the more likely he’ll be happy to play by himself.

16. Keep your children well-fed and well-rested.
When children do not get enough sleep, and when they do not get a well-balanced diet, they can behave like frenzied tops bouncing off the walls! They get whiny and short-tempered and throw tantrums at the drop of a hat. Make sure you respect your child’s need for sleep and healthy food. Minimize refined sugar and carbohydrates. Give plenty of fruits, vegetables and whole grains. You’ll be rewarded with a happier, calmer child, making your whole life — including your work life — easier.

17. Reward your children for good behavior.
When your young child does play happily while you work, make sure to shower him with lots of rewards. I’m not suggesting anything you need to buy. Rather, reward your child with your attention, hugs, and words of praise. Let him know that it’s very important for Mommy to get some work done. Say something like, “Because you played so well by yourself, Mommy finished her work. Now let’s cuddle up for a story!” Even young children who don’t talk yet can understand the emotion in your words, facial expression and body language.

18. Have realistic expectations.
Let’s face it, you probably won’t be able to launch a million-dollar home business while you’re nursing a newborn and recuperating from childbirth. But it is possible for you to augment your family income. Be realistic about what you expect you can do and achieve with your home business. Set small goals, take baby steps and slowly but surely, your business will grow. Another important lesson I learned from ZTD: focus on only three most important tasks (MITs) for the day. This will keep you focused and calm as you go about your day snatching little bits of time to work. If you find that you have finished the 3 MITs but still have time left over, then you can go ahead and do the other tasks in your to-do list. Even if you only accomplish those 3 tasks, you can sleep soundly knowing that you have accomplished the most essential tasks for the day. Also be realistic about what kind of a house you can maintain while you’re juggling family and business. Perhaps your house won’t make it on the cover of a decorating magazine (yet), but you can keep it clean, comfortable and safe. Learn to live with “good enough” rather than “perfect”.

19. Simplify your life.
Be clear about your priorities in life and focus on them. Cut down on activities and obligations that don’t help with your priorities. This includes cutting down on TV watching, magazine reading, social activities, mindless Internet surfing, etc. Make every moment of your life count. Do only what helps you achieve your goals. Writer Leo Babauta, who rose to blogger stardom in merely a year, doesn’t even read newspapers. It takes discipline and willpower, but you can do it!

20. Reward yourself.
Do keep yourself motivated by recognizing your accomplishments, no matter how small, and celebrating them. It could be as simple as allowing yourself to take a 30-minute break to put your feet up, sip a cup of tea and read a good book. One of my favorite authors, Holly Pierlot, recommends a Mommy’s Day Off or Mother’s Sabbath every two weeks. I heartily recommend this, especially for former career women who are suddenly staying home for days at a time. It’s an entire day of doing anything your enjoy. You go home when, and only when, you’re good and ready! What a wonderful reward for two weeks of hard work.

If your children are all going to school, then you’re in luck. You’ll have long chunks of time to devote to your home business.

Moms who homeschool are some of the most organized people I know, and they still manage to make time for a home business.

Do you think these tips are helpful for you? Do you have other tips for staying productive while caring for a young child?

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