Not all web workers are the hip, trendy, just-out-of college types — quite a few of us have rugrats running around, making noise, spilling juice and demanding attention at the same time as our email and IM demand that same attention.
We’ve written before on how to manage kids in the home office. As a father of six kids, I have some additional tips based on my own experience.
1. Wake up early. Now, I’m not saying you have to get up that early, but getting up even half an hour or an hour earlier than the younguns can give you some time to do some uninterrupted work in the quiet of the predawn hours.
2. Team up with your spouse. Take the kids outside, or take them to a park, or read to them, while your spouse does some work. Then switch.
3. Stay up a little later. While my kids are going to bed, I jump on the computer and do some writing, clear out my email inbox, take care of a few other web tasks before bed.
4. Teach them to play by themselves. My kids can keep themselves entertained for good stretches at a time. They play Legos or board games in the room, they play imaginary space alien characters (or Pokemon or Star Wars or whatever is popular), and yes, I let them play video games or watch a DVD sometimes.
5. Send them to grandmas. Sometimes they like to go to their grandparents or to an aunt’s house for a little while. I cram out the work when they’re gone.
6. Go to a coffee shop or library. Sometimes you just gotta get out of the house and find some peace and quiet. If you’ve got a laptop, go be among grownups and do some work at a coffee shop.
7. Ask them to play quietly. I actually like having the kids play near me, but sometimes I tell them that it’s daddy’s work time, so they have to play quietly. This, surprisingly enough, can actually work. For a little while.
8. Tune them out. I let them do their thing around me while I go into a state of Flow, tuning out the world and focusing completely on my work.
9. Send them outside. I have a fairly big yard, set back a ways from the road, so I can send (most of) my kids outside to play while I do work.
10. Turn off the computer and play with them. You can’t tune out your kids all the time. Web worker parents know that while work is important, the kids are more important, and productivity doesn’t hold a candle to spending quality time with them, having fun with them, and just loving them.
Photo from morgueFile.
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