Every work at home mom knows there just aren´t enough hours in a day to get everything done, but it´s certainly not a problem exclusive to mothers! It seems like a lot of people are searching for the solution, too, and a few of them have some darn good suggestions. Here is my resource list for work at home moms who need a bit more time in their day.

Why not start with 21 Ways to Add More Hours to the Day? Learn how to triage your time, make use of those usually wasted moments and plenty more.

Finding More Time focuses mostly on getting more hours out of your workday and making the most of the time you have.

You could probably use some Organization Tip That Add More Hours to Your Day, as well. I know I could start following some of the tips given in this post.

How to Have a 36 Hour Day not only offers a few time boosters ideal for work at home moms, it offers to help you get an extra TWELVE hours of productivity out of each day! The tips include changing your diet, sleep patterns and even how you work. A little drastic perhaps, but . . . twelve hours? Definitely worth a few changes!

Know any other good ways to add hours to your day? Feel free to share in the comments!

It´s been very chaotic here over the past week and I´ve learned a lot about working and hitting deadlines despite the chaos.

As many of you know, I live in Guatemala and we´ve been hit with not one, but two tropical storms in the past week. That means lots of wind and rain . . . adding up to frequent power failures and children with cabin fever! On top of this, we had a new, custom counter installed in the kitchen right where my computer desk used to be. The process of assembly took two entire days and during that time, I had sketchy internet service and my computer was set up in the middle of the kitchen/living room! You can check out the process here.

So, what did I learn from all this? Glad you asked, I´d be happy to share my tips!

• Roll with it. You can´t change stuff like the weather, so it´s a matter of staying calm and cool and just dealing with it. It´s easy to get frustrated when you can´t work the way you´re used to, but look at the bright side . . . a forced vacation can be good for you!
• Have fun. Depending on the situation, you can have some fun with the fact that you can´t work properly. I used the power outages as extra time with my kids, who were climbing the walls because they couldn´t go outside. We set up obstacle courses, read stories and played silly games.
• Work hard when you can. I don´t know about you, but I tend not to work super hard most days. There´s checking your email, looking at interesting websites and checking the stats on your blog . . . the internet is chock full of distractions. But when you have limited time, you buckle down and work. You´d be amazed at how much you can get done when you ignore everything else!
• Writing longhand isn´t so bad. I have to admit, I did panic a bit as one of my deadlines got near and the power was out for most of the day. So I pulled out some loose leaf and a pen, sat down on the couch and wrote out the main points for the articles. I even managed to fill in a bit of the actual writing (while my toddler “helped” by adding his notes in the margins).
• Get help. Those times when I could work, I enlisted my husband to do some kid wrangling so I could type without sticky fingers trying to kidnap my mouse. Sometimes you need to get rid of the distractions as much as is possible.
• Block it out. Construction is a noisy process, with hammers and drills and the like. Add to that two screeching children and a television set blaring Cars and it´s pretty darn hard to concentrate. The solution? Headphones and your favorite music. Helps keep your concentration where it should be . . . just be careful not to concentrate too much and inadvertently start singing along to “Carry On My Wayward Son” . . . it will get you some very odd looks from any carpenters in the area.

So, it´s your turn. Have you ever had to work in a chaotic setting? Perhaps you were moving or had in-laws staying with you? Share your story in the comments!

Don´t forget to enter the HomeHero 2-in-1 alarm giveaway! 

In many countries, an afternoon nap is still the norm. And I just happen to live in one of them! Something that just isn´t considered normal in North America is completely fine here in Guatemala and you know, it really does help with productivity.

The majority of work at home moms just don´t get enough sleep. Lack of sleep can lead to a lot of nasty issues, as I´ve recently discovered in my research, including:

• Weight gain (can I blame this instead of too much chocolate?)
• Higher stress levels
• Lowered productivity
• Memory loss
• Impaired physical and mental function, with effects similar to drunkeness

Of course, moms in general don´t get a lot of sleep, it´s part of the job. But if you work at home, you have the added advantage of being able to crash when your kids do.

If you have more than one child, it´s a great idea to get them on the same schedule so you can crash when they do. And, if your little ones are nap resistant, consider having them take an hour long “rest time” in the afternoon. Of course, older kids will be at school, providing the perfect opportunity for a nap.

Afternoon Nap Tips

•  Keep it short. More than an hour and you´re risking waking up groggy again and not sleeping at night.
• Only nap if you are actually tired. This might not be necessary every day.
• Don´t nap in a chair. Lay down on your bed or you could end up with cricks in odd places.
• Tranquilize your mind. Write down all the things you need to do or worry about before taking a nap so you won´t waste the time thinking.
• Keep it quiet. A fan can be a great help to block out external noise that is so common during the day.
• Drink some water. Rehydrate immediately after a nap for a bit of a boost.
• Have a snack. Add oomph to the power of a nap by eating a handful of nuts or a banana immediately after waking up and you´ll find you have a lot more energy.

There´s no need to feel guilty about having a nap because you´ll be far more productive if you are semi-rested than you are when dragging through the day just trying to keep your eyes open!

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Work at home moms are usually very good at productivity. After all, we somehow manage to keep the kids fed and clean,  the house in decent running order, work mostly done and a whole slew of other things. But there´s always room to be more productive, right? So, here are five tips to help you boost that work at home mom productivity.

1. Touch things just once. It´s hard to deal with big stacks of laundry and mail, but if you can manage to deal with everything once only, you´ll save a lot of time. For example, fold the laundry as you take it out of the dryer.
2.  Clean up at night. Have you ever noticed how getting up in the morning to a messy house just makes your whole day drag? A 10 minute tidy in the evening after the kids are in bed can do wonders for your energy in the morning . . . don´t believe me? Try it for yourself.
3. Finish the yucky stuff first. This is something my mom taught me . . . she was referring to food, but it works for tasks you hate, as well. Once they are out of the way, first thing in the day, you can relax and work without stressing about the upcoming chores.
4. Multi-task efficiently. Most multi-tasking actually reduces your productivity, but if you do it right, you can actually get more done. It´s all in the planning. For example, if you are making a casserole for dinner, sit down and type up your notes while it´s in the oven, or run a virus check on your computer while you package orders to ship out.
5. Find your best working hours. Are you a night owl? Try to work at night. More of a morning person? Hire a babysitter or mother´s help for the mornings so you can get some work done. It often doesn´t work so well to try and force yourself into an unnatural schedule and you´ll be a lot more productive if you can follow your natural instincts.

You might not be able to implement all of these productivity tips for work at home moms, but that doesn´t mean you can´t be more efficient.  What do you do to enhance your productivity as a work at home mom?

Even if you aren´t super famous yet, you probably receive a fair amount of email each day. Whether you use separate email addresses for personal and business, or combine them, chances are you waste a good chunk of time each day sorting through your email, not being productive.

Email filters can be your best friend in this case. Your spam filter will get rid of a lot of junk for you, but something always makes it through. If you notice an overabundance of “Get rid of wrinkles NOW” or other similar ads making their way into your inbox, you can set up a filter to automatically delete them.

Divide your other emails into categories . . . different areas of your business, personal, family, etc. and then create email filters and folders for each of these. Now, I use mostly Gmail, so I´m not very experienced in how other email programs work for setting up their filters, but it should be relatively simple. Find the “Filters” button and click on it, then set up a “New Filter”. This should give you a few options.

Most email filters can be set up to catch emails from certain people or addresses, that contain certain words in the body or that contain certain words in the subject line. If you get a lot of emails from one person or association, like PayPal, then you may want to set up a folder specifically for that and then tell your email program to send all emails from that person into the right folder. You can also specify whether or not the email stays in the inbox. I personally prefer to delete them from the inbox and just move the emails over into the folders . . . it keeps everything nice and neat.

Set up as many email filters as needed. You can access your folders easily and will be able to process your email far faster!

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