A Day Pacing Household Duties With Freelance Work

Each of our lives has different components but since the question about keeping up with housework and a creative career comes in a lot when others share their aspiration and fears about starting their own business and scheduling, I thought to share on how this can look for you.

Not every day is the same, but there are some essential things you can make a note to try to include in each day. A home, aside from being a physical shelter from the elements, is a place of rest and refreshment. Depending on the design of your life and how much time you spend there, it can also serve other purposes, like being a family gathering space, garden/farm, sanctuary, homeschooling center, restaurant, gym, or art studio.

In any case, all of those places need physical cleaning, so that’s why it’s key to pace yourself if you’re about to add freelancing from home to the equation. Along with setting and sticking by the best hours for your business, you’re gonna also want to either set a reminder or a schedule for your cleaning and gardening maintenance routine.

Add a work-from-home base to the mix and the line between housework and freelancing station can get blurry. It’s healthy and helpful to distinguish parameters for a home business so your mind knows how and when to pan to which mode, and when to shift from housework to career work and vice versa.

Really and truly, living at home – even without an income-generating activity includes work, both mental and physical. Adding a career element packs on another set of duties and requires healthy boundaries so the business doesn’t encroach on your personal lifestyle and if this applies to you, family flow.

How you start the day can set the tempo of the day as you toggle between daily duties to tend to the house and necessary steps to take in building your business.

What are your daily must-dos? When can you do them, without rushing and while still getting other work done?

Whether you designate a day or two to take care of this and that, or you tend to so-n-so and so-n-so in this pocket of the day, just be sure to itemize your to-dos in each area in a way that’s not overwhelming. Housework can be enjoyable – even relaxing. I’m not saying it will be easy for any and everybody (I don’t know the dynamics of your life) but it is doable and some aspects can be fun with a mindset reset and gratitude boost.

For me, some essential activities that are on repeat are sweet additions to the week. Quiet time thanksgiving and study first thing in the morning and/or at intervals during the day, some kind of stretching or walking, sweeping and mopping, watering the plants, homecooking (when not fasting), making sure dishes are washed and not left in the sink overnight, laundry…and the list goes on, but those are the first (enjoyable) ones that come to mind.

There’s no one-size-fits-all model when it comes to an ideal work-at-home rhythm. Your energy-boost pockets (of time) may be different from mine, so when designing your freelance business, align the flow of it with your tending list and wellness.

Pace yourself well, sis.

Consider:

Your daily priorities, tending list, energy level, healthy self-care tempo, character (patience level, triggers), life vision

Are you a freelancer? What rhythm works best for you?

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