If you want to secure additional income to supplement the paycheck you receive from your full-time job, establishing a work from home position is a great choice. You will need to find the best way to balance working from home with a full-time job to ensure you are equally committed to both positions.
Whether you have a consistent schedule at your full-time job or you work odd hours, you can find ways to balance a work from home career with your existing schedule.
The first step toward accomplishing this balance is determining how many hours per week you can devote to your work from home position. If you work over 40 hours per week at your full-time job, you may find it easier to balance a second part-time position if you are only working 10 hours per week from home. There are a couple of general tips you can follow to help balance both of your jobs.
How to Divide Your Time Evenly Between Both Jobs Positions
One of the primary ways to create a balance between working from home with a full-time job is to create a schedule that gives you enough time for both jobs. Having a schedule will help you avoid neglecting one of your jobs, leaving you scrambling at the last minute to complete an assignment before your deadline. An easy way to accomplish this balance is to prevent yourself from using time at your full-time position to work on tasks you need to complete for your work from home position and vice versa. Keeping them separated is key.
Once you begin to sacrifice the time attributed to one position to complete work for the other, you will lose your sense of balance and quickly become overwhelmed. If your full-time job requires 40 hours of devoted attention per week to accomplish necessary tasks, then you must spend 40 hours per week completing these tasks while onsite. This can take a certain level of discipline, but if a work/side gig balance is a goal, then you must develop the mental discipline to make it work. Keeping your job positions separate will help you to create balance and to maintain a consistent level of focus for each.
If you know you are tired from your full-time job once you return home in the evening, you may find it easier to complete your work from home tasks on the weekend. Alternately, if you wish to keep your weekends free for other activities, you will want to create your work from home schedule to begin once you arrive home from your full-time position at night, or set your alarm to wake earlier to do the work from home tasks. For those who work a full-time job with an erratic schedule, such as a retail store manager, creating a balance may become more difficult. To avoid any ongoing issues, you may find it beneficial to spend time on your work from home tasks either before or after your scheduled shift at your full-time job. If you are scheduled to open the store, you can achieve your work from home tasks in the evening. If you are scheduled to close the store, you can achieve your goals for your work from home tasks in the morning prior to arriving at your full-time jobsite.
How to Communicate with Team Members from Each Company
Another way to create balance between working from home with a full-time job is to ensure you are communicating effectively with team members from each company. While this may not seem like a crucial aspect to achieving balance, maintaining a consistent level of communication with your coworkers can prove useful. For example, if you sign on for 15 hours of work for your remote position and find out during the week your full-time job requires you to work overtime to complete a task, you may need to seek help from your coworkers. Maintaining a consistent level of communication with your coworkers and your boss will help you to seek assistance when you are unable to complete a project on your own. During times where your full-time job has become more demanding than your work from home position, asking a coworker if they can take on extra work will help you to continue to meet your deadlines.
Additionally, you will want to ensure your coworkers and boss at your full-time position are aware of your work from home job, as this will help deter any potential scheduling conflicts from arising. Your boss at your full-time job may be willing to let you come in on the weekend to complete work if you have reserved your evening for your remote position. By communicating effectively with team members from your onsite position as well as your remote position, you will be able to balance your work more efficiently.
For those who have a freelance career from home, you may not have coworkers you can collaborate with should you need additional assistance meeting a deadline. If this is the case, you may find it useful to ask a coworker from your full-time position to assist you with your work onsite, so you can meet both deadlines simultaneously. Maintaining open communication will help you to become a better team member and it will help your coworkers to offer you assistance when it is needed as well.
How to Prevent Yourself from Becoming Overworked
One of the most difficult parts of maintaining a balance while working from home with a full-time job, is preventing yourself from becoming overworked. Juggling two jobs can be difficult as both will need a set schedule of time and attention to complete tasks prior to arranged deadlines. To prevent yourself from becoming overworked, you will need to give yourself a break between your full-time job and when you start your remote work. One of the issues you face when working at home is having a hard time relaxing because your home has become a new workplace. If this happens, consider scheduling a break which takes you outside of your home, so you are truly able to relax.
By Admin –
