Hide Text Transcript

As a working mother, you’re going to have to learn to leave work at work. Before you had children, you might have been able to work late-night hours at home but you can’t do that after you’ve had children because it just is not fair to your family. So there are some ideas and suggestions that I’ve learned over time both through trial and error and from talking to other working mothers that have really helped me learn to leave work at work.

First of all, I purchased a handheld tape recorder a while back and I use this when I am having some ideas as I’m driving around in the car and I’m waiting for my daughter to get out from one of her classes and then I can go back later and type up the ideas that I’d had.

Also leave your items at work. When you leave work for the day, don’t take them home. If you need to do some extra things, stay another half-hour. Chances are, you’ll stay the half-hour, you’ll get your work done. But if you were to take all of that stuff home, you’d be working for an hour or two at home because time would escape you.

Finally, if you work at home, shut the office door at the end of the day and leave it closed. Don’t go back in to do anything else because when work is over, work is over. You need to think of your job as a 9 to 5. If you’re working at home, you have set hours and you need to stop working when the time is up. With a little bit of creative thinking, there are ways you can make sure you’re leaving your work at work so that the other time you have can be spent with your family.