6 Time Management tips for work-from-home military wives

Social commitments are part and parcel of the military life. Like many military wives, I spend several hours per week at various welfare meets, parties, and volunteer events. Add to that, last moment event announcements and unplanned stuff popping up every now and then, and I find some of my golden work hours spent attending a social event instead of working.

Time management for mompreneurs & milpreneurs

So, when you’re working-from-home (construed in the military community as a super-flexible career) and also are the primary caregiver to your child, it needs a fair bit of planning and time management to get any work done.

Here’s how I try to make time for my work:

1. Mine your fringe hours. The trick is to create time when your day looks full already. When I look at my schedule, it looks pretty full. With homeschooling, the commitments at the base and my own needs for leisure and fitness, the day already seems packed. But if I stretch it a little bit more, there are the early morning hours and afternoons. I could also use a few hours over the weekends to finish a painting order, complete an article or record a video, or even schedule a coaching call. I do believe that if we really want to do something, we can pull out a couple of hours here and there to do it.

2. Create a rhythm to your days and slot your work.  Earlier, when I wasn’t a mom, I used to be pretty strict about working to a schedule. But with a homeschooled kid in tow, a schedule just does not work. So instead, I’ve begun creating rhythms and chunk time into blocks. For example, I try to wake up at 5 am to work before my son wakes up and try to get in a solid chunk of time writing and recording material for my various blog series, books and courses; mornings are spent homeschooling; afternoons are for my painting orders; and evenings are for social commitments or family time, or a spot of social media marketing, depending on what’s the need of the hour.

None of this is set in stone, but knowing the general flow of the day helps me squeeze in extra work hours. And if your child goes to school, even pre-school for a few hours a day, then on most days you have a block of time to work in.

3. Make time for work. The general assumption about working-from-home is that you can work or not work whenever you want. If you’re doing a self-paced project, then it might sometimes feel like that to you too. But factoring in work into your schedule and assigning yourself goals can help you stay productive.

8 bite-sized steps for setting up your work-from-home business

Are you all geared up to launch that micro business from wherever you are based and with whatever time you can scrape together to work in? Try out these teeny-tiny steps to create your dream work-from-home business.

Here are some first steps you can begin with:

1.     Write down the basics of what you need to do to launch your business/brand/service/career. When you create a map of the direction you need to take, the journey is much easier and there are fewer chances of getting lost in a cloud of overwhelm.

2.   Assign timeframes and deadlines to the baby steps. When you do this, you strive towards finishing up the tasks within a reasonable amount of time, instead of letting those stretch. You’re also more inclined to stick to some kind of schedule when you know the timelines of your to-dos.

3.   Set up a web presence. Whether you’re creating a virtual venture or setting up a brick-and-mortar shop, you still need to create a web presence these days. And when you work-from-home from the boondocks, then a web page or even a Facebook business page goes a long way in letting your target community know about the services or products that you plan to offer.

5 Kinds of Military Wives who start Work-from-home Entrepreneurial Careers

Over the years, I’ve met lots of service wives, all talented and well-qualified, but very few who take what they have to start a meaningful work-from-home venture, from where they are. I agree that the challenges of the defence services lifestyle are unique and not exactly nurturing towards lady wives with long-term careers. But still, it is NOT impossible to be a work-from-home diva. 

It was this quest to connect with other work-from-home lady bosses that nudged me to start The Brigade that Builds Brands, a popular series that turns the spotlight on fauji wife entrepreneurs.

I’ve found that there are certain kinds of traits that make these ladies launch a venture from remote areas of the country. 

Here are the 5 kinds of women who strive to create brands from the boondocks, while making their home in fauji/military bases across India:

1.     The “I see the glass as half-full” kind of fauji wives: Like I said before, we have plenty of variables in our military lifestyle that can throw a spanner in the works when it comes to working-from-home in a self-created venture. But these ladies always see what’s working in favor of them in any given situation or posting and use it to their advantage while creating work schedules and career goals. Instead of choosing to find problems that hold them back, they look at the positives i.e. they don’t say the glass is half-empty, but instead, it’s half-full.

2.    The “Take the bull by the horns” kind of fauji wives: Whether it’s a welfare meet or Ladies Club program to arrange, a party or official do to be attended, a business plan to be created or a professional course that’s necessary for their career development, these military/fauji wives just go ahead and do what’s needed without spending too much time talking about it. I’ve noticed that when you jump into the rabbit hole of too much planning and discussion and mulling over the if’s and but’s (very apt for all those long “meetings” that fauji wives are famous for while planning their events!), there’s more chatter and less of productive action.

5 Work-from-home Online Business Ideas for Military Wives & Moms

Don’t you think one of the most common obstacles to actually working-from-home is finding a tangible idea to run with? Maybe you would like to turn a passion/hobby/skill into a career but aren’t sure where to start. Or, you already have a qualification that you can build on by getting a few more degrees but aren’t sure which direction to take. Or, maybe you’re just confused about what you can do from where you’re posted?

Here are 5 online work-from-home ideas that can help you start thinking:

1.     Blogging: If you're planning to step into freelance journalism, content writing or self-publishing, starting a blog can be that first step to showcase your writing to the world. Eventually, you can create a portfolio on your blog and use that to pitch for creative writing or freelance journalism projects.  I started my personal blog www.chandanabanerjee.com to jot down my early motherhood snippets and my take on situations happening around, but over the years it has grown into a place where I feature my freelance journalism portfolio as well as offer ongoing series to inspire fauji wives to create work-from-home brands.

2.   Counseling: If helping people is your forte, you can think of offering a counseling service via the phone or Skype. For this, you will have to get the appropriate education in the field, create a website and build a client base. With the increase in mental health issues and the need for good counselors, this is a field through which you can help other as well as earn a fee for doing what you like. Interestingly, if you’re a counselor or want to train as one, you can also offer your services to the people at your base.