familytastic!

One of our goals in becoming self-employed is to increase our focus on our family. Lisa and I are both concerned about dividing our time properly between the business and our home life. And of course, working from home has the added opportunity for us to devote more time to the family. If we plan it right.

As I see it, with two of us at home, we should be able to more successfully manage the household workload and plan better meals, time with the kids and stuff like that.

My own personal goals for working from home are:

1. Better health - that means more exercise for me, whether it's walking, playing racquetball or fixing that damned cross-trainer up the stairs.
2. Better eating - yeah, since the vending machine in work won't be a temptation anymore, healthier eating is on the agenda. And with a bit more time on my hands, I'm hoping to do some better meal planning and discover new recipes where I can.
3. More focus on the children - I want to look at how we relate to the children, and for once sit down and think how we can improve our relationships. One on one time with the kids, outings, picnics and thinking about their education are going to become important as we do this.
4. More focus on the marriage? With three young kids, you spend a lot of time just getting through the day and the general business of running a family. Working together will be a great chance to reconnect, although it'll also be important for us to have a little bit of breathing space. Finding a balance will be interesting.
5. Working on my self-discipline - or becoming better organised. All of the above isn't just going to happen. I think we need to establish a good routine so that the balance between work and family is right. Self-discipline is one of my weakest points, so I'll have to work hard to get a household routine that works for everyone.
6. Enjoying It - One of the main reasons for doing all of this is to have a better quality of life and to be my own boss. Probably the most important thing is to just enjoy what we've achieved so far and what we'll achieve in the future.

So there you go. I'll probably follow up on this post and refer back to it often (mostly to remind myself). Do any other work at home parents have any advice or thoughts they'd like to share?