• Contact
  • Account
    • Become an Affiliate
    • Sign Up for Deals

    • Login
Book Cave: Authors and Publisher promotional services and features
Book Cave
Authors & Publishers
Connecting the RIGHT readers with the RIGHT books
  • About
    • Book Cave Reviews
    • Who We Are
      • Mission
      • In the Works
      • Book Cave Logos
      • Meet the Ratings
    • Privacy Center
      • Privacy & Terms
      • Your Privacy Rights
    • Affiliate Program Agreement
    • Trademarks
  • Current Deals
    • Deals from Retailers
    • Book Cave Direct Deals
      • Exclusive Ebook Downloads
      • Free Group Deals
    • Giveaways
      • Win a Free Ereader!
      • Last Giveaway Winner
      • Past Winners
  • Readers
    • Sign Up
    • Rated Books Database
    • Rate a book I’ve read
    • Browse Author Pages
    • Reader FAQ
    • Reader Blog
    • Giveaways
      • Win a Free Ereader!
      • Last Giveaway Winner
      • Past Winners
  • Authors
    • How It Works
    • Our Services
      • Feature Your Book
      • Group Features
      • Subscriber Magnet Services
      • MBR Ratings
      • Create an Author Page
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Pricing
    • Submit a Book
    • Create Account
    • Become an Affiliate
    • Author Resources
      • Author Blog
      • Author FAQ
      • Promotion Tips
      • Cover Guide Calculator
  • Book Swag
  • Contact
  • Account
    • Become an Affiliate
    • Sign Up for Deals

    • Login
  • About
    • Book Cave Reviews
    • Who We Are
      • Mission
      • In the Works
      • Book Cave Logos
      • Meet the Ratings
    • Privacy Center
      • Privacy & Terms
      • Your Privacy Rights
    • Affiliate Program Agreement
    • Trademarks
  • Current Deals
    • Deals from Retailers
    • Book Cave Direct Deals
      • Exclusive Ebook Downloads
      • Free Group Deals
    • Giveaways
      • Win a Free Ereader!
      • Last Giveaway Winner
      • Past Winners
  • Readers
    • Sign Up
    • Rated Books Database
    • Rate a book I’ve read
    • Browse Author Pages
    • Reader FAQ
    • Reader Blog
    • Giveaways
      • Win a Free Ereader!
      • Last Giveaway Winner
      • Past Winners
  • Authors
    • How It Works
    • Our Services
      • Feature Your Book
      • Group Features
      • Subscriber Magnet Services
      • MBR Ratings
      • Create an Author Page
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Pricing
    • Submit a Book
    • Create Account
    • Become an Affiliate
    • Author Resources
      • Author Blog
      • Author FAQ
      • Promotion Tips
      • Cover Guide Calculator
  • Book Swag
Writing for Authors
16 Jun 2020 at 11:52 AM PDT
Updated 1 year ago

6 Tips for Staying Productive as an Author with Children at Home

By Catia Shattuck

Advertisement

JutohWe at Book Cave prefer Jutoh for ebook creation because it gives us more control than most other ebook software out there, while still maintaining a friendly interface.

Browse by topic

All Posts Tutorials Author Pages Technical Tips Writing for Authors Ebook Formatting Grammar & Punctuation Publishing Tips Author Website Promotion & Marketing Social Media Mailing Lists Cover Design

staying productive as an author with children at home

I'm a book wyrm
We hope you enjoy reading this post!
If you’re like us and love to read, then click here to score tons of free and discounted ebooks.

As an author, you likely work from home, and having children home at the same time can make getting any writing done a challenge. Here are 6 tips for being productive with children at home.

1. Create a Schedule for Your Children

By keeping meals, nap times, and bedtimes consistent, children know what to expect and will be less likely to bother you at odd times about the basics. So no more interruptions of “Mom, I’m hungry!” or “When is dinner?” You can also schedule a “play time” when you’ll take a break from work and spend time playing with your children. Do the words “Mom/Dad, I’m bored!” sound familiar? If your child is especially bored, you can schedule activities, such as journaling, craft projects, reading, outdoor time, and so on. There are several online resources with schedules that you can use as a starting place.

By creating a schedule for your children, you’ll be better able to create and stick to a work schedule.

2. Create a Work Schedule

Keep your work times consistent. This will not only help your children understand when they can and can’t disturb you, it’ll also prepare your brain to start and stop work, so you can get more done faster. A visual “do not disturb” queue may be helpful for children, such as putting a picture of a red light on your office door when you shouldn’t be disturbed, and a green light when you can be (like if you’re taking a social break from work). Of course make sure they know they can bother you at any time for a real emergency.

Work schedules should be adhered to with other family and friends as well. If a friend calls during your work schedule, let them know that unless it is an emergency, you will have to just call them back when you take a break from work.

3. Be Prepared Food-Wise

Without children at home, it’s easy to get caught up in work and push back meal times or snack on something that maybe isn’t so healthy. But children need regular, healthy meals and snacks. If you prepare meals and snacks in advance, you’ll be able to provide your children the food and structure they need with little interruption in your work schedule. For example, you can cut vegetables and fruit the night before. Deciding on a menu at the beginning of the week—after seeking input from your children—is also a great idea. If they know what to expect, your children will be able to better help with meal prep, even if it’s just pulling out slices of bread for a PB&J sandwich.

4. Work in a Separate Room

If at all possible, work in a room that is dedicated to working. If you don’t have a separate room for that, then work in a quiet room that is rarely used. Avoid working in your bedroom if possible, as that may disturb your sleeping schedule. However, working in the bedroom is still better than working at, say, the kitchen table, where you will be interrupted very, very often. Even a walk-in closet can be a good place to set up your work station.

5. Coordinate Your Schedule with Your Spouse

If you still find that you are often interrupted and can’t get work done, try staggering your schedule with your spouse. Even a few offset hours in your schedules can make a huge difference. You’ll be able to get two or three hours of solid work in while your spouse spends time with the kids.

6. Make the Most of Your Work Day

Establish a routine to make the most of your work day; work on the harder tasks first while you have more energy (so maybe save answering emails for later in the day when your energy is flagging). If doing research for your writing is difficult for you, do it first thing; if you love the research aspect, then do it later after getting in some writing, rewriting, or editing.

Remove any distractions from your work place. Avoid social media. The brain works best when you work in short sprints (around 30 minutes), and then take a short break, so you could try using the Pomodoro Method to see if it makes you more productive. One of these short breaks could involve checking in with your children to say hi or ask how they’re doing or what game they’re playing.

How do you stay productive when your children are at home and you are working from home? We’d love to hear in the comments below!

If you’d like to learn more about Book Cave promotions and receive more writing tips, please enter your email below and click the “Learn More” button to receive our author newsletter.

Copyright 2020 by Book Cave
Reuse notice: Non-commercial users, feel free to print out “6 Tips for Staying Productive as an Author with Children at Home” for personal use or give to friends, share online, or make a meme of, as long as you attribute and link back to this post. Commercial users, you may share a link to this post or quote a short excerpt from it with attribution and a link to this site, but you may not use this post in its entirety. Thank you for caring about copyright.

Avatar for Catia Shattuck
Catia Shattuck

I am a copyeditor and a typesetter of print books, and have been editing and typesetting (using InDesign) for thirteen years. As the executive editor at Book Cave, I enjoy helping authors be successful, and I only get interrupted a little bit (ha!) by my cute, rambunctious two-year-old.


Share this authorpost

Keep Reading

Self-publishing ebooks

What Are the Pros and Cons of Self-publishing Ebooks?

More and more authors are choosing to publish their own books. But is self-publishing your ebooks more advantageous than going with a traditional publisher? Let’s take a look at some pros and cons.

creating a fictional map

Creating a Fictional Map for Your Science Fiction or Fantasy Novel

A map can bring your science fiction or fantasy novel to life for your readers and help you stay on track when writing. Here are a few map-making software programs we think you’ll like.

translating your book

Everything You Need to Know about Translating Your Book

Having your book translated doesn’t have to be as difficult or as expensive as you might imagine. Here are some of the most important things you need to know to get started translating your book.

Hello fellow book lover! We hope you are enjoying this post.
If you want free, content-rated ebooks that you can download straight from your favorite retailer, just sign up for our free newsletter
Sign me up!

Leave a Reply

Cancel


Comments

    Receive free ebooks on Amazon Kindle from Book Cave
    Receive free ebooks on Apple Books from Book Cave
    Receive free ebooks on Google Play from Book Cave
    Receive free ebooks on Kobo from Book Cave
    Receive free ebooks on Nook from Book Cave
    Receive free ebooks on Smashwords from Book Cave
    Book Cave
    Book Cave Direct
    My Book Ratings
    MY BOOK RATINGS
    Connecting the RIGHT readers with the RIGHT books
    • Sitemap
    • Contact Us
    • Free ebooks
    © Book Cave - All the rights reserved!