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Confessions of a Part-Time Technical Writing Mom

By Leanne Tremblay

A few years ago, I wrote an article for the magazine, Intercom, on the trials and tribulations of being a work at home parent AND running a contract technical writing business from home. Now that my kids are older, I can reflect on what I’ve learned, revisit some strategies from those early days, and maybe add a few more to enhance my work at home performance.

Here are this work at home mom’s tips for getting more done when you work at home:

Kick the Email Habit

First, I’ll warn you off email addiction (“emailoholism” I discovered on the Net). That’s when you answer email for two hours or more when you only have six hours to start with. Give yourself a reasonable but not excessive amount of time to answer your email in the morning, and don’t check it every five minutes.

Unless you’re waiting on answers to burning technical questions, don’t respond to every note, especially social emails, jokes, surveys, the “you-should-see-this” emails from friends. Those can wait.

Focus on Specific Tasks Each Day

Another tip that has really helped me work at home more effectively is setting aside certain days for doing one or two specific tasks. Like on Monday, I’ll just do editing. On Wednesday, I’ll do the original writing for the project. I need solid, focused and uninterrupted time for writing, especially if the material is technical.

Another day I’ll set aside for information gathering, talking to developers, calling in for meetings—lots of back and forth. I’m taking tons of notes on these days and my brain is allowed to bounce around a bit more.

Use Internet Phone Services if you work at home

The other things that have changed since my kids were little are the internet tools and technology available to me now. Internet phone services and instant messaging have made it so much easier to stay connected if you work at home.

For example, if I have a quick question to ask a developer but I don’t want to bug her, I’ll send her a chat message on Skype. She can reply back and easily attach the document file that I need at the same time. If it turns out we need to rehash something in depth, I just double-click her name in my Skype buddy list and “poof” we’re talking on the phone.

I use Skype a lot because it’s free to download and free to make calls to other Skype users. The downside is that it doesn’t work with other instant messaging systems like GoogleTalk, Windows Messenger, or Yahoo. So, you guessed it, I have accounts with those guys too! Why not? They’re free, and if that’s what my client prefers to use, then that’s what I’ll use too. In fact, all the major instant messengers have internet calling built in now.

Occasionally, my clients are a long distance call away and NOT necessarily available on Skype. So, I purchased an unlimited long distance plan for dialing regular landlines. Only $29.95 per year with Skype.

The other thing you can do with internet phone services is purchase virtual numbers in other area codes. I’ve never had to do this for a client, but a consultant friend of mine was able to get a local number for a client in Dallas she was working with. The contract was expected to last several months, and she was able to provide a local number for the client to call her. So for not a lot of money, you can provide great customer service that’ll keep the contracts coming and boost your reputation.

I’ll connect the dots right at the end by bringing things back to where we started, which was, of course, with the kids. When they were preschoolers, I dreamed of the day when I’d have all this extra time when they were in school. But now that day is here, I can honestly say it seems the kids need me more, not less.

School’s out for the day, I’m Mom again flat out until dinner. Play dates, soccer practice, homework. You know the routine. There’s a brief respite just after bedtime, like when I’m writing this. Then my husband says, “Whoa, it’s after 11!”. We pile into bed ourselves and do the whole thing over again tomorrow.

Leanne Tremblay is a freelance technical writer and publisher of www.quickstartvoip.com, a site all about choosing a VOIP broadband phone provider for the home, including free internet phone and video phone services.

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