The irony of being a homesteader is striving to live a simpler, easier life all by doing more just to get there someday. It’s way too easy to get burn out, become exhausted and go into debt. In this post you’ll find ideas and free printables to help you make the most of your time, energy and money.
Farmers and homesteaders are the experts when it comes to productivity while working from home. How do people manage to work from home while tending to all the other household duties and even parenting while the children are home? In this post I’ll share some simple ideas I’ve learned as a homestead mommy blogger.
When your busy juggling running a homestead, farm, family and more you’re always looking for ways to be as efficient as possible. There never seems to be enough hours of the day to get all the chores and projects done. The secret to a successful year of homesteading is in the day to day.
With the current issues in todays world, learning to work from home and run a household is a very common reality for all of us now. It’s not something that we are used to but with this situation comes a new opportunity to learn some adaptability skill, wether we want to or not !
I originally wrote this post to help other homesteaders reach their business goals while working from home or working from home after a busy day job. But these simple ideas, ring true for even more of the population and I truly hope that you’ll find some peace in these tips. And it if doesn’t work for your family, throw it out the window… kinda like my neighbour did with her lettuce the other day !
Learning to work from home effectively means taking each day at a time by building routines that are effective and allow you time to get and stay organized.
Powerful time management tools include a homestead planner and goal setting so that you can prepare for to meet your goals and have a road map to get there.
Then there is the importance of staying positive and having coping strategies for when you’re feeling burnt out, overwhelmed, exhausted and broke.
“All big things come from small beginnings. The seed of every habit is a single, tiny decision. But as that decision is repeated, a habit sprouts and grows stronger. Roots entrench themselves and branches grow. The task of breaking a bad habit is like uprooting a powerful oak within us. And the task of building a good habit is like cultivating a delicate flower one day at a time.” – James Clear
Today I share with you the simple systems to have in place while working from home to be productive and successful without going crazy.
Go ahead and take this post with a grain of salt. As a homesteader and trained teacher I do my best
WORK AT HOME SYSTEMS FROM A HOMESTEAD MOM
SHORT ROUTINES
Routines are the key to success on the homestead. There’s lots to do and lots to be done. Many mouths to feed and systems to keep in place to keep your home running sailing smoothly.
Creating a morning routine is a great place to start in creating a more productive day. I share with you how to create a morning routine in this post below.
Follow a Morning Routine
You’re morning routine may consist of your weekly chores and tasks. Use a weekly chore chart in your home with your children or post it in the barn to make sure that everything that needs to get done is completed. I’ve created a weekly chore chart for our barn below.
Download the Weekly Chore Chart here
2.GET ORGANIZED
Creating routines is the perfect place to start when working towards creating a productive home and homestead. Getting organized can be overwhelming if you don’t know where to start. Check out these great tips from other homesteaders to help you create organizational systems.
Start by doing a brain dump of all the things you need to get done for work while at home, and for your family. Separate those things and start to prioritize your time and delegate tasks to make life easier.
Having a daily schedule with clear routines and important tasks makes it easier to avoid feeling overwhelmed.
Hire a Virtual Assistant to help with scheduling and responding to emails, social media and phone calls. Use Freshbooks to take over your accounting tasks. Delegating is a very helpful and rewarding task!
3.SET ATTAINABLE GOALS
Every January we set an annual homestead goal plan and a yearly homestead schedule. I suggest you do the same, it doesn't have to be January. Check out our homestead goal plan below for some tips and inspiration.
How to Create an annual homestead goal plan
Once you've set your goals, you're going to want to achieve them! That's the whole point of setting them. Teri from Homestead Honey has a great post worth a read about how to achieve your homesteading goals. Read it below.
How to Achieve your Homesteading Goals
No matter the season, try to challenge yourself with setting a few seasonal goals to increase your productivity. We found that we often didn't celebrate what we had achieved and focused on so much off our bucket list that we hadn't gotten to yet. Set yourself some smaller achievable goals and celebrate smaller successes and you'll feel more accomplished. See my example below.
4.OVERCOME THE OBSTACLES
My 4th secret to being more productive is to prepare for curveballs. Catch them and run with it. You never know what will be thrown at you in life, you have to bend and sway and try not to snap when obstacles of all shapes and sizes are thrown at you.
Below I share with you my tips for latest obstacle.
How to homestead with a baby and a toddler
Another VERY common obstacle most of us face at some point or another is burnout. I've been there, other homesteaders have been there. Let's learn from each other so we can cope and beatoverwhelm. Check out these two SUPER helpful articles below.
When Simple Isn't Easy- 5 Ways to Cope with Homestead Overwhelm
Beat Homestead Overwhelm
5.CREATE THE PERFECT PLANNER
My 5th secret for a more productive homestead is creating a planner that inspires you! Below I've organized some amazing printable planner resources to help you get your "stuff" together so you can more more productive.

6.REVIEW & REFLECT OFTEN
My 6th secret is that in order to go forward you do need to take some time to review and reflect on where you've been. This might look like reviewing your garden from the year before and making tweaks when planning for the next year.
I love the idea of doing a daily bullet journal, or taking a tea time break to reflect on your homesteading. There are lots of perks to keeping your own farm journal. Read the articles below
Tea Time
Farm Journal
7.MINDSET
My 7th secret to working from home while raising children is to have a positive mindset. Start the day by writing down what your grateful for and make it your intent to remind yourself of that gratitude anytime to you start to feel overwhelmed or negative about your situation. Even if you have to trick your brain, studies show this strategy will change your brain chemistry.
8.CONTINUE TO LEARN TIME MANAGEMENT SKILLS
And my last secret is that in order for us to be more productive, we need to keep learning how to do so. Just like anything really! Keep asking questions, changing your schedule to match your effective work times with when you have the most creativity, flexibility and energy!
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