How to Prevent Your Kids from Distracting You During a Job Search

How to Prevent Your Kids from Distracting You During a Job Search How to Prevent Your Kids from Distracting You During a Job Search A successful job search requires a lot of time and attention. You have to be focused and able to ignore outside distractions. But as a parent,  it can be nearly impossible to prevent your kids from distracting you. If youre trying to focus on your job search, youll want (and need!) to do what you can to reduce distractions from your children. Here are four effective and creative ways to prevent your kids from distracting you  while youre on the hunt for a new job: 1. Plan out your day. Planning is key! Its not the most creative or original trick, but it works. Every Sunday night, write out what you want or  need to accomplish for your job search that week, and guesstimate how long each task will  take or how much time youd like to dedicate to it (i.e., Monday: work on resume for three  hours; Tuesday, work on  cover letter for two hours; etc.). Then,  plan activities for your kids, and/or arrange for child care during the hours you know youll be busy with your search. 2.  Have activities or distractions for your kids on hand. In case your child care falls through or you decide you want to spend more time on your job search while your kids are home, have some toys, games, movies, books, arts and crafts, etc. on hand. (You probably have most of these anywaybut it cant hurt to buy a few new ones and hide them until you really need to use them as distractions or entertainment for your kids!) You may want to try setting up play stations around the house or room. Tell your child that they are going to work on a project while you work on yours- and that youll  set  a 15-minute timer and when it goes off, itll be time to move on to the next play station. (Kids have fairly short attention spans, so switching things up every 15 minutes or so is a good way to keep them engaged for a longer period of time.) 3.  Involve your child in the process so they understand why its so important. If your child is old enough to at least somewhat understand what youre doing, use this opportunity to teach them a little bit about what a job search entails. This is also a good time to lay out the plan for the next few weeks or months and set expectations  (kids like this!). Tell them what their days might look like (if they will be different) while youre focused on a job  search and see if they have any questions. If they have a general understanding of why your job search is so important (e.g., maybe you explained that having a job will allow the family to take more vacations, or that you studied hard in school and now you want to share your skills and knowledge with the world), they may be more respectful  of the boundaries you set. 4.  Work from your car or outside of your house. Your car may make for a better office or workspace than youd think! If your kids are being noisy inside with the babysitter, or the sight of their toys everywhere is too distracting (because you want to drop everything and clean the mess!), you may want to consider leaving the house. Even when the kids arent home, your house may remind you of all the things you have to do for them- make lunch, do their laundry, clean up their messes, schedule those dentist appointments, etc.- which can  be extremely distracting. A change of scenery might help you re-focus. Not all kids are distracting you  all the time, of course. But if and when they begin to interfere with your focus, you may want to employ some of these tactics. Plus, if youre looking for a flexible job anyway, working from home may soon be your new reality, so no better time than  the present to start figuring out what works. Your child may need some time to adjust to your job search plan. Try to look on the positive side of things when youre distracted. Good luck on your job search! Interested in finding a job a job that lets you telecommute? Check out the top 100 companies for remote jobs.