A little while ago, Stephanie Romero wrote a great post about the many hats that home –based professionals wear. I wholeheartedly agree with Stephanie’s advice to do your best to wear only one hat at a time. I’m a strict adherent to the one – hat policy because I have noticed that when I try to wear more than one hat, I either forget things or do them incorrectly.
My attempts at multitasking have resulted in things like socks being put in the freezer, a very smelly pot of burnt beans that caused the entire house to stink for days, and my two year old trying to run towards the road or into the woods every time I try to take a phone call when we are outside in the yard. When I wear only one hat at a time, my energy is focused on the task or the person or people at hand. Not only do I feel like I do a better job of what I am doing, I am sure that the work product that I produce is better and the people that I am interacting with feel better than if my attention is divided.
As for the types of hats that I wear throughout the day, the one that is on my head the most is the “mom” hat. As a stay at home mom of a newborn and a two year old, this hat spends a lot of time on my head and demands my full attention. At nap time (yes, they sometimes do nap at the same time) I ignore the chores and go straight to my computer to put on one of my work hats. I have more than one work hat, because I have two businesses, and I only work on one of them at a time. In the evening when the boys are sleeping, I put on the “household manager” hat and tackle some chores or paperwork before switching to one of the work hats again. When my husband comes home from work, I put on my “wife” hat and enjoy spending some quality time with him.
Photo by ladyheart on morguefile.com.