If you’re someone who serves as a caregiver to someone, be it your children or an elderly loved one, being able to work from home can be a great way to fulfill all of your responsibilities at the same time. However, while doing just one thing at a time can be a challenge, when you’re trying to work while being a caregiver, it’s going to take a lot of balancing to make sure you’re doing both of these things successfully.

So for those who work from home and don’t have access to childcare or senior living facilities to help them out, here are three tips for working from home while being a caregiver. 

Find Respite Care

Even if you’re ready to be a full-time caregiver in addition to working your job from home, you should be on the lookout for someone that you can call in for respite care when you need it.

With respite care, you have someone to work as the caregiver for you just for the short periods of time when you wouldn’t be available or would need to leave your home for one reason or another. This person would fill in for you and give you a respite from the care that you’re offering. But if you have no one that you can call on for this, you could quickly burn out from doing so much. 

Create Routines That Work For You

When you’re caring for someone that needs you to be available to them at the drop of a hat, what’s going to make it possible for you to be there while also being able to work from home is having routines that you can both come to expect. 

If you’re able to create routines around things like visiting the bathroom and having meals, it will make working in between these moments much easier for you. Then, your days as a caregiver and a worker should go much smoother. 

Discuss Expectations On Both Sides

Both the person that you’re caring for at home and your employer should be aware that you’re splitting your attention at times during the day. While this can be an uncomfortable conversation, if there should ever come a time where you can’t immediately fulfill one of your responsibilities, having spoken about this possibility and the expectations that each side can come to expect before the situation arises can help to make each side more understanding and flexible with you when need be. This can take some of the stress off of you and allow you to work more seamlessly between these two responsibilities.

If you’re caring for someone in your home while also working from home, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you make both of these things work.