How to stay focused working from home with multiple kids?

I have built products for two decades, from Tokopedia to founding three startups of my own. Most of my work, especially now managing four product teams pushing releases in Saudi Arabia, happens remotely. If you think working from home with multiple kids is easy, you are completely mistaken. Early on, I lost my temper a lot. My brain would be burning on a new feature release, and suddenly a kid would cry or fight right outside my door.

How did I survive years of remote work without becoming an angry dad?

First, physical boundaries are non-negotiable. You must have a dedicated area where your brain, and more importantly your family, knows you are working. If you open your laptop in the living room or on the dining table, of course your kids will ask you to play. They are not wrong. You are giving the wrong signals. I always ensure I have a room with a closed door for work. A closed door means focus mode.

Second, set expectations every morning. One thing I learned early on is the importance of a transparent daily schedule. I always tell my wife my rhythm for the day. Which critical meetings require total silence, and which hours I can be interrupted for lunch together. Kids are highly observant. They quickly understand the rules as long as we apply them consistently every day.

Third, finish your work faster. Saving companies money is an old habit of mine, from well before AI became a trend. As a product leader I drove over 4 million US dollars in yearly savings through a range of initiatives: process improvements, cost optimization, and more efficient product decisions. Automation was just one of them. Back then, that kind of leverage required a senior seat, an engineering team, and expensive systems. Today, AI is the sharpest tool for that same habit, and it can be trained into everyone on the team. When you know how to work smart and use tools correctly, your tasks get done much more efficiently. The result? You have leftover energy and a sane mood to play with your kids after closing your laptop.

Fourth, drop the guilt. This is the most common source of emotional explosions. When you work, just work. When you play with your kids, close the laptop tight and keep your phone out of reach. We get angry because we feel we are failing at two roles simultaneously. We worry about our kids playing alone during a meeting, and we stress about unfinished tasks while feeding them. Separate these two worlds strictly.

Working from home ultimately comes down to self-discipline. Your family will slowly adapt to your rhythm if you protect the boundaries you create. If you are curious how I use new tools to cut down routine work hours, you can check out the details on the AI Circle I am building with my team.