Ask any parent, and they will tell you it can be incredibly hard to maintain a successful career while raising children.
However, even though you have to juggle meeting deadlines, managing school runs, delivering client pitches, and making packed lunches, rest assured, it is not impossible.
To stop you from feeling like you are being shoved from pillar to post, all you need is to create a routine that successfully balances the responsibilities of your professional and family life.
The best way to do this is to devise a schedule that maximises your time so you can work more effectively.
In this post, we’ll highlight five strategies you should adopt to help you to do this
1. Get professional help
The best businesses are the ones whose processes run like clockwork. They are also managed by people who have a clear focus on their most important, profitable and productive tasks.
If you run a business that is not currently in a position like this, you should consider a business coach in Sydney like Brainiact.
A personalised mentoring service like this offers a range of one-to-one coaching that enables you to improve the overall output of your business and quality of your personal life.
Primarily, it does this by providing you with expert coaches who draw upon their knowledge of years of proven strategies and tangible, hands-on business experience to help you devise custom solutions to run a more robust business.
2. Be organised
The best way to balance your work responsibilities with being a parent is to set a schedule.
This should take the form of a daily and weekly calendar that comprises activities relating to your work, as well as parental and personal time.
By creating a schedule, you make yourself aware of everything you need to do. When drawing it up, you should divide it into four sections.
- Jobs that take less than five minutes to complete
- Most profitable tasks
- Most important tasks
- Other activities
You can arrange your day around these sections as you wish. However, it is a good idea to do the most important or profitable tasks first.
That way, if your day happens to get interrupted halfway through, you should have at least completed some of the more vital things on your to-do list.
3. Outsource
There are only so many hours in a day, and you can’t do everything. Therefore, it is important to outsource some of your responsibilities.
This should apply to both your professional remit and your domestic chores because the less you have to do, the better it will be for your mental clarity and focus.
It is a good idea to work out what you are best and most efficient at when it comes to your responsibilities. If there is a task that takes a long time for you to complete, such as bookkeeping, consider outsourcing it to a professional who would be able to do it quicker than you.
Likewise, at home, you might not have the time or inclination to spend a couple of hours cleaning and tidying. Therefore, hiring a cleaner is a great way to free up your time and focus on other, more productive activities for your work or just spend quality time with your family.
4. Spend quality time with loved ones
While you might have lots of work to be getting on with, it is important to remember you have children and maybe a partner who wants to spend quality time with you.
Make sure you set aside regular time to do this, whether that be a couple of hours in the evening or all day on weekends. During this period, try and avoid doing any work or even taking work calls unless they are absolutely unavoidable.
Also, try doing fun activities that not only get you out of the house but also enable you to make great memories with your children – regular weekend getaways are a good idea.
Kids grow up very fast, so make the most of their younger years while you can.
5. Look after yourself
Perhaps most importantly of all, you need to look after yourself. If you don’t, you risk not only not working as efficiently and productively as you are capable of but also deteriorating your health.
Make sure you prioritise getting between seven to nine hours of quality sleep every night. At the same time, exercise regularly and try to maintain a healthy diet that includes plenty of fruits and vegetables, as well as minimise the consumption of processed food and drinks high in sugar.
It is also vital to drink plenty of water as that helps keep you hydrated and your brain function high.
Lastly, make sure you treat yourself to the things you like to do. Whether that is a night out with friends, watching your favourite sports team play, date night with your partner or regular weekend getaways, you need to do things for your own sanity to reduce your potential for depression or burning out.
