5 Tips to Balance Work and Family

Mothers in Business: 5 Tips to Balance Work and Family

By Tanya Titman, Founder of female business growth program, Acceler8 

1. Be productive at work so you can be present at home

If you work from 9 until 5, that provides eight hours of your day that you can devote to your business so focus and plan-out your day. Schedule your tasks and allow time for the unexpected. If you cannot achieve what you need to in the time you are at work, then analyse where your time is going. There are several useful apps such as toggl and harvest that will make tracking time fun and extremely insightful. Be productive in the hours that you are at work and commit to not taking work home with you. Home time is for family, so clock off from work and be present for home.

2.  Live in day-tight compartments

This is a mantra for me. When life is busy and overwhelming, it is often helpful to compartmentalise your days. Focus on today and what you need to do now. Forget about what happened yesterday and do not think about what needs to be done tomorrow. By focusing on today, you will achieve far more and avoid that overwhelming feeling.

3. Balance is about progress not perfection

Remember that the balance is always changing and it needs to be fluid. There are points in time when your family need you and you will have to adjust your work to fit. Alternatively, there are times when your business needs you and you will need to adjust your family time to fit. There is no perfect formula and it will be different for everyone. Being able to adapt to the changing needs is key to achieving a great balance that is right for you.

4. Your health and wellbeing is a priority

Invest in your own health and wellbeing. Don't think this is a luxury – it is critical to your success. Schedule time into your week for exercise and take time out for your own wellbeing. Often when you are busy looking after your family and running a business, your health and wellbeing is last on the list of priorities. If you are run down and not feeling well, everything falls apart. It takes a lot of energy to do as much as you probably want to do so understand that to achieve all that you want, you need to be fit and healthy. 

5. Get help at home

It is crazy to think that you can run a family, run a business, and run a household without any help. Invest in a housekeeper so that you can focus on what really matters. When you arrive home from a day at work, you need to focus on family, not on housework. Your weekends should be spent relaxing and recharging for the week ahead, or spending quality time with the kids, not doing the washing.  Outsource the things that take you away from doing what you should be doing and you will achieve greater balance and success.