I recently coached a client who is quite similar to me in a lot of respects (you know who you are Sue – pretty sure she’ll be reading this). Our conversation quickly went to how busy both of our lives are and how we both juggle so many business interests with a single child who is rather demanding of our time, along with time for friends, family, fun etc etc. I know we are certainly not unique! I think more and more women are being faced with similar challenges with balancing work life and personal life and to be honest, none of us have perfected it.
What is perfection anyway? Particularly with women, it is far easier for us to become guilty when we work and not spend that quality time with our kids – especially when they are young. A lot of women in particular – and I don’t want to leave out the Dads here either as so many more of them are now working from home and taking on the stereotypes usually reserved for women, so I’m not directing this conversation to working women here at all – these days are far more career-minded, focussed and driven than ever before I feel. There are so many more opportunities available to us, specifically working from home, than ever before. Same goes for many men. Many more men are able to work from home and take on those roles usually reserved for women, while their partners go to a desk job. Even here in my home, I work from home full-time on my businesses, however my partner is very flexible with his work arrangements now and is able to work from home much more often than even 2 years ago! The working landscape is certainly changing at a very fast pace.
So how do we juggle working, caring for our babies, shopping, seeing friends and family, keeping house, paying the bills, fun time etc etc??? Phew! The best way we both came up with was to delegate. This can be equally addressed on a personal or business level. Let’s look at business first. I could not be more excited at the fact that now we have access to fabulous online services such as fiverr.com, odesk.com and the like. We can now, at a very, very cheap price – access the services of graphic designer, web developer, writer, virtual assistant, social media expert – at the click of a button. I can quite literally divert my phones to a Virtual Assistant living in another country for pennies on the dollar. I currently utilize the services quite regularly of a graphic designer who has so far designed me around 4 logos and I just love the work she does. She lives in Romania and her turnaround time is usually inside of 24 hours!!! Seriously, find someone locally you can pay $5 to who will offer that service! I am just constantly amazed at what is available. So no matter what you are seeking assistance for you in your business, I can pretty much guarantee that there is someone out there who can assist you for pennies. Any business can afford it – you just need to spend a little bit of time online to find what you need.
From a personal perspective, delegation is just as crucial. I have a Housekeeper who regularly comes. I also have a Book-keeper who does all my taxes, receipts, claims etc. Again I have found someone who charges very little. I also have a team of people able and willing to look after my son when it’s required. Anyone from my partner, my son’s Father, my Mum, Before and After School Care, Casual Child Care, a Babysitter, my son’s school friends’ Mums. There’s a veritable catalogue of people I can call upon if the situation arises. If there is something you are doing that you don’t like – such as cleaning or ironing or gardening – find someone else to do it. Don’t spend your time on something you hate. Vibrationally it’s not going to do you any favours and look at the how the time could be better spent. I use the time when my house is being cleaned to go and have a massage. If I need ironing done, again, I outsource. I personally hate ironing. Even such things as devices. Dishwashers, dryers, washing machines all cut time and make our lives easier don’t they? Smartphones these days can do so much more than they could even a year ago. Really think outside of the box on this one. If something is sucking up your time that you are not happy about, find a way to either outsource it or delegate it to a device or machine. If you try and do everything and be everything to everyone, give it time, but you will implode. Don’t wait until you detonate – delegate! There’s so many people out there right now willing to help you for a fraction of the cost you think. How fabulous is that?
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