Work/Life Balance

 I sigh with relief, I have done it again!! 

Most of us have come to the end of the summer school holidays and can breathe again! I always give myself a well-deserved pat on the back and smugly congratulate myself for surviving another year! 

September always brings for me a time of reflection, have I achieved the work/life balance that I am comfortable with? 

Work/life balance is a phrase which we are all familiar with but what does it really mean to you? 

For me, one of my biggest values is balance. I strive for balance throughout the whole year – not just in the school holidays. If I haven’t achieved a balanced week, I am not performing at my best. 

So what does my balanced week look like? 

To understand this I need to understand my role or the different roles I fulfil, for me they are:- 

Director, Leader, Coach, Marketer, Sales Director, Finance Director, HR Director, IT Director, Mother, Wife, Daughter, Sister, Friend. 

With so many hats to juggle, how can I possibly achieve balance? The answer is with bite-sized chunks! 

Like all great goals, they are easier to achieve if you break them up into realistic chunks. I like to chunk my life into 3–month blocks. 

I look at all of my roles individually and break them into 12 weeks, 3 easy to manage months (or in July 6 simple weeks!) 

I ask myself the difficult question: – What do I need to do to really move my business/family/relationships forward? This gives me my focus for the next 12 weeks, it feels less daunting and far more realistic. And you can take other demands into consideration like school holidays, annual leave, staff shortages, projects, family commitments. 

All of my roles affect each other, I may want to ease my sales target in August to consider the school holidays and my own annual leave, although this may have more of an impact in September, or I may need to enhance my leadership skills and team to manage my business whilst I am away. 

The real secret is to review. Once you have identified your roles and set realistic bite–sized goals, review the challenges and successes in these areas weekly. This will help you implement fixes where needed and to celebrate your successes. 

You may have more than 14 roles to play at any one time, but I believe it is simple when you build your support network. The last 6 weeks will prove how solid yours really is. 

I am incredibly lucky to have an amazing support network and the very best family and circle of friends which makes my balance achievable. Like any great team you need to identify the role (or roles) you play and to achieve the winning formula. It is essential to have structure.  

Work/Life Balance is achieved with the right People, Processes and Structure. 

Do you have the right people around you?  

Do you have robust processes in place? 

Do you have a structure that allows for the help and support you need.  

I suggest to achieve your work/life balance, clarify what makes you happy, be clear on what you want to achieve, set realistic goals, prioritise, detail your processes, implement structure and build your solid support network.