For mums who run their own business, the school holidays result in even more juggling around family life, whilst still trying to run a business.
As a business owner it’s hard to take time out when your business needs to still be up and running throughout the year.
If you are looking keep your business going, whilst enjoying and managing the daily activities of family life, here are some top tips for work/life integration.
Plan ahead
The week’s leading up to the school holidays is a good time to spend time putting together a plan to help everything go as smoothly as possible. Spend time not only focusing on what needs to happen in your business, but also what you want to do with your kids, where are you going to go, what are you going to need etc.
Prioritise what needs to be done
We all have what feels like a never ending to do list of what we want to achieve but use your planning time to split your list into what needs to be done and what you would like to be done. Anything you can get done before the school holidays begin will help, but ensure the only things you need to worry about are the important tasks.
Scheduling
As part of your planning, spend time scheduling your social media posts; or regular emails that need to be sent out so you can set and forget.
Delegate and outsource
If your kids are old enough, can they get involved to help with little bits and pieces, even some chores around the house whilst you catch up on emails? Or maybe this is the perfect time to consider outsourcing some tasks to a Virtual Assistant to give you some more time.
Family and friends
Do you have family or friends, that you could call upon to help out by taking the kids for an odd day and give you a full day to concentrate on your business? In turn you can then arrange to take their kids for a day to ease the pressure from them.
Set an out of office on your emails
Set yourself specific times throughout the day that you can check your emails and put on an out of office advising senders that you are available between x and x time and will respond to them then. If they need to speak to you urgently, they can call you. Anything that is not urgent can then wait until you are free to focus. Make sure you set those boundaries clearly.
Remember to take some time out
Don’t forget you do need to take some time out of your business to spend with your family and for yourself. Plan to take some time out where you can focus your attention entirely on your family without the distraction of your business.
Do you have some top tips on how you juggle running a business around your family? I'd love to hear them.