My partner and I operate two businesses from home. I am the chief editor of Theparentingco.com and together we are the directors of GRES: Global Rehabilitation and Environmental Solutions; delivering industry leading technology to Mining Companies and Helping Mining Companies to profit from their environmental legacy.
We are a blended family with five daughters, add to that a rescue dog and the fact that Ben and I are not only business partners, we are also engaged to be married.
Balancing this, along with business and time for ourselves hasn’t always been easy. We haven’t always got it right. We found that if we didn’t take time to fill our cup, we couldn’t pour into our family or each other, which is the most important thing to us.
It is easy to get overwhelmed and lose track, so we now use the following strategies to ensure that we remain focused and maintain a healthy balance between work, life and family.
STOP WORK
This is set time to spend together and with our children. We do not look at our phones or laptops during this time.
DMO MEETINGS
Daily Method of Operation meetings are held each morning so that we can prioritize what is important both personally and professionally.
PRE PREP
Our meals and family outfits are planned and prepared in advance to ensure that our decision making quota isn’t depleted by the little things.
OUTSOURCE
We outsource tasks that do not add to our family or business such as cleaning and washing.
TWO-TO-DO
This simple strategy ensures that we remain focused on the important things and are able to achieve something every day. It is based on brain function and helps to reduce overwhelm and distraction. When we achieve this, we have more time for us and family
DATE NIGHT
Ben and I commit to weekly date night with strict conversation and activity rules to ensure our relationship and growth as a couple is in check.
TWO BIRDS ONE STONE
Because we are busy, we also need to be efficient. As an example, we commit to exercise every day, but we kill two birds with one stone by listening to an e-book as we run, or we take the girls and have a family massage.
PELF HERD
In order to remain mentally balanced we have had to choose the kind of people that we put our energy into. We feel that this is vital for our children to understand the kind of people they allow in their lives also. We call this our PELF Herd: People that Enlighten, Educate, Lift us, Learn from, and operate at a high Frequency.
FAMILY AND PERSONAL CHECK IN
We are constantly checking in with ourselves and each other to make sure we manage our commitment to our wellbeing and that of our family. When it comes to our children, we will sit down and have a discussion about what they are happy with and the changes they want to see. Our youngest children will draw what they want to do with us.
BUILD A TEAM
Our businesses are impossible to run on our own and uphold our quality standards while remaining sane. We have amazing teams of people within our business that possess very specific skills and can take care of different parts of business operations. This leaves us to focus on the areas we are best at.
MASTERMIND GROUP
In business, the owners or directors can never hold all the answers. It is a sure way to demise by thinking that you must or do. We have a hand picked mastermind team of trusted advisors, mentors and experts. We can call on our masterminds group pool of knowledge whenever we need and organise it to achieve our business goals.
SYSTEMS AND STRUCTURE
We have systems to help us understand how our business is operating. We also employ systems for tasks that need to be done often. This type of structure is designed to reduce stress and provides ease of training amongst team members.
TRAVEL FOR BOTH
When we travel for work, we take the opportunity to see the world with our family. We implement the same roster and rules on days of work as we do at home.
Once we implemented these strategies, we were then able to:
FILL OUR CUP
There is no point in running a business if you don’t get to enjoy what you do and enjoy all of the other amazing aspects of life. We have big goals professionally; we also have big goals personally. We make sure that we take care of ourselves and enjoy life as well. So many business owners get into business wanting a better lifestyle, more time and calm. So many just become busier and more stressed. We are happier and have more time to do the things that are important for us and our family.
SCALE QUICKLY
We only have to focus on what we have to do. The key players in this business such as our team and mastermind group have helped us scale faster than we would ever have done by taking everything on ourselves.
REMAIN FOCUSED AND PRODUCTIVE
Setting priority tasks to focus on has allowed us to get these done without letting the little things get in the way. We focus on exactly what needs to be done at that time. We go to bed every night with a sense of achievement and we are not concerned or consumed about what is left to be done.
