Business & Balance

At our monthly tea this past Saturday, we had a great group discussion sharing the business habits that we are going to carry into 2011 and searching for alternatives to the things that we'd rather leave behind.

In a room full of women, with most of us being job-and-household-and-family-and-business juggling moms , it's no wonder that we spent some time discussing how we can better balance it all in the new year.

Here are a few tips to keep all of the balls in the air at once.

Define your new normal.

Accept that your situation has changed. If it used to take you twenty hours a week after working your day job to take care of home and family and now that you've started your business, you only have five hours a week...something has to give. Maybe you can use the crockpot and paper plates a few times each week to cut down on a messy kitchen. Perhaps hubby can get the kids ready for bed at night and fold the laundry. This new season of your life calls for a new plan.

Set limits.

It's very easy to renege on the schedule that you set for yourself. "I'll just finish cleaning up this room," or "I'll just make a few more phone calls" can easily turn into moving all of the furniture around in the house or working very late into the night. These extreme actions in one area leave you lacking in another and scrambling to make up for it the next day. Learn how to complete the task, be satisfied with the accomplishment and move on to the next thing. Between family and friends, there will be enough pressing issues that get you a little off track from time to time. Maintain the schedule when you can and it will help in the long run.


Live in the moment.

You are more effective when you are focused. Reading emails while watching a movie with the family takes away from the family time. What would it be like if everybody in the room was doing it? Inform close friends of your at home "work" hours. You can't talk to them any more after work than you could during the day. You're busy. Give your company the respect that it deserves. Multi-tasking is not always a good thing.

Happy Holidays! May your upcoming year be 2011 times better than your last!

Adrienne Adams is an author and business coach. She is passionate about helping women earn an income doing what they love to do -- and are probably already doing for free!

Would you like more information? Visit www.itsnotenoughtodream.com