FFN #31: Can We Create Work-Life Balance?

🧂 Know Your Seasons!

Firstly, it's crucial to stop measuring your progress against others' paths. Strive for a balance between personal and professional life that suits you, not one that mimics someone else's routine, like Katie's on Instagram. One of our top recommendations for achieving work-life harmony is to be mindful of the current phase in your professional or personal life. Recognize that busy periods at work will naturally limit the time you can spend on home life. For instance, upcoming major deadlines during school holidays might necessitate extra support at home, possibly from a partner, a babysitter, or professional services. Anticipating these demanding times enables better planning and organization. We've seen several freelancing partners who alternate caring for their children throughout the day, allowing each other to concentrate on work for a few productive hours. Merging personal and professional responsibilities means accepting that you can't manage everything alone—it's time to delegate. This might mean employing a cleaner, discussing the equitable distribution of household chores with your partner, or bringing on a team member for administrative tasks. Remember, it's impossible and unnecessary to handle everything by yourself!

✋🏽 Mastering the Art of Refusal

Acknowledging the finite nature of time—24 hours in a day—is essential, and learning to decline invitations to non-critical events and meetings can be challenging yet vital for achieving a work-life equilibrium. Assess how you spend your time; are you investing hours in networking events that offer little value? Reclaiming that time can be incredibly liberating. Dedicate effort to clarifying your professional and personal ambitions. Then, whenever a new commitment attempts to encroach on your schedule, evaluate its relevance to your defined goals.

🏖 Draw Clear Lines in the Sand

For female entrepreneurs, especially freelancers who can choose their hours, work-life boundaries often blur. Many end up working long days around personal commitments, risking burnout. Establishing a solid routine with set work hours helps delineate ‘work mode’ from personal time, allowing for activities like massages or dinners out. Importantly, schedule real vacation days—completely work-free—to prevent burnout. Balancing work and life is tough, particularly as women often juggle full-time work and the bulk of household duties. Achieving balance isn't always possible, but with careful planning, it can be managed most of the time. Freelancers, remember to rest and not overextend yourselves.

One Stripe Chai

Coffee in the afternoon means I won’t be catching any z’s at night. So recently, I’ve started loving an iced chai latte to power me through the afternoon. I’m not a fan of the powdered sugary chai, I want the real deal! This led me to discover One Stripe Chai. Founded by Farah, celebrating her south asian roots she’s created the most delicious loose-leaf chai blends. I love making mine with a little bit of honey on almond mylk.