“Three”
When people tell me that they are busy, I smile to myself and think “probably not quite as busy as me!” For the past year or so, since returning to work after maternity leave, I have been finishing my research and writing up my PhD thesis, expanding my photography business and been a mother for the first time. I have failed to follow my feminist mother’s teachings very well and have ended up doing the majority of the cooking, cleaning, washing, ironing, recycling and even putting the rubbish out at home too!
I am a 21st century mother/career woman who is trying hard to keep a good sense of work/life balance and be there for as much of my little girl’s pre-school years as I can. When I was younger I thought that I’d want to carry on working full-time when I had children because having a career and being successful in my own right has always been important to me. And it still is. But my family is incredibly precious and wonderful, so the thought of not being around enough to see my little one grow up – especially all those amazing firsts (steps, words etc.) – has meant that my career has had to fit around my family.
How lucky I am then that, working for myself, I can create a career that fits around my family. For the first few months back after maternity leave I had this crazy idea that I could do it all without any, or very little help. I couldn’t bare the thought of leaving my daughter with anyone else, and so tried to cram all my work into the moments when she was sleeping, and I’d often take her with me to photo-shoots. This became increasingly difficult and I got incredibly frustrated that I couldn’t do everything.
So, I began to seek out the help that I needed to make all these things work together and still provide the balance I wanted. Here are my secrets for being very busy parent but staying happy, healthy and relatively relaxed!
1. Find childcare that suits you and your family.
We have a fantastic nanny who works two days a week. This enables me to work my socks off from 8.30-4.30pm two days a week and enjoy time with my little one for the other three. Weekends are split between work and family time, depending on my schedule. We found our nanny through Tinies, who I can highly recommend.
2. Get a super duper PA (if you are running your own business!)
I use a virtual PA called Estelle from Time Etc. She is simply amazing and has enabled me to build my business quite dramatically in a relatively short space of time. She takes all my calls and makes quite a few for me too, as well as lots of other really helpful stuff. I pay per task, so it’s great value for money. It’s always good to know that when I’m busy playing in the park or building a tower out of Duplo that there is someone on the end of the phone taking care of my business. It is also really useful to be able to email a list of to-dos in the evening (especially calls I couldn’t make after 5pm) and know that they will get done during office hours the next day.
3. Do your grocery shopping online.
It saves loads of time and means you don’t have to make your child really grumpy by taking them to the supermarket!
4. Set a side some “me time” every day.
If I don’t have time to potter about on my own or go for a swim I start to get stressed out. Even if it’s just for 10 minutes a day, I think this is really important. This year I have also been regularly taking a bit more time out for me, so once a month I use some of my work time (when the nanny is working) to have a little me time – some shopping, a long swim and sauna or even an afternoon power nap! It means that I have more energy for my work, family and friends.
There are so many other things I could write here about organising your time, prioritising your tasks, etc. but I just wanted to give a little snap-shot into my busy life and how I manage it. I am also trying to make a conscious decision not to answer “how are you?” with “really busy.” I am really busy. That is a fact. But it’s something I have chosen to be. I could have made my life a lot easier by putting my photography on hold until my thesis was finished, or taking a whole year off my thesis to concentrate on being a mum. I have chosen to do all three, so there is no other option than to be busy.
But being busy actually makes me happy. I cannot deny that I am really looking forward to finishing my thesis and just being busy rather than quite ridiculously busy, but I know I’ll still be busier than most then too!
How to run a successful start-up business, write up your PhD thesis and be a mother to a 15-month old (and not go insane!)
“Three”
When people tell me that they are busy, I smile to myself and think “probably not quite as busy as me!” For the past year or so, since returning to work after maternity leave, I have been finishing my research and writing up my PhD thesis, expanding my photography business and been a mother for the first time. I have failed to follow my feminist mother’s teachings very well and have ended up doing the majority of the cooking, cleaning, washing, ironing, recycling and even putting the rubbish out at home too!
I am a 21st century mother/career woman who is trying hard to keep a good sense of work/life balance and be there for as much of my little girl’s pre-school years as I can. When I was younger I thought that I’d want to carry on working full-time when I had children because having a career and being successful in my own right has always been important to me. And it still is. But my family is incredibly precious and wonderful, so the thought of not being around enough to see my little one grow up – especially all those amazing firsts (steps, words etc.) – has meant that my career has had to fit around my family.
How lucky I am then that, working for myself, I can create a career that fits around my family. For the first few months back after maternity leave I had this crazy idea that I could do it all without any, or very little help. I couldn’t bare the thought of leaving my daughter with anyone else, and so tried to cram all my work into the moments when she was sleeping, and I’d often take her with me to photo-shoots. This became increasingly difficult and I got incredibly frustrated that I couldn’t do everything.
So, I began to seek out the help that I needed to make all these things work together and still provide the balance I wanted. Here are my secrets for being very busy parent but staying happy, healthy and relatively relaxed!
1. Find childcare that suits you and your family.
We have a fantastic nanny who works two days a week. This enables me to work my socks off from 8.30-4.30pm two days a week and enjoy time with my little one for the other three. Weekends are split between work and family time, depending on my schedule. We found our nanny through Tinies, who I can highly recommend.
2. Get a super duper PA (if you are running your own business!)
I use a virtual PA called Estelle from Time Etc. She is simply amazing and has enabled me to build my business quite dramatically in a relatively short space of time. She takes all my calls and makes quite a few for me too, as well as lots of other really helpful stuff. I pay per task, so it’s great value for money. It’s always good to know that when I’m busy playing in the park or building a tower out of Duplo that there is someone on the end of the phone taking care of my business. It is also really useful to be able to email a list of to-dos in the evening (especially calls I couldn’t make after 5pm) and know that they will get done during office hours the next day.
3. Do your grocery shopping online.
It saves loads of time and means you don’t have to make your child really grumpy by taking them to the supermarket!
4. Set a side some “me time” every day.
If I don’t have time to potter about on my own or go for a swim I start to get stressed out. Even if it’s just for 10 minutes a day, I think this is really important. This year I have also been regularly taking a bit more time out for me, so once a month I use some of my work time (when the nanny is working) to have a little me time – some shopping, a long swim and sauna or even an afternoon power nap! It means that I have more energy for my work, family and friends.
There are so many other things I could write here about organising your time, prioritising your tasks, etc. but I just wanted to give a little snap-shot into my busy life and how I manage it. I am also trying to make a conscious decision not to answer “how are you?” with “really busy.” I am really busy. That is a fact. But it’s something I have chosen to be. I could have made my life a lot easier by putting my photography on hold until my thesis was finished, or taking a whole year off my thesis to concentrate on being a mum. I have chosen to do all three, so there is no other option than to be busy.
But being busy actually makes me happy. I cannot deny that I am really looking forward to finishing my thesis and just being busy rather than quite ridiculously busy, but I know I’ll still be busier than most then too!