First off, let’s get rid of the idea of work-life balance. I like to think about flow. Flow let’s you move with ease and grace between the hats you wear. It means that your expectations of how you want things to play out match the reality of how they actually do. The best way to find flow is to think about how you are going to get there.
Start with how you want to feel this summer. You can even know how you want to feel for a particular month or a from week to week. Maybe one week feels spacious and relaxed while you are on vacation and the next week is super focused on your business while your kids are in camp.
Maybe your kids are in Camp Mom all summer. Instead of feeling anxious about how you’re going to get anything done, get super realistic about when you have time to work—and how much you can do in that time. You look at your actual unique situation is and set parameters around that.
Find Your Flow This Summer
You can use the 12-week grid to set up your parameters around when you work. Rank your weeks as family focused or work focused. Then within your week, set additional parameters:
- Which days will you work and which will you not work? (This can be the whole summer or week to week.)
- When do you start and stop work? (That may vary week to week or on certain days.)
- Once you know how much time you have each week, what can you get done in that time?
To answer that last question, know how much time you need for client work, admin, communication . . .
For example, I know I need 15 working hours for my average work week for the summer. That means when I only have 8 hours, I need to look at what I can shift or cut back on—do I choose not to blog for a couple of weeks? Can I shift this client call? Would it work to double up on admin next week? Remember, feeling unbalanced is about our expectations not lining up with reality. So get real.
Once you set your schedule, stick with it. Give yourself permission—no guilt—to take time off on a day you chose to take off. And then ditch the mommy guilt when your partner or a friend takes kids to the water park on a day you planned to work. Be present with work—and at the pool. That’s flow, Mama CEO style.
To set up your summer flow, grab your free summer planning sheet below. And if you want to get your summer even more dialed in, get your copy of The Mama Method: A Mama CEO’s Guide to Your Next 90 Days. You can plan your summer (or, if you’re getting ahead of the game, your fall) in about an hour!
