One of my fellow coaches likes to say, “Anything is possible. Everything is not.”
I often get asked about how you “do it all”; especially as a business owner and mom of very young kids. The honest answer is…you don’t. This question really comes down to two things: time management and prioritization. You have make choices. You choose every single minute of every single day what the priority is and what you are going to spend your time on.
I always have a running “to do” list and throughout the day am constantly looking at it, evaluating it, and adding to it. My favorite part about my list is the satisfaction I get when I can cross things off the list and know I am making progress on the things that need to get done. I think it’s important to note that this list includes both business and personal things…after all, I only have one allotment of time in a day.
Creating my list is only half the battle, though. The most important part of the list is in evaluating and prioritizing the items on it. You choose which things you will do and which you need to outsource to someone else (I’m looking at you house cleaning & appetizers for the neighborhood picnic).
Now here’s the crucial part. When you decide that something is the priority at that moment, you then need to go “all in”. Focus only on that job, task, event or person. Let everything else fall to the wayside as you do that one thing to the best of your ability. When I’m at work, I work. I’m not checking Facebook, chatting with girlfriends or out to lunch. I’m getting things done. When it’s time to pick up my girls then it’s time for the email and phones to go away. My focus shifts to them and giving them the quality time they need from me.
Most importantly, you must choose to release the guilt. The guilt when you say no, or I’ll have to do it later, or that just doesn’t fit with my long-term goals. The guilt that other people think I should be home raising my kids or that I rarely attend night and weekend work functions which could help grow my business faster. For years I refused to believe that I couldn’t “have it all”. The truth is I can achieve anything I set my mind to, I just can’t do it all at the same time!
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