School Holiday Sanity Strategies @GraceMarshall
Juggling work and family over the summer holidays? How do you stay sane?
As a life and business coach for mums (and dads) in business, I’ve had quite a few discussions about juggling work and school holidays. Some take to working at night, others make the decision to stop working altogether. Some even find ways of involving their kids in their business, which I guess is either creative genius or complete chaos, depending on how well that works out!
What do you do? Do you wind things down, do things differently, or is it business as usual?
Personally I like to slow down and lighten up a little on the work front so I can enjoy some lazy mornings, trips out and play dates with my kids. At the same time, I don’t stop completely so I do a combination of late nights and arrange some childcare too.
Here’s the thing though: everybody’s different. Yes we’re all in the same boat and it’s great to get different ideas of how things can be done, but the quickest way to lose your sanity and find yourself swimming in guilt is to keep comparing yourself to everybody else, wondering if that’s what you ‘should’ be doing:
“Maybe I shouldn’t be working at all. Maybe I should just focus on the kids – they grow up so quick and it’s only a couple of weeks after all. On the other hand, maybe I should try and do one thing at least, on my business to keep the momentum going after all the hard work I’ve put in to get it going…”
Then you have all the things that other mums are planning to do with their kids – swimming, painting, football, baking, trips out, Disneyland…
So here’s how you stay sane: Stop Saying Should!
Most people have good reasons for their choices – the important thing is to find your reason and make your choices around them.
What are the five most important things to you this school holiday? Forget should, what are you going to do about them?
Design your school holiday plans around those things. Schedule time to focus on the different aspects, so you’re not trying to do everything at once and end up making half a start and getting nowhere.
Then whatever it is you’re doing, whether it’s making daisy chains in the garden, queuing at Disneyland, getting into the flow of your next creation or singing Incy Wincy Spider for the twelfth time, take in every sight, sound, touch, taste and smell. Rather than think about all the things you’re not doing, be fully ‘there’ and notice what you are doing.
One of my clients was talking about how before having children, she used to love taking off somewhere for a couple of days at a time, to fully immerse into a project. And while the time frames are a bit different now, there’s nothing stopping her from immersing herself for 1-2 hours at a time instead of 1-2 days.
In other words, it’s not so much about how much time you have or haven’t got, it’s what you do during that time. So whatever it is you’re choosing to take time for this school holiday, quit the comparing, stop the ‘should’s and savour the moment.
By Grace Marshall at http://grace-marshall.com/YesYouCan
