It's no secret: Juggling a career and all the other demands of life can be tough. How many of us scramble around trying to pack it all in, only to fall into bed at night feeling like we could have used just a few more hours in the day?
Combine that with the demands of owning your own business, and you may find yourself running around like a chicken with its head cut off, dashing between business and personal tasks. Everyone functions differently, but my sanity solution has been to block-schedule everything. I do not combine work and home. At all. I literally have a separate location for work, a wardrobe for the studio, and a separate name that I use in connection with my art. I pull on my painting jeans every morning and drive into my studio as Nicole Bourgea. Then I come home, change into my Nicole Gleason clothes and pick up my kiddlets from school.
I realize that this is not for everyone. I have friends who love working from home. For me though, being able to separate career and family ensures that I can dive full-heartedly into each. I can be more present, more engaged and more productive when I block schedule. That may be why I appreciated this blog post from Penelope Trunk. She is a very successful entrepreneur with Asperger's, so her advice is very literal and intense.
So I'm curious, any advice for packing more quality into the day? How do you handle the work life balance?
Nicole, I want to do more block scheduling even within my days, but I struggle with it. I am glad you are able to make it work. I feel like all areas of my life are bleeding into one another.
ReplyDeleteNicole, I enjoyed reading Penelope Trunk's blog thanks to you. I think the work-life balance is difficult to get right. Those of us who need more lead time to gear up to get things done might have to compartmentalize a lot more than others who are able to be very productive with snatches of time. I like the way you've managed to keep work and family life separate with the help of changing your clothes to get in the right frame of mind.
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