How I get work done with my kids.

Ah, the working parent juggle. It’s tough. No matter what’s going on, or how much quality time you spend with your kids or awesome projects you accomplish, you can beat yourself up and say you could do it better, or you should have been with the kids or the business…

But don’t do that! You’re doing great! I am too.

In case you’re wondering how I’ve managed to keep my business running and grow it while I’ve had two kids, the answer is simple but not easy. Lots of support, systems, the right mindset & focus.

1. Getting the time to work.

Family Support

I am blessed to have the best mother-in-law in the world. My husband’s parents adore our kids and help us so much with caring for them each week. My mum lives a bit too far away for regular childcare help but comes to visit often for fun days out, like today at the zoo (pictured), and is a wonderful support too.

Childcare

Ruby goes to an amazing council childcare pre-school 3 days a week. Soon to be 4 days because I can’t keep up with her energy and insatiable passion for craft.

Gym crèche

I’m a long time member of Fitness First primarily because of the crèche. They do a great job and Ruby visits the crèche at 3 different gyms near my home and family. There have been many times when I have put the kids in creche and done the fastest 20 minute workout ever, then spent the rest of the hour on my laptop in the reception area finishing a deadline project.

Awesome husband

We have both worked very hard to build our own businesses for more than 10 years each and I am incredibly lucky to have a husband who now has flexible hours and he can be home for most of the dinner, bath, bedtime stories, and take over when I need to run a webinar at night.

Cleaner

We live in a small apartment by a large park in Sydney so don’t have a huge house to clean, but periodically I get a cleaner weekly when I need extra help.

2. Leveraging the time I’ve got.

Virtual assistant

I have an incredible virtual assistant who I found through Upwork a few years ago who helps me with so many admin tasks and is a superstar. Thanks, Criselle! Before I found Criselle, I wondered what I could get a VA to do. Some of the things she helps me with include; data entry for bookkeeping, reconciliation of statements, transcription, wordpress posting, formatting documents, and research.

Infusionsoft developer

I’ve recently switched my email and shopping cart system to Infusionsoft, which is a great system and very tricky to master. I have a developer who helps me get the tech stuff done.

Audio engineer

To produce my new hypnosis sessions and remaster my old ones, I now have a great audio engineer. I send him the raw audio with the backing track and he engineers it to sound great.

Bookkeeper

I have a monthly bookkeeper to help me with reconciliation, GST, Bas, and tax requirements. Tracey from Bag Your Books does a great job and helps me stay on top of my tax obligations & paperwork. I just post her all my receipts and statements each month.

Accountant / Financial Planner

After years of searching I have finally found an awesome accountant that I connect with and who can help me grow my business and help my husband and I grow our wealth.

Coaching team

I have recently certified 5 amazing coaches with their NLP Practitioner certification and taught them all my secrets for being incredible mindset coaches to create health and happiness. This team will be available here soon for private coaching packages. Exciting!! Until recently I have had the lovely Selina helping me with customer service and coaching calls as well, she has been a wonderful help while I’ve been (sort of) on Maternity Leave. She is now spreading her wings to grow her own online presence and continuing to fill her coaching books.

Social Media Manager

One of my friends has recently started her own social media consultancy after branching out from big corporates. She does an awesome job helping me to strategize, create and manage my social media content. hayleyphillips.com. Selina has also helped me to extract the best quotes from my workshops and create original quote images for Facebook.

3. Keeping my priorities in order.

Mentors and Coaching

In order to keep my own mind in tip-top shape I also invest in mentors and coaching for myself.

Systems

I have many software systems to automate as much of my business as possible, to provide incredible value and service without me needing to personally send every email or post every message. I’ll write more on my systems in a different post. I use awesome systems to allow my to prioritise me personal time where it is best spent.

Focus

In my last post I wrote about the flip side of focus being ignoring. There’s so much I say no to and ignore in order to focus on what is important and productive.

Mindset

You might say “Wow she’s lucky to have so much help”. And I totally am. AND I have consciously cultivated this environment for myself. Over years. I have worked hard to source the right people on my team and allow them to do their jobs. I also believe strongly in allowing my children to build wonderful relationships with their grandparents and other carers so they have a rich social, childhood experience. I know it takes a village to raise a child and have no intention of trying to do it all myself.

Investment in sanity & growth.

It’s true that it costs money to get help, I have always reinvested heavily from my business into support and systems to grow, there are many other things I forego in order to afford to get help to do what is important to me.

With all this help I manage to extract about 2-3 hours a day or at night when both children are either sleeping or cared for so I can focus on my work or get to the gym. Often this time is interrupted. There are times like today when I must snatch 5 minute pockets when I can.

Permission

Just so you know I have written this post over my entire Tuesday in 5 minute snatches on my iphone in these places… while breastfeeding this morning, on the train x 2, and on the ferry, in the middle of a bird show at Taronga Zoo, while my mum was looking after Ruby and Ollie was screeching at the birds. I emailed it to Criselle to upload into wordpress and am now editing it, and checking it over at 9.42 pm while my kids are sleeping, before it’s been scheduled to email out by Criselle.

My hope is that in sharing this with you, it gives you permission to build your own support team and stop trying to do it all by yourself. And also stop waiting for the perfect time or moments of uninterrupted solitude and just get it done however you can.

If you’re a queen of the support team share your team in the comments, I’d love any other tips you’ve got too!