Juggling Work And Family

Two things in my life I am most proud of is my family and my work. I will gladly talk about either to anyone who will listen. It would be great to be able to say both work and family life coexist perfectly all the time, but the reality is it can be very difficult to find the right balance between work and family.

This is something I've always been interested in improving, and is something I reflect on quite regularly to make sure I'm doing what I think is best, as there is always a tradeoff between the two. I think it's especially important to keep track of this tradeoff when running your own business. There is a never ending amount of work that needs to be done, and not enough hours in the day to do it all. I know I'm not alone in this situation, juggling work and family commitments is quite common. We work a lot with small businesses and this same topic crops up regularly. The best example I can think of is Evonne Morrison from Good Nude Food Ltd started her business the same week her twins were born. As busy weeks go, that must be up there!

The danger of trying to juggle work and family is sometimes you need to do both at the same time. I'll admit I've been guilty of checking and replying to emails on my phone while trying to burp a baby. Or made some phonecalls while watching my son at his swimming lesson. Smart phones make it much more difficult to keep the separation between work and family. Sometimes that's a good thing, as I wouldn't be able to spend as much time with my family as I do without being able to monitor things from my phone. However I think it's important to keep this to a minimum. I don't want to miss out on quality family time due to work, and I don't want to risk making mistakes at work because I've been trying to multi-task. I often have to remind myself to put away my phone, forget about my emails for a while and just be in the moment.

Getting the balance right is an ongoing effort for me. I don't always get it right, but I try my best!

Quick shout out to Jonny from Art Machine, Ben from the Camera Centre, Kayla from Anderson & Co, Evonne from Good Nude Food, and Linda from Physiofit Shetland who all run their own business and have had babies recently. It's hard work, but you're not alone!

Written by John Pottinger