How I achieve a work life balance through organisation
I have 3 kids: Alex, 17, Wilmslow High Sixth Form; Charlie, 14, King David High School; and Alfie, 10, North Cheshire Jewish Primary School, so that’s 3 different schools, 3 different areas, 3 different boroughs, 3 different councils and 3 different holiday times, so it’s a test in organisation.
I find that being organised through visual cues really helps me, so I use this calendar to manage my time. I marked on the calendar all the school holidays so I can see when they overlap- when we can all go on holiday. Because I share my kids with their Dad, they are with me every other weekend, so I mark when they are with me.
I mark on my calendar every client meeting: prospects, in green, workshops, which are paid meetings, in red, follow ups in yellow, and pre-starts with a star. So, I can start to see on a day by day to month by month basis what my work patterns are, and at the end of the month I count the meetings and transfer that to something electronic. This is good for people who are self-employed as it is a good way of visualising how busy and quite you are, so when you need to market. I can use it to predict patterns in the year, such as that July and August were a bit quiet, so I could go on holiday then.
