Newsletter | August 5th, 2008
Rachel and Nirzhar Pradhan
The Lego pieces strewn across the floor create a river of multi colored carpeting in our family room. Walking into the ‘office’ a small stuffed French bulldog, “Pascal”, lays on his side on the laptop, staring at us, almost begging us to help him sit up. The kids’ room still echoes with the laughter and cries long gone since the “mama, he doesn’t want to share the dinosaur” incident from last night. The alarm clock chimes 5:00 am to signal the beginning of our work day, but we are already up and working. Two critical deadlines await us. Today is also “Read-A-Thon” at the older one’s elementary school. The younger boy has a special activity at his pre-school, which requires him to be there earlier than usual. At 2:00 pm the older one needs to be picked and driven to his art class, afterwards the younger one is ready to be picked up. After the children have gone to school, we have approximately 5 hours to complete two 4 hour projects to meet the deadline, thus our work day has begun earlier than most days.
Forty five design projects, kids’ homework, story time and plans for the weekend fill our thick brown day planner. Eleven years ago, the sweet remnants of honeymoon still lingering, we sat on the old carpeted floor of our tiny apartment in Boulder and talked about the future: family and work. It seemed there were no clear lines between the two for us. We loved each other, we worked well together, and so we decided whatever we did we would work collectively, side-by-side.
Today, the freshness of marriage still apparent, we have found our ‘dream’ and our reality varied in vision somewhat. During a recent interview with the local paper, the reporter asked us our hours of operation – we looked at each other and burst out laughing! Set hours? That was the first to fly right out the door when we became entrepreneurs. We do, however, allocate our time to be the most effective during the ‘work day’:
5:30am-6:30am is for projects like writing this article, posting to our blog, or updating our Facebook or LinkedIn profiles
9:30-3:30pm is for client work, meeting prospects and email
After 8:30pm is for ‘other’ projects: self promotion, updating our websites, marketing, or the Café Press store – www.StuffForCoaches.com
Creating Family Time isn’t easy, but we manage. If we don’t create the time work devours us. We force ourselves to stop working when the kids come home and we get out of the house – take a walk, play with the neighbor’s dog, go do something that is not work related. Upon getting home, the phones are silenced, the computers shut down, and music plays in the background to help our senses know that this is our ‘Family Time’. We start the day as a team working out at the gym or jogging together. This kind of support from each other helps us relieve stress and see the big picture: Spend quality time as a loving and caring family.
The toys on the floor irritate us, the kids’ frequent bickering for dinosaurs age us and the deadlines stress us, but we do feel a great sense of pride in our business– and our life. We work hard, but try not to be overworked. We strive to make our children feel loved and cared for – and that, to us, is our work/life balance.
In order for you to start feeling some balance, here are some quick and flexible rules:
1) Chunk your time – when is it time to work with clients, marketing, email?
2) Have support – someone close to you that you can talk with and remember the ‘big picture’. If you don’t have someone that you can be that open with, hire a business or life coach – it’s their job to be supportive and reflective.
3) Sensory Signals – what indicates to your body that you’re off work? Is it music, the smell of dinner, open windows, lit candles? Do something that feels natural and relaxing that can signal to your body and thus relax your mind.
4) Me time – or ‘Family Time’ should not be lost to the Entrepreneur, remember children and the people you care for are your legacy – not the business.
5) Eliminate – use your time wisely and eliminate busy work and time wasters.
Rachel and Nirzhar (Near-Zhar) Pradhan are the husband and wife team partnering in designing and developing Custom Websites for Coaches through their business www.IndraSuccessfulCoachMarketing.com, which is in its second year. They not only specialize in Web Design, but also eNewsletters, custom Blogs, Podcasting, eCommerce, and Online Video. Their blog on family and life balance can be found at http://familyofentrepreneurs.com/.
Posted
on Tuesday, August 5th, 2008 at 10:46 am and is filed under Leadership, Small Business.
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Nice picture and great article!