 |
| Professional |
 |
| Mama |
Since this post is about work life balance I will start with my inspiration for this blog which is the book Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead
by Sheryl Sandberg. I'll admit that I "read" the audio book on my commute to work and found it relevant and interesting and since I don't want to spoil it for you I will just suggest it to you as a "must read" book for any working professional mommy. She does a great job at suggesting ways to achieve this balance.So as far as my work life balance goes, I will share with you 4 ways I am able to achieve being a doctor, wife, mom, landlord, writer and still find time to improve my self at work by taking leadership classes, being active in multiple committees at work and help educate the future medical professionals.
First off I will admit that there is no perfect way to do it. It truly is about BALANCE. There are days when I'm exhausted and finish the day by putting on a movie for the kids and there are days when I feel like I can accomplish anything and I am supermom making dinner and baking pumpkin bread from scratch. I can also say that I do not ever work-out nearly as much as I wish I could, but I refuse to beat myself up about it and instead focus on what I DID do. But I will share with you my basic plan for maintaining some semblance of sanity.
1) I have a lot of help. Plain and simple. I have an Au Pair (I will blog about the pros and cons of this in a future blog), a housekeeper who comes once a week, a gardener who comes once a week, a food delivery service (more on this later as well) and I hire out help for the house maintenance tasks such as painting and repairs. I realize not everyone has the resources for this type of help and I consider myself very very lucky but I would challenge those who don't to find the ways in which you can get all the help you can get.
2) I have a flexible work schedule. There are days and times when I must be at work plain and simple. But I plan several weeks in advance. I joke that maintaining the "master schedule" is a job all on its own. I also can work from home. Yes as a physician I can work from home thanks to technology that allows me home access to my patients charts and work e-mail I typically spend some time at home doing work everyday after the kids go to sleep. This allows me to leave work at a reasonable hour and get home to my kids and being mommy.
3) I say no. When the schedule is full, it is full. If there is a last minute notification of a birthday party and the schedule is tight, we don't go. If my son really wants to do soccer in the fall then we cut out a different activity. I keep two nights of the week and weekends free of recurrent scheduled activities, period. This is so we keep some scheduled downtime and have a little wiggle room for last minute things that were not anticipated.
4) I listen to audio books. I spend 40 minutes on my commute on work days. I use that time to the fullest extent. I want to learn more about leadership? I get an audio book about it. I want to learn more about a parenting technique? I get an audio book about it. I also sometimes use this commute time to get household tasks done. I have blue tooth enabled vehicles so I can call the plumber on the way to work for example. Or if I know I will have a busy day at work I may call work to get an update on things so that I am more prepared when I physically arrive at the hospital.
These are some of the ways I am able to do homework with my kids, cook dinner most nights, be at most of the school events and read then bedtime stories as well as be 100% at work. I hope sharing how I can achieve some balance has been helpful and I would love comments from readers on other ways you find helpful in maintaining work life balance.
