This is the time of year for fun, family, good times, peace, goodwill, chilling out, relaxing.

But is it really?

This seasonal stereotyping is far from the reality for many parents running a business from home. For many, the opposite is often true.

Parents can feel overwhelmed with the prospect of juggling their home business with over excited kids off school running riot. It can feel really challenging.

It begs the question, is it really possible to have a stress free Christmas with the family if you run a business from home?

I believe it is.

The key is intentionally and proactively designing how you want it to be.

But there are two key problems standing in the way. They are:

1. The Quest for Perfection
2. Unrealistic expectations

If you can get these two issues nailed you can survive this time of year with your sanity intact and avoid a lot of stress.

3 tips to bust the perils of perfectionism and unrealistic expectations at Christmas

1. Focus on what is most important

Have you noticed how easy we all get sucked into things that aren’t that important at this time of year?

Things like the roast spuds looking the exact same golden brown colour as Jamie Olivers. Laying on a feast worthy of the Ritz. Convincing ourselves we need to be in the home office doing stuff that can quite clearly wait until after the hols.

Let’s get a grip people.

Do you really think once your kids are grown up they will be saying things like “Christmas was so special because you made the spuds look like Jamie Olivers” or “gosh, I’m glad you sat in the home office doing reports that could have waited”” No. Of course they won’t.

Keep focussed and spend time on what is most important. Drop the quest for perfection and apply the “good enough” rule to everything. Read more on that in The Beauty of Imperfect Action

Ask yourself, by the time the holidays are over what do you want to be able to say about your family time, the Christmas holidays and your home business?

Work out an action plan and put boundaries in place to make this happen.

2. Review your business action plan and make sure it is realistic

It is easy to get sucked in to doing work in our home business during holiday times that could wait just because something pops in to our head and the office is right there.

But ask yourself this, if your office was 5 miles down the road, how acceptable and reasonable would it be to say “must just write that report” and abandon the family to nip out to the office during Christmas family time. It wouldn’t be acceptable or reasonable at all. So why do it just because your office is at home?

Set realistic expectations. Get clear on what must be done and what can wait? Put in place an action plan that protects your family time and stick to it. Read Time Management – the REAL reason you don’t have enough time to help you with this.

3. Keep it simple

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication – Leonardo DaVinci ……….Enough said!

What tips or suggestions do you have for managing the dynamic between home business and family life at Chistmas?

Related posts:

• The Beauty of Imperfect Action
• Time Management – the REAL reason you don’t have enough time

Is the dynamic between your work life and school holidays exactly as you would like it to be? (and I mean your absolute ideal)

Do you believe it is possible to work only when you want to during school holidays without your business suffering?

These are important questions to consider if you want to create your ideal lifestyle.

Managing Your Business and School Holidays

In the previous post 7 Tips to Manage your Home Business during School Holidays we looked at things you can do to manage the dynamic between your home business and family life during school holidays.

Those things will help you manage your current situation. But, if your current situation isn’t your ideal, you need to know the answers to the questions above to get on a path to something better.

How do you go about getting your work life, school holidays and family life to be ideal?

Here are some suggestions to get you started on designing future school summer holidays to be ideal:

1. Believe it is possible to create your ideal. If you don’t then you are not going to be in the mindset that will allow you to create what you really want.
2. Stop thinking balance. Start thinking design. Many parents are so focussed on balancing everything that it stops them from designing things how they really want them to be. For more information on this read The Curse of Work Life Balance and Why work-life balance is misleading.
3. Work out what ideal means to you – forget any perceived limitations and write down, in the present tense what you, your kids, your work life and lifestyle is like during school holidays when it is ideal. Start taking action to turn this into reality.
4. Include family life & lifestyle in your business planning – many people review and make business plans and decisions in isolation from the rest of their life. Big mistake. Look for creative ways to re-design how your business operates and earns revenue around your family life. Do this at least monthly.
5. Keep focussed on the end game – design your actions plans, schedule and what you spend your time on around your big picture.

The main point I am making here is this:

If you are not happy with the dymanic between your business, family life and school holidays, then start designing it so that you are.

It is 100% possible. And the rewards, well, they are priceless.

But it is essential to remember this – don’t wait. Start working on how you want the dynamic between your business and school holidays to be for future summers NOW. Get busy designing, then put action plans in place to make it so.

What challenges do you face during school holidays? Do you have any suggestions to add to this list?

So, here we are again – school summer holidays time.

How are you feeling about it?

- Are you are delighted at the opportunity to spend quality time with your little cherubs?

- Are you feeling guilty because you feel you have to spend all summer keeping the business going so  you don’t have much time for the kids?

- Are you not enjoying the time with your kids because you are worrying the business is being neglected?

- Are you feeling so frazzled about the whole thing that you aren’t enjoying work or family life?

Regardless of which of these categories you fall into, there are always ways to improve the dynamic between your home business, family life and your lifestyle.

7 Tips to Manage your Home Biz During School Holidays

1. Set clear, strong boundaries between work and family life and implement them.
2. Don’t mix work and family time – this doesn’t work for anyone. Keep them separate.
3. Create a schedule of what you are doing when – this will help with point 2.
4. Prioritise hard - look for stuff that can wait until September. Read Time Management – the REAL reason you don’t have enough time for ideas to help with this one.
5. Avoid Lone Ranger Syndrome – look for where you can enlist some help e.g. family, friends. To find out more read Is Lone Ranger Syndrome Killing Your Business?
6. Delegate – what can you delegate out? Doing everything yourself won’t lead to success whether it is school holiday or not. Don’t use “I can’t afford help” as an excuse. Get creative. For example, students looking for a few hours work experience could be an option, there are people you can hire on an hourly basis etc. What other creative ideas can you come up with?
7. Form a support group with other parents who run their business from home – set up a rota for play dates to give each other work time without distractions.

The point is this:

Your kids grow up very fast. Once each year is gone, it is gone for good. I speak to many parents of grown up kids who say “I wish I had spent more time with them when they were younger”. Haven’t heard one yet say “I wish I had spent more time at work while the kids were younger”.

So, I invite you to get creative and look for what things you can put in place to enjoy your home biz and the school holidays with your kids without feeling stressed, guilty and frazzled.

In the next post we will look at how you can design your business to operate around school holidays and family life moving forward. In the meantime, what tips would you add to the list above? Please share your thoughts to help other parents.

There is one question that, if you asked it, you can pretty much guarantee the answer. It is this:

What is most important to you, your business or your kids & family life?

Maybe some of you are thinking it is a stupid question because, of course, parents value their kids more than their business (I don’t actually ask my clients this question because it is a no brainer).

However, it does raise an area of significant challenge for many parents. Although parents value their kids over their business, protecting family life from the impact of their business can often feel like a battle they are losing.

Here are three tips that you can implement immediately that will support you in protecting your family life:

1. Forget balance, think design. So many parents are striving for work life balance that they end up juggling everything, burnt out and the most important things to them are still being adversely affected. Forget work life balance and concentrate on designing how you want things to be based on your core values. For more on why I say “forget work life balance” read  Why work-life balance is misleading.

2. Put in rock solid boundaries. Boundaries are those things that you create to protect your family life. For example, I have a boundary that I only work with clients during school hours. Having clear boundaries and enforcing them protects what is most important to you. It also gets you to look for different ways to achieve results. What boundaries do you need to put in place?

3. Change the way you make decisions. Many business owners make business decisions whilst only looking at the business implications. Big mistake. Always evaluate the impact a business decision will have on your family as well as your business before you make the final decision. Stop looking at your business and family life separately.

Do you have any tips you would add to this list?

Related posts:

Why work-life balance is misleading.

The Alternative To Work-Life Balance

Goodbye work life balance! Hello success by design!