Can you be a professional and have vegemite on your pants, a baby on your lap drinking a bottle, a 2yo running around while writing an article with pen and paper because it’s unsafe to use a computer in the vicinity of the kids?

The answer is YES!!

[Dear Lord, that is exactly what I was doing when I drafted this.]

I have just enjoyed a blissful hour while my 2 little treasures had a sleep.  As all good things come to an end, so did their sleep.

So, now I sit, 3mth old Georgia on my lap while I feed her a bottle, Joshua is on the couch with a sandwich (half of which is smeared up my right leg – i.e. the vegemite) and I write longhand leaning on a Dr Zeus book.

I am a huge advocate for separating the “work” from the “family” but when they are this small, it can be quite difficult and deadlines still need to be met.   I know to an outsider, it may not look like I have it all “together”.  If you scratch below the surface however, you will see that sometimes some multitasking goes a very long way.

Whilst others may not see the virtue and some days you wish for a suit and somewhere else to go, remember, your “face” is on the internet – nobody needs to know that you’re not in a suit and heels or tie and that sometimes you have to feed the baby while you put together your proposal.

That, is the huge trick.  Promote a professional image and make sure that your finished work is top of the line, no one need ever know how it got that way.

I just had a whole hour to myself and rehashed my blog site, responded to a pile of correspondence, finished designing my Twitter backdrop and had a quick chat with a client.

My biggest tip is to do everything you can to make sure your presentation is neat and tidy and ACCURATE.  We have a multitude of tools at our fingertips – use them!!  Put some pictures on your page, plan the layouts of your documents or pages, make sure that they look professional.   Add visual interest, it really doesn’t take long.  If you’re struggling in a program – use the HELP function.  You will be given step by step instructions on how to do what you want to do.  Spell-check  and read your work.  I cannot stress that enough –  spell-check everything and read it to be sure, spell-check misses things too.   Use Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com, get some exciting vocabulary.   The results of your efforts – that  is what the world sees – not your stained track pants or your dirty dishes.

That, my friends, is the beauty of the internet.

You will feel some days like you’re getting nothing done.  Stick with it, you will find your own system of what works just for you.  When that day comes, you’ll be sitting there smiling – grinning even with your child’s food stuck to you, toys spread all over the floor, baby on your lap, feeling absolutely wonderful about who you are, where you are, what you are doing and how you got there.

Welcome to my new blog!!  I am really excited about the great offers and information across a range of topics I am about to share.

Balancing working from home and parenting at the same time is absolutely possible.  You can work as little or as much as you choose, when you want, so you have complete flexibility.

Some of us just need a few tricks and tips to get into shape, others require a mentor, an “Accountability Partner” – someone to check in with regularly to keep on track.  Organisation is the key.  Time management is the answer.  But your management needs to be wholistic – the whole thing, your time, your mind, your body and your spirit.  Each part must be accounted for, nurtured and nourished.  Only then will you perform at your peak to and give your best to yourself, your business and your children.

Future posts will give you the pieces of the puzzle you need to put together to achieve this.

Until next time,

Lisa. Read the rest of this entry »