Women are good at juggling and often this means making money by working in some pretty weird places.
Like many people, time spent in the cubicle is not just reserved for out-of-office matters like Facebook, but important business matters such as writing reports, responding to emails and even doing e-tax.
“What’s that sound? Ahh I’m just washing my hands.” Yep that’s just one excuse a business colleague recently gave me after taking one of my calls in the toilet.
The internet has given rise to the ability to work from anywhere and at anytime. Apps have also made this easier.
But the push is now on for more women to make the most of greater flexible work options as a means to help them stay in the workforce after having kids or caring for loved ones later in life.
For me, as the founder of Financy, I made the decision nearly five years ago to leave my full time job with Fairfax and work flexibly from home two days a week, and the rest of the week in the office.
I loved it, and because I loved the arrangement and my pay grew at the same pace, I over delivered and probably worked just as hard as I had done before ever having kids and burning the midnight oil.
Working flexibly gave me time to be around my growing family and keep my career progressing in the direction I wanted and still want it to go.
These days my flexible work is driven by a real sense of life purpose and this is really something I urge any woman to discover.
Know what drives you, find what it is that makes you want to get out of bed in the morning and work.
Knowing this is what allows you to do all things that are necessary in making flexible working actually work.
The other important factor to working flexibly is doing a budget.
Know how much money you need to survive, and that will tell you how much money you absolutely need to make at the very least.
Secondly, when you work flexibly because you have kids, this might mean odd hours or working from home.
Life as you know it may no longer be 9am – 5pm. It may be 5am – 7am and then back on at 10am or 10pm.
You may need to think differently about time, and the days you work.
This will of course be affected by the work you do, and whether that’s for yourself or a company where you need to be in the office or can work remotely.
Organisation is really so important, especially when you have kids. And that brings me to play.
I have a saying and that’s; today we play. That means when I’m working, I focus and work, but when it’s time for my kids, we play and I am present in that moment. So I am not on my iphone, I am present with my kids.
It’s being present in the moment that is key to losing the Mummy guilt or the work guilt – that horrible feeling that comes when you are doing something for yourself but you feel you should be doing something else or for someone else.
