Balancing work and family life is a challenge many property investors face, especially for property parents over the summer holidays. The demands of managing your property projects, sourcing new deals, and overseeing various property management demands can easily encroach on personal time, making it difficult to allocate quality time to your kids when they are off school for the summer. Parents can easily fall into the trap of trying to do it all, only to end up frazzled and not actually doing either thing very well.
This little guide will provide you with some practical strategies to help make the most of your summer, ensuring you achieve your professional goals without sacrificing precious family moments.
To execute this you are going to need to be intentional and commit to designing a weekly rhythm and plan in advance, but when you do…it will pay dividends. Here are a few tips to help you organise your summer schedule.
Techniques to Achieve Focused Productivity:
- Time Blocking: Allocate specific time slots for different tasks throughout the day. For example, dedicate mornings to high-priority work and afternoons to meetings or administrative tasks (or afternoons might be dedicated to outdoor time with your kids 😎).
- Prioritisation: Use tools like the Eisenhower Matrix to categorise tasks based on urgency and importance, ensuring you focus on what truly matters to progress your goals.
- Eliminate Distractions: Create a work environment free from interruptions. You can use apps like Focus@Will or Freedom to block distracting websites and notifications (although the single biggest tip I can suggest is no phone or email until after your morning focus session).
Creating a Family-Friendly Work Schedule
Tips for Setting Work Hours That Align with Family Time:
- Define Clear Work Hours: Establish a routine where work hours are clearly defined and communicated to both your family and colleagues (this might be a new schedule just for the summer holidays ie waking an hour earlier so you can finish at 3 or 4, enjoy the summer afternoon/evenings, yet still get to bed at a decent time).
- Incorporate Flexibility: Allow for some flexibility to accommodate unexpected family needs (literally, schedule a couple of hours of ‘chaos time’ into your calender).
- Set Boundaries: Make it known when you are not available for work-related issues to ensure you can dedicate uninterrupted time to your family.
- Book In And Block Out Some Fun: If you start each week with some specific time allocated to a fun activity, a day trip, an afternoon at the beach etc, it is so much easier to prioritise and time block
Involving Your Kids in Your Property Business (a few ideas)
- Educational Tours: Take your kids on property visits or viewings where possible and explain some basic concepts, rewarded with an ice cream stop for you both 😁.
- Simple Tasks: Involve them in age-appropriate tasks such as organising paperwork, gardening or something on social media maybe.
- Financial Literacy: If you’re analysing potential deals, choose a few to use as teaching examples and relate it to basic personal finances and real life examples.
Balancing work and family life as a property investor is especially crucial during the summer holidays. By understanding and implementing focused productivity, creating a family-friendly schedule, involving your children in your work, and dedicating quality time to family activities, you can enjoy both property success and a fulfilling family life.
Stay tuned for details of our Summer Accountability Challenge where we help you have it all without sacrificing anything.