Catching up with friends, coworkers and industry colleagues is something I enjoy doing. Seeing how they are doing, talking about how they are managing their workload, and recently there’s been a lot of concern ‘how can someone do it all?’. The joke was “you can’t have a clean house, healthy habits, and a growing career all at once, you can only pick two of those things and realistically succeed.” That was concerning for me and made me adjust my attitude at what success means for me.

Oftentimes, as women we wear many hats, both in our personal life and our professional life. Having the energy to wear all these hats, and be the best you can for each hat- isn’t always an easy task. You can look at some influencers, girl bosses, and public figures and ask “How do they have the time and energy to do it all?!” The answer is complicated, yet simple: Use your energy where it is needed. Complicated and simple. You can not be 100% for all things, at all times. So use your energy wisely.

Psychology Today lists 5 easy ways to ‘use your energy wisely’, and it breaks down to find what is important to you, what you like, and spend energy there. This advice can be applied to personal relationships, professional tasks, and with yourself as you mentally divide and conquer the day. Planning where NOT to invest your time is probably easier than finding where to invest your time. Is it Cleaning? Is it that weekly Ladies Happy Hour you dread? Is it deciding dinner every night? Find what you dislike and see if there's a way to navigate around or make those draining tasks easier on you.

Find ways you can save your energy for things that are important to you, such as dinner with the family – exercising – or that Sunday night bubble bath. I’ll never forget the conversation where I was complaining about how someone can do it all and have a clean house, because the answer was – they can’t. I actually like cleaning, it gives me peace of mind- but with two pets I am unable to keep up with it while I travel for work, so I passed it on and found a service that cleans my space while I’m traveling for work. It added years to my life, I swear.

So the answer is- find shortcuts for your life, if you have the finances to cover gaps in your life- go for it! there is no shame in outsourcing things you don’t have energy or time to do so you can spend your precious energy where it matters. You can do it all, and phoning in help is the best way to keep your sanity while doing it.

Sources:

Bregman, P. (2016)  How We Work

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/how-we-work/201603/5-ways-use-your-energy-more-wisely