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Happy Friday! TGIF!
The week-end is upon us, and so are many social events, parties and other festivities to attend this season! Between graduations, birthday parties, weddings and other cultural festivities, keeping up with your career and social agenda can be a tough act!
And of course, incidentally, it’s always also the time when deadlines at work are piling up, the baby catches a cold, and you just remembered you missed the deadline to renew your license? Really? Yes, really…
I have to admit that at times, juggling the demands of work and my family’s social agenda has been challenging. In many a minority’s community, traditions and rituals take an important place (and quite a bit of time), and family is really a village (both in size, complexity and schedule)! And for those of us who live in the real world, drawing a clear line in the sand delineating work and personal is close to impossible. So what is one to do when the line between career and social is blurred, and there are (only) 24 hours in the day?
1. Get Real! This is real life, so time to get real! Gone are the days when you could attend multiple functions throughout the week, hang out on week-ends with the extended family, take care of work and home, and still remember where your own head is at! You cannot do it all, and neither should you! So take yourself out for coffee and have a chat with your overachieving self about what you can reasonably do, and what your tired self can no longer handle! And start passing some precious NO’s around, so you can save your sanity…and your career!
2. Get some help! I remember trying to plan the perfect birthday party for my baby, make sure I invite everyone and have the perfect party favors! Or trying to hang out with the girls after work and partying it up right before a department meeting the next day! Fast forward a few years and a ton of mishaps, now I’m booking a kids’ venue for the kids’ birthdays, and making sure someone else drives me to the girls’ night out…oh, and never before a departmental meeting…Just sayin’…
3. Get organized! Forget the last minute days when you could remember things in a snap, and get ready for a meeting in a cinch! The whole “flyin’ by the seat of your pants” concept, gone, right along with your natural abs! While I haven’t totally given up on my impetuous nature, I try to limit stress attacks by planning and getting organized ahead of time. Attending a family function after work? Pick up times and outfits are planned ahead. Night before the department meeting? Sorry girls no late night girls’ drinks…Just sayin’…
How do you keep up with your career and social life?
The Corporate Sister.
