The weekend is the  perfect time and space for me to reflect on new ideas and get busy with other projects. This is not usually the case. Some weekends I am shooting family portraits or children portraits in their day in a life. I enjoy these mini session as it gives me the opportunity to meet new people and get myself dirty and on the floor photographying children. This is what I am currently doing to keep my photography business running. It is not the focus of The Sublimer nor my Photography portfolio as it does not fit my overall brand. My aim and continuous focus is to work with brands, sponsored projects and other creatives. I love creating stories and it is always fantastic to work with other skilled individuals in order to create beautiful pictures.

It has been rewarding starting this blog and taking fashion pictures. It gives me the ultimate space to learn and grow on my photography while getting to meet and work with awesome people.  It is my best calling card when approaching new business and a great ice breaker amongst fellow bloggers. Finding the balance between life and work is still a challenge. I am a mother of two kids and thank goodness I have a husband. Much respect to the women who do it alone. I would be in shambles and exhausted to the bone if he was not around to help me raise our ninjas. Family is a huge part of my life here in Belgium but I want my work to be important as well. Time is a rare commodity and sleep is a phantom experience I seldom get to fully enjoy. But here I am trying to build an idea and a dream for myself and for my family. So how do I balance my life, work and sleep? Poorly, I must say. Nothing being a parent, an entrepreneur and a wife is predictable. I get my life in balance by scheduling and planning my work ahead of time. In this case, if everything starts to fall to pieces the work is not affected.

Here are some 6 Tips to Holding my Work Life in Balance

1. Set out my priorities
Take the time to decide what need to be done now and what can be done later with out wasting even more time planning. This should be a quick reflective task and sincerely does not require everyone to come to the meeting room to discuss what are the priorities. Action is required.

2. Scheduling my work in advance (i.e blogging, marketing, photoshoots)
Once its done, its done. I can focus on other things and disasters with out stressing that my whole world is going to fall down like dominos. It puts your mind at ease that most things have been accomplished. Therefore you have the privilege  (cause its really a privilege) to refresh and think of new ways to do things better and more efficiently. Focusing on other aspects of my business such as networking, marketing and collaborating.

3. Focusing on one thing at a time
As a mother, wife and a business women. I already have the condition to think that I can do it all. When truly I don't want to do it all, all the time. Multi-tasking is exhausting and nothing that can be done effectively right now... is ever done so. So cut out the noise and do one thing at a time.

4. Respecting my downtime ( no phones after 8pm, no social media, no emails)
Its tough. If I don't respect finishing my priorities and doing things one at a time. I am left playing catch up into my evenings. Its definitely a work in progress but when I do leave that mobile phone in the other room before dinner time, and not stress about it. I know tomorrow is going to start off on a good step.

5. Go to bed before 11pm (beware of the Netflix fever)
Get some sleep. Tomorrow starts early. So get some sleep.

6. Drink lots of water during the day (dehydration can make you tired, grumpy and not sleep well)
Water and I, are good friends. Keeps me happy, skinner and rejuvenates my skin while I sleep at night. Why should we part in anyway. Keep your glass container with a refreshing lemon to refresh and detox or a fresh cucumber for healthy skin. Either way you will be winning just with a the occasional glass of water instead of the coffee addiction.

They may seem like really simple things to do. But simple is the best way to effectively know that the tasks will be best done well.

Good Reads Online

Richard Branson: Answering Your Questions on Work-Life Balance

Zen habits: Finding the Elusive Work- Life Balance