I am not a working mother. But plenty of you are – or are married to one – so I wanted to share some advice from Juliet de Baubigny, a human capital partner with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. It was published in Gwenyth Paltrow’s GOOP newsletter, in response to a reader’s question about “finding a good balance between having a career and being a mom.”
You can read the full piece here, but below are a few notable excerpts:
- I’m an early bird—so I try to seize “Juliet time” first thing in the morning. I get up between 5:30am – 6am and quickly scan my email. Then my priority is exercise… I’ve found that having a trainer come to my house on a Monday really motivates me—she’s knocking at the front door so going back to sleep is NOT an option…. On cardio days, I use the elliptical or spin bike for 30 minutes.
- My Day: Is a blur from the minute that I arrive in the office but that’s how I like it. I have the benefit of an amazing assistant, without whom I could not make it happen… On a Friday afternoon, I’m given the list of outstanding calls/topics/decisions that I need to make over the weekend. I carve out key moments during the weekend to do emails and return calls. During other windows, I turn my Blackberry off so that I can focus 100% on my children and my husband.
- My great friend, Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, shared with me a great tip, when we were both on maternity leave after the birth of our first child, to create key spreadsheets to help manage your home life.
- Condense your appointments: find a great salon that understands time pressure and can accommodate your schedule. I have a great salon near me that I can go to at the end of the day to have a facial, manicure and pedicure at the same time. I’m in and out in 70 minutes. Not relaxing but efficient. Same for other appointments. I have acupuncture at 9.30pm at night. It’s a wonderful end of the day.
See. You can have it all. Just get organized. Plus, get a personal trainer who makes house-calls, some home gym equipment and a personal assistant at work. I really don’t understand why Gwyneth’s reader didn’t think of that herself…
