Thoughts on Balancing Work and Family Responsibilities

Building a Startup and Growing Young Kids

We welcomed a new family member early last month. She has brought a lot of joy to us. I resumed some virtual meetings shortly after she was born and I have been gradually ramping back up to work, thanks to my supportive and helpful family members and remote work conditions. The last month has been busy - we recruited and onboarded new team members right around when my baby was born - I am grateful for them joining our efforts to help more people and teams be effective, productive, and master the skills they need to achieve their goals.

Some lessons I learned as I juggle building a startup and growing young kids - it’s not easy but doable with hard work and thoughtfulness.

Take care of ourselves.

Take note of how much sleep, rest, and exercise are needed for us to recharge to be at our best. We need to have enough physical and mental energy to be productive. When you feel very tired, take a break, go out for a quick walk, take a quick nap, or eat something nutritious - don’t wait until you feel burned out.

Have a good support system.

Be our authentic selves, and take up offers to help from family members, friends, neighbors, and colleagues. Delegation is an important skill as well.

Take time to reflect and think.

With everything going at full speed, it’s easy for us to be busy doing and leave little time for reflecting and thinking. We not only need time for strategic thinking but also time for self-reflection, to get in touch with our feelings, to know what went well, what didn’t, and what we need to improve. Some practices we can do: https://amotionsinc.com/.

Be present - focus on the people we are interacting with at the moment, or what we are doing.

Whether it’s work meeting or interacting with young kids, being present, paying attention to not only what people are saying, but also they body languages and more - help us understand them better and help them feel better understood. If we are present with what we are doing, we can be more productive and achieve better results, compared to multitasking.