Yesterday was one of those days I wish I could repeat – everything flowed, things got done, balance was had. It’s amazing how one day going smoothly can lift your spirits and motivate you to make it happen again.

Because I had such a great day, I feel like I need to record it. Sometimes you have to sit back and remind yourself of all that went good – little or big. Though this is simple in the grand scheme of things, having a day where work, family, and personal time were in-line is definitely something to celebrate.

We are often striving to create work-life balance, and I talk about it quite often, so I absolutely want to share with you the specifics of how my day went. I hope that by doing so, you will see a glimpse of your own day or find some ideas for small changes you can make in your routine. With that, I share my perfectly balanced day and what I hope will become a regular daily routine for achieving work-life balance in my life.

Personal Daily Routine for Work-Life Balance

6 am: Woke up with hugs from baby boy and baby girl. After a bit of snuggling, dragged myself out of bed and began the morning routine of getting dressed and making sure baby girl got ready for school.

7:30 am: Breakfast time for both kids before heading out the door.

8-8:30 am: Dropped baby girl off at school.

8:30-9 am: Baby boy fell asleep on the ride back home, so waited in driveway for him to take a short nap while reading emails and checking in on Twitter and Facebook on my phone. I also found photo to use in blog post.

9:15-9:45 am: Took out some frozen already-cooked turkey to thaw for dinner. Then, while baby boy sat in his high chair with a snack, did my morning workout to Just Dance 3.

9:45-10:30 am: Ate breakfast, hung out with baby boy, and worked on blog post draft.

10:30-10:45 am: Phone call with client.

10:45-11:30 am: Finished and published blog post. Proceeded to work on marketing it via Facebook, Twitter, and StumbleUpon. Also, posted updates to various social media platforms and groups.

11:30 am – 12 pm: Played with baby boy and continued miscellaneous work on email and social media monitoring.

12 noon: Lunch for baby boy and myself.

12:30-2:30 pm: Continued work in-between playing with baby boy. When he played quietly on the floor, I’d check email or read articles, blog posts, etc. We went back and forth during this time quite a bit.

2:30-3 pm: Picked up baby girl from school

3-4:30 pm: Baby boy fell asleep on the ride home, so baby girl and I took this opportunity to have a tea party and afternoon snack. While she set up the tea party and changed into a princess outfit, I began cooking a turkey soup for dinner. I had enough time to shred the turkey, add all other ingredients and set the pot to simmer, plus sit down with baby girl for a princess tea party and snack before baby boy woke up.

4:30-5 pm: After a quick snack for baby boy, he and his big sister played together and watched TV alone. I ran upstairs to back up some files on our main computer and freshen myself up for the evening.

5-6 pm: Hung out with the kids, fed baby boy dinner, and picked up clutter in the living room. Baby boy got a little fussy during this time too.

6-7:30 pm: After my husband came home, we sat down for dinner, along with baby girl. Afterwards, the kids hung out with daddy and I cleaned up the kitchen.

7:30-8 pm: Bath/shower time for all.

8-8:40 pm: The husband read baby girl her bedtime story and tucked her in while I helped baby boy relax and fall asleep. Some nights baby boy falls asleep quickly, but with the afternoon nap he had, it took a while for him to calm down.

8:45-11 pm: With the kids in bed, the husband and I were finally able to hang out, talk about our days, and watch a little TV before heading to bed ourselves.

The reason this day worked out so great for me is that I felt accomplished. I was able to work on various areas of my life – not just work or just family. I was productive, got work done, spent time with the family, and even took time for myself.

Of course, not every day will work out so great. I know there will be days where baby boy won’t take two naps or will need more attention due to fussiness. There will be days when I’ll need to run errands and I won’t be able to get as much work done. That’s fine. We have to be flexible, right? The important thing is to remember days like these where all did go well and try to replicate them by following a routine as much as possible.

Why don’t you take some time to write out your daily schedule and reflect on what works and what you can improve? Where can you make some changes to your routine to ease the fluidity of the day?

Other articles you may like:

• Sample Daily Routine for Work at Home Mom
• 7 Ways to Find ‘Me Time’

Photos by Vicente Villamón, Andreanna Moya, Robin, and Erica Firment

Just when I started feeling like I had a bit of a handle on this work-life balance thing, I will be needing to redefine, readjust, and re-prioritize, well everything, in the coming weeks. Our second child will soon be here and come early December, the balance in our house will be thrown out the door. At least, until we’re able to come up with a new routine and schedule for the various aspects of our lives.

I am fully aware that life will be changing in many ways now that our family of three will be a family of four. But, I don’t think that anything can truly prepare you until you’re in the midst of it and able to assess just what adjustments need to be made. It’s much like when you have the first baby – people can tell you their experiences, advice, and tips for how your life will change, but you don’t really know until that baby is in your house.

However, with a business to run, two blogs, and oh yeah, a family and house to manage, I can’t help but try to prepare myself ahead of time. If anything, it at least gives me some peace of mind to know that I tried. That counts, right?

My plan?

• Business: I am doing as much as I can now to line up plans so that I am in a good spot for taking a few weeks off. Once I’m past the initial period of adjustment, I hope to come back to pick up right where I left off with minimal catch-up needed.
• Blogs: I’m trying my best to write extra posts that I can schedule for the coming months. I am also seeking contributors that I can highlight with guest posts, in order to keep content running while I’m on maternity leave. (Email me if you’re interested in contributing with a guest post, or two, or three.) And, of course, I’m trusting that all of you will fully understand and stick with me if there’s a slow down in posts during that time.
• Family: We have already been preparing our baby girl with several talks and mentions of a) how she can help when her baby brother arrives and b) that there may be times we will not be able to rush to cater to her need at that moment. I know that family members will also be around to help – I’m lucky to live near my mom. So, between my husband, myself, and the help of family, I am confident that we’ll be able to adjust to the new dynamics with minor adjustments.
• House: Since our baby boy will be here very very soon, we are in what we call “crunch time mode.” My husband has been working hard to get the house clean, rearranging and reorganizing certain areas, since my very pregnant self is of no use these days and can barely bend at this point. I also intend to work out a menu plan with my husband, full of easy meals he can cook if need be and meals that can serve for two or three dinners (perhaps with some re-purposing).

I know that all of this planning doesn’t mean that our life after the baby is born will undergo a smooth, worry-free, and uncomplicated transition. I realize there will be unexpected circumstances and changes. Still, I hope that some of this planning will ease some of the transitions and allow us to deal with the unexpected without needing to worry about those aspects of our lives that we can, in fact, control at this moment.

Do you have any tips to share for transitioning and welcoming a second child into the family?

Last week, I unplugged four out of the five weeknights. After 4:30/5 pm, I was off the computer and remained off. One night I was forced to unplug, but that’s another story you can read about on 40weeks Plus. However, what I realized last week was how great unplugging can be. I still think I got lots done – work-wise anyway, not in the home – but, I don’t feel overly spent.

Something else I found myself doing was connecting with my husband in small ways. Nothing major – but, I would catch myself staring at him, admiring the hard work he does to be a good father and husband. I found myself actually missing him and yearning to be near him. It brought back memories of those intense, passionate, and highly emotional days when we were only sixteen and learning to love each other.

Wonderful, isn’t it?

My unplugging continued through the long holiday weekend. I don’t think I opened the laptop more than once over the three day weekend, rarely checked in on email on my phone, and only tweeted once or twice over the weekend. While it wasn’t 100% unplugged, anyone who knows about working from home, especially in social media, knows it really was unplugging compared to a normal day.

And, not surprisingly, my world is not turned upside down. Sure, I have a few more emails to answer than I did on Friday afternoon, but nothing urgent. Yes, I could have gotten ahead on blog writing for this week, but all will not be lost. Instead, I have a weekend full of family time to show for it and many laughs that were shared. If only the house had cleaned itself while we were having fun this weekend…

Very timely, as I was going through my google reader account yesterday, these two posts were there waiting for me to read:

• The Importance of Soul Work for Bloggers and Businesswomen
• Productivity & Quality Down Time: They Go Hand in Hand

How did you spend your holiday weekend? Did you celebrate Labor Day as I did by taking a day off?

Guest post: Sandy Salle is a native of Zimbabwe and was born and raised in Southern Africa. She is the Chief Executive Officer of Hills of Africa travel and is passionate about using her first-hand knowledge of Africa to create the trip of a lifetime for her clients. Currently based state-side in North Carolina, she resides with her husband and two small children. Sandy travels home to Africa several times a year and believes that the next best thing to living in Africa is sharing it with others.

Like most work-at-home mothers, I wage a daily battle against the clock to get the kids dressed, emails sent, homework completed, proposals drafted, calls returned, and dinner cooked all within an impossible twenty-four hours.

Struggling to do it all, I began multitasking, but I found that, when I did everything at once, nothing was done well. This, in turn, led to guilt: I got to the soccer game late, I didn’t have time to distribute the invoices, and I was on conference calls the entire time my daughter and I were making cookies for her class. Wasn’t the whole reason I left the office to work at home so that I could spend more time with my kids? Yet, here we were together, and I was so distracted with everything that still had to be done, that I wasn’t present.

As the CEO of Hills of Africa travel, a premier provider of personalized, luxury safari vacations, I have big responsibilities at work. Clients depend on me to plan once-in-a-lifetime safari trips for them, and it’s hard to do that when I am scrambling to clean up the house during the few quiet hours my kids are at school. On the other hand, I don’t want to sacrifice time with my kids. They are only young once, and this time with them is precious. I want them to be experiencing their childhood with me instead of a nanny.

Exhausted, guilt ridden, and overwhelmed, I had to make a change. Here’s what I did . . .

Stopped Multitasking

My first step was to create a structured work schedule around the time my kids are at school, 6:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. During this time, 100% of my energies are focused on Hills of Africa—no more scheduling play dates or baking during conference calls. No matter where I am in my work at 3:30, I close up shop and refocus all my attention on my kids.

Eliminated Distractions

The old me would sit in front of the computer first thing in the morning and look through a few emails before jumping up to brew a pot of coffee or download a few songs to listen to while I worked. Each of these small tasks took time and broke my concentration. Now, before I even sit down at my desk, I have cup of coffee in hand, my favorite classical play-list on, and my personal phone line set to go straight to voice-mail, so that I can sit down for several hours of uninterrupted work. It’s amazing how much more I began to accomplish when I wasn’t jumping up to switch the laundry every couple of hours!

Became Present

Just being physically there with my kids was not enough. I had to be mentally and emotionally present for our time together to be meaningful. Now, when I’m with my family, I’m not just there, I’m present, listening, and interacting. I mentally free myself from distracting work obligations when I’m with the kids. At the end of the day, my kids crave my attention more than my home-cooked meal, and there’s no shame in occasionally ordering a pizza if it means that we get to eat and engage in conversation together as a family.

Let It Go

If that client call has yet to be made and those pots and pans still need to be washed when the kids arrive home, I forget about it. It can get done the next day. I’ve learned that supermom is an impossible notion, and I can’t do everything by myself. I now have my groceries delivered by Peapod and outside assistance with housekeeping. Anything that allows me to focus my work time completely on my job and my family time completely on my kids is a worthwhile expense.