Work Life Balance for Doulas in December
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00:04
Welcome to Doula Tips and Tips. This podcast is a place where we answer one question about Doula work, both to support you and to help you support your clients. I'm Kaylee Harrod. I've been supporting families in this perinatal space since my oldest was born, 12, nearly 13 years ago.
00:23
I am a birth and postpartum Doula childbirth educator, La Leche League leader and a Doula coach. I love guiding and supporting Doulas as they work out their Doula business. It is a tremendous joy to be trusted in this way.
00:36
Thank you for joining us on this journey. We are gearing up for the end of your holidays and that means a lot of activities usually. There's school stuff, there's work stuff, there's family stuff, there's friends stuff, there's all sorts of parties and festivities and celebrations and whatnot for this holiday season.
01:03
That's why today's episode is about balancing your work and personal life in a busy season because I want you to think about how to set yourself up well for the month of December. I also want to share a couple things that I'm doing to set myself up well for the month of December so that I am not bursting at the seams with things to get done and working my butt off when I want to be hanging out with my people.
01:29
You have heard me say it before and I will say it again, batch things. What I mean when I say that is if you are going to do a podcast, record a number of podcast episodes in a row. If you are going to post on Instagram or on Facebook, make a bunch of posts and schedule them so that you're not posting every day, you're not thinking about it every day, you're maybe jumping on stories or commenting on things but you're not needing to comment up with an actual social media post every day in the midst of all the rest of life.
02:05
If you're behind on some things before the year that you need to finish, finish them. Finish them today. Finish them this week. Schedule in a time to finish them. An example of this for me is I am woefully behind on tracking my mileage for the year.
02:25
I thankfully have it all in an app but I need to go through and actually market work and personal. And I have a lot of work to do because I did not do a good job this year of doing that all throughout the year.
02:39
And it's kind of looming for me. And so I don't want to scramble and do it when I'm doing taxes. So that is something that's on that list of like just get it done before the end of the year. The other thing that I want you to think about is what things don't actually have to happen until January.
02:57
And I know that you hear from me all the time that I want you to take the next good step. I want you to be productive. I want you to keep moving forward in your business. That stuff's important. So I'm not saying set your business aside until 2024 unless you need to because there are nuances in these pieces of advice.
03:19
But I am saying if there's something that you've been thinking, I want to get that done. And I want to do it in 2023. And then you're like, do I need to do it in 2023? Like, is it going to make my life feel significantly less stressful?
03:38
If I say that's a next year task, then give yourself permission to move it to next year. But then schedule when you're going to do it next year and don't put it off. What you don't want to do is continue to do that year after year, because that then pushes the task that you're dreading back and back and back, which is incredibly unhelpful.
04:02
Okay. I would also like for you to kind of reflect on what things do you need to do in terms of client care. So one of the things that I like to do is send out emails at certain intervals. And I had things all set up in my system.
04:21
Where a client would sign their contract and get automatically added to an email chain that then sent them emails at regular intervals. But about the middle of this year, I changed systems. And that automation is not currently working how it should work.
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So for me, my thing that I want to get finished before the end of the year is not only sending out emails to clients, that's not what it is so much as getting that automation working. So I just don't have to keep thinking about it and don't have to keep worrying about getting it working.
05:03
Okay? Another thing to consider is what things will help you meet your goals for next year. So last episode if you listen to that we talked a little bit about setting realistic business goals. Just kidding that was two episodes ago.
05:20
Two episodes ago we talked about realistic business goals and when you're thinking about that, let's say you know we'll use the example from that episode. Let's say you're planning to be a childbirth educator and you're going to get certified in that and those things then maybe a good step for the end of the year for this last bit of the year is to decide what kind of certification you want to do and look at when you can begin that both financially and logistically in terms of like when does that certification start or when does the training, when do you want to begin it?
06:00
If it's like a self -paced training that you can start anytime. And so you can do some of that work so that in January or February, you're just starting rather than having looming over you also to think about it and to figure out what kind of thing you want to do.
06:17
So that's a good kind of step in the right direction. That doesn't mean you have to have all of it figured out in the next couple of weeks. Now I do want you to factor in what things matter to you in terms of, I can't speak today, in terms of the next couple of weeks.
06:40
So for me, I have three kids. They are 13, 12 and 10. And I regularly feel like the time that they are here with us in our house is fleeting, like rushing away from us. And so when they're here, off from school and I don't have anyone in labor, they really want my full attention or not constant attention, but they want me to not have to work.
07:08
And so one of my big goals is to not have much, if any, work to do in the final weeks of December in terms of like having meetings with people or going to postpartum shifts or having consults. So anything that I can get done before the end of the year, my plan is to have it finished so that my work is minimal during the time that they are off from school.
07:40
And I get to hang out with them unless someone goes into labor, which we all know, I don't control that. And so that is a big deal for me, but if you're not a person who has children, that's not a big deal for you.
07:55
However, you might have some... days where you're going to have family visiting or friends over or you might have days where your you know your partner is off from work or that you just want to be able to rest, those are important things to factor in when you're thinking about when you want to be kind of productive and restful during this month.
08:18
Okay so I hope that is a helpful thing to get you started. I fully appreciate the fact that this is not a process where I can just say okay lovely doula do xyz and that will get you to a really lovely work -life balance.
08:34
It's not that simple because the work -life balance looks different for each of us so there has to be some time of thinking it through and kind of intentionally building it in. If I don't sit down and block out the times that my children will be off from school a month or two in advance people will book those times.
08:53
And then I have to decide if I'm going to go back and cancel those bookings and reschedule them, or if I'm going to keep them. And that work is emotional and stressful and hard. And so I do myself a favor in October or November and go through and say, I don't want to work on these days and I block them out of my calendar.
09:13
And so I've already set myself up for some of that balance knowing that that's some of what I want, but also knowing that I don't control other parts of this, right? I don't control my kids getting sick or I don't control when someone has a baby or different things that can come up.
09:31
And so the part that I can plan ahead for, I know what day they get off from school. I know what day they start school again, right? I know those dates so I can plan them in so that we have some predictable time in our schedule, assuming that a baby doesn't come, which is always the reality, right?
09:53
So I hope that gets you started thinking if you have questions about this or you're worried about this and you're kind of like, gosh, I really need help with this. I want to just remind you that the early bird tickets are on sale for the January cohort of the Doula Biz Blueprint.
10:11
So if you know that you are ready for Doula Coaching, you've been waiting for Doula Coaching, you hear this podcast and you're like, Kaley, I just need you to help me dive into my own business. That group is for you and you can sign up now and get a quick 30 minute call in the early weeks of January before that group has even started.
10:32
And that is a bonus call. So please do take the time to grab one of those early spots if you are sure that you're ready for this program or send me a quick message on Instagram at HeraDoula and we'll chat about it and see if you are in fact ready.
10:48
If now is a good time for you to join in. Okay, I will see you in the next episode. episode. Thanks for joining us for this episode of the Doula Tips and Tits podcast. If you learned something today or had an aha moment, we'd love for you to share that on Instagram and tag us @Harroddoula so we can celebrate alongside you.
11:10
If you found this podcast helpful, we would so appreciate you taking a second to leave a rating and a review on your favorite podcast app. That helps other Doulas find us as we do this work together. This podcast is intended as educational and entertainment.
11:26
It is not medical advice or business advice. Please consult your own medical or legal team for your own needs around your health and your business. We'll see you again soon.
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One week into December and does anyone feel like they are swimming to get everything done while enjoying this month? Let’s talk about some realistic things you can do to help keep you sane while completing your end-of-year goals and also getting to go to all the celebrations and spending time with family.
Quote from the show:
“You have heard me say it before and I will say it again, batch things. What I mean when I say that is if you are going to do a podcast, record a number of podcast episodes in a row. If you are going to post on Instagram or on Facebook, make a bunch of posts and schedule them so that you're not posting every day, you're not thinking about it every day, you're maybe jumping on stories or commenting on things but you're not needing to comment up with an actual social media post every day in the midst of all the rest of life. If you're behind on some things before the year that you need to finish, finish them. Finish them today. Finish them this week. Schedule in a time to finish them.”
CONNECT with Kaely on TikTok or Instagram
https://www.tiktok.com/@doulacoach
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Kaely Daily is produced by Kaely Harrod of Harrod Doula Services
It is sponsored by The Birth Prep Blueprint Childbirth Class
Music by Madirfan: Hidden Place on Pixabay
