Hello and welcome to our latest newsletter … we hope you had a good summer and you are ready for the transitions of the Autumn to come…

This time of year can often feel quite busy after the summer with many commitments, deadlines and responsibilities at both work and home, so today we’re sharing some thoughts, tips and reminders that we hope you find helpful in the coming weeks.

We know from all the years we’ve worked with women that the pressure to ‘do it all’ is there – maybe you feel it too? So how do we reduce some of those expectations particularly those we put on ourselves?

Well a good place to start is a reminder that you are not alone! As Alyssa Jaffee says in this article:

“to “do it all” means we’ve accomplished it all and we have everything figured out when in reality, there are plenty of moments when we might feel like a bad colleague, a bad mom, a bad sister, or a bad friend because we simply cannot be everything to everyone all the time.”

So reducing our expectations can be really helpful but what can you do to practically reduce the list of all you have to do? Here’s some questions to start your thinking….

• In this phase of my life what are my main priorities?
• Can I reduce the time or energy I spend in some areas that are less important right now?
• Can I adjust my expectations to an 8 out of 10 for example, rather than always a 10 out of 10 in some areas, what might that mean for me?

And a final question that we know as women we often overlook is

• who can help me with this? At work, at home, a colleague, a friend, a coach, a mentor, my manager, my family, my older children, paid help, tech or AI – look for creative ways to reduce some of the practical load.

We love this quote by John Bytheway (above) and find it a really helpful reminder.

If you have a goal or some career aspirations you are working towards it can sometimes feel far away and unattainable and that can be overwhelming.

So try instead to identify the actions you need to take and then break those actions into smaller steps to work through.

Taking each step at a time is so much more manageable than focusing on the bigger picture and each small step you achieve leads to momentum and big changes taking you closer to your ultimate goal in a manageable and realistic way.

As a final thought we’ve shared this before but we find it really helpful to check in with the basics from time to time – our time management quick tip.

And remember when thinking about time management don’t forget to factor in time for yourself and the things that are important to you.

We hope you’ve found these ideas helpful, do get in touch if you’d like to explore one to one coaching or if your organisation would like to commission a workshop or programme to work on these ideas and more.

You can find out more about what we have to offer below.

Best wishes
Emma & Jenny