Glass balls v plastic balls
If it feels like you’ve lived a full day before you start work at 9am, chances are, you’re a parent.
Waking up at the crack of dawn to exercise, laundry, tweaking breakfasts so they’re *just right*, scribbling need more milk on the fridge list, finishing homework because you were ‘choosing your battles’ last night, digging in the sofa for a dollar because you forgot it was [insert random P&C fundraiser of the week here], packing lunches, asking for the millionth time to brush teeth then filling up with petrol on the way to work. 5pm comes and it’s time to clock off. But wait…the evening shift is just about to start.
If you layer owning and operating your own business on top of that, the juggle doesn’t get tough – it escalates. Holidays, work trips, training, family visits, sickness, a new contract, a needy client, material cost fluctuations...they all chip away at your foundations.
We need a strategic way to prioritise. Enter the Glass Ball & Plastic Ball analogy, popularised by Nora Roberts (and adapted from a concept of Bryan Dyson, former CEO of Coca-Cola).
So let’s visualise every task you juggle as ball you’re juggling. And go beyond categories like family, work, household etc – break it into every single task.
Some balls are glass. And some are plastic.
🏀 Plastic bounces.
You can drop a plastic ball without lasting damage and pick it up again when you’re ready, like household chores or replying to non-urgent emails.
🚫 Glass breaks.
A glass ball is a priority. Something that truly matters and dropping them can be at the detriment of you or others around you (and yes, you are a glass ball too!)
We often get stuck on the hamster wheel of going round and around, teetering on the brink of burnout. It’s incredibly valuable to stop and prioritise with intention. What’s the one ball you can’t drop today? Let that be your North Star and give yourself grace and flexibility with the rest.
By seeing how much you’re actually juggling can also spark a change in the way you’re living. Not by cutting back on ambition, but by delegating.
Grocery deliveries can free up time travelling to the supermarket, a cleaner or ironing god can give you precious hours back at the weekend and outsourcing your accounts, HR or marketing services to a professional can save you WEEKS in a year. This allows you to free up your time to focus on the reason you started your own business in the first place: the work where your expertise lies.
Entrepreneurship isn’t just about being your own boss. It’s about creating a life with room for both ambition and parenting. You don’t need to choose between one or the other. So whilst you juggle work, family, commitments and expectations, remember that many of these will bounce but you won’t.