Meena is an extremely talented leader, a wonderful human being and a supermom. With the recent promotion into her new role, she now finds herself in a space where her responsibilities have doubled, the span of control expanded, and client gone global.

The new role demanded her to be present online and offline hopping in and out of client calls, this seems an easy option since there was no limit to the work from home option she can avail, however, she found despite being at home she was always in her office.

One evening dining and spending time with her 5-year-old boy, she realized how she remained constantly preoccupied with one thing or the other about office and for the first time was so heedless of her time with her child .

Few days later she again could not be available for the parents’ teacher meet, which was the second time in a time gap of two consecutive months, this made her filled with intense feeling of guilt.

Sitting in a coffee shop, she felt she was having a panic attack and was trying to practice the mindfulness technique she had recently learned from me, but was not of any help to her now.

Frantically calling me, she declared she wanted to quit her job and that there’s huge upheaval inside her and that she needs a break and that her son is more important to her than anything else!

I asked Meena to pause and breathe as she continued on telling me catching her breath with a lot of emphasis on her decisions and that she has made up her mind and that there was no looking back.

I asked her again to pause and pause and stay silent for 30 seconds.

Silence

After the short pause, I asked Meena,

Now, tell me what’s the matter? and asked her to share the most recent episode from her work life that has influenced her to come up with such drastic decisions.

Before she could answer, she sobbed inconsolably and said she was not a good mother, and that the new role was too demanding, and she is overwhelmed balancing her work and life.

I offered her the space to let it all out and allowed her to cry her heart out.

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What Meena was going through is a typical scenario in the life of every working woman as she progresses in her career and simultaneously also in her personal space.

For most Women Life often present all opportunities in one go, making it all the more difficult to make wise decisions.

This phase often overwhelms many, and most struggle to find a sweet spot amidst the chaos.

Meena’s case was no different .

I coached her for 3 months and here’s what we together worked on, go through it and find, if you can apply it too.

• First step – is to get realistic about the situation and leave the notion of balance because there is no such thing called a perfect work life balance.
• Next – Put things on paper, a cluttered mind is the root cause of anxiety and overwhelm.
• Next-Get a grip on the issue, evaluate what’s wrong. (In case of Meena it was the belief she held about her absence from her son’s parents’ teachers meet which was rooted in her guilt about her role as a parent)
• Next– Create a priority list
• Next -The priority list is best arrived through values; what matter to you most in life.
• Check this video ,if you want to know what your values are.

List of values will —> help YOU create the priority list –> and this will help create a plan —> plan can be quarterly, half yearly or Annual

—>Put the plan into action, do it, but be aware and accepting of the fact that there will be discrepancies and be okay with that too.

The plan: need to include goals, targets in alignment with values then listed as priorities in a sequence and with a time period for completion.

Meena’s Plan– had a list of only 5 major key goals and her priorities listed in a sequence which had her role as a mother at number 2, which then also shifted her career growth plan to number 7 indicating to her that which she was so stressed, was not part of the 5 major key goals.

The plan was realistic and practical, it offered clarity, and also explained what needs to be an taken off the list, and replaced with in form of priorities .

With a solid plan for the year, Meena was back in action at work, energized and ready to take on whatever the new job has to offer.

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Work life balance is neither to easy nor too hard to plan, it is a balancing act of priorities vs the secondary and with a framework of values and goals one can get the best of it.

If you are interested to design your own work life plan, we start with a call and we take it on from there.

Let’s talk.

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© Mehnaz Amjad 2017-2025

Mehnaz Amjad | Coach
Hyderabad, India