As a Business and Life Coach and the mother of two young children, the word “balance” is one I struggle with almost daily. I want to be available for my children’s important school trips, doctors’ appointments, and school vacations, but I am also passionate about my coaching and am currently working on a career book (about finding one’s calling), which occupies a lot of my time.

I am truly grateful to have the flexibility to have it all, yet I often find that a home-based business and kids don’t go together all that well. The reality is that when my kids are home they linger around the computer begging me to stop checking my email and to instead take them to their favorite website. Alternatively, when I’m busy working on a client project and my babysitter has an emergency, I have to rearrange my whole work schedule to accommodate taking care of them. I find I have to stay very, very flexible.

I am frequently jealous that my husband gets two 40-minute train rides every day to transition into his work day and to unwind at the end of it, while I have to shift gears on the fly many times a day (and that my work never really ends). After the kids go to bed I have at least two more hours of work returning emails, doing evening coaching appointments, and handling administrative tasks.

After years of balancing work and family, here are some of the strategies I’ve implemented to try and achieve more balance in my life:

* I have wonderful childcare outside of my home — my sitter takes the children from school to their various activities and back to her house until I pick them up at 5:15pm.

* When they are home with me, I have given my children their own work spaces in my office with art supplies and their favorite projects so that we can all be working together and no one feels left out.

* I try to meditate for 20 minutes every day because I find that I am mentally clearer and more relaxed overall about everything when I make the time for this.

* I have weekly support phone calls with other home-based entrepreneurs during which we discuss each other’s challenging business hurdles and help one another from feeling too isolated.

* While I often check emails on the weekend, I don’t return them until Monday. If I did, I’d be working 24/7 and I simply need a break from work on the weekends.

* I have learned to say “no” more to the “shoulds” in my life. While I used to have the time to volunteer or to help out more at the kids’ schools, I found that the whole family suffers when I over-commit.

You may have noticed that exercise is not on the above list although I’d certainly like it to be. There is a coaching adage — “we have time for what we make time for” — and as I enter my 6th year of my own business, I am finding that it is a critical adage to live by if I want to do it all. I’d love to hear from you about how you balance work and family and I’ll try to include your tips in upcoming articles.