8 tips for balancing career and family while working from home

• Professional women are facing even more challenges during the pandemic, say well-being experts and authors Liz Koehler and Clare Davenport.
• At the University of Pennsylvania, they conducted research into the unique macro and micro transitions faced by women in their careers and their impact on overall job satisfaction and quality of work.
• Koehler and Davenport found that creating unapologetic boundaries, working in an uplifting environment, and investing wisely in friendships are key habits to develop for a well-balanced career.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Well-being is slumping at worrying rates for women. With COVID-19 and its resulting “she-cession,” some women may feel like we’ve backtracked 30 years — juggling our roles and responsibilities of work, family, and beyond. 

Clare Davenport

Elizabeth Koehler

People like to reference Rembrandt and Shakespeare who produced masterpieces during plagues, but they weren’t burdened by a constant plurality of roles, working a “second shift,” and often a third. The world is drenched in male-oriented models for a well-lived life, yet these often fail for women. 

As well-being experts, business professionals, and mothers, we took it upon ourselves to discover a new model at this tumultuous time. We led research in 2020 at the University of Pennsylvania with female executives to examine how life’s constant changes, choices, and distractions ignite emotions that affect women’s well-being. We found that women can face more transitions than men, and often feel unsupported at the workplace and beyond. This, in turn, can affect job satisfaction, work quality, and productivity. 

However, by combining creative problem-solving with an unapologetic focus and time management framework, we can successfully manage our conflicting duties and busy schedules and take back our lives, even during the pandemic.

Read more: Working moms are disproportionately affected by the pandemic….