Female Narratives: Striking A Better Work/Life Balance

Taking a cue on controlling the ever-delicate pendulum of work and play, courtesy of the women behind creative agency Female Narratives…

Behind the memes and hashtags of female empowerment, there are real creative, powerful, inspiring women… hustling hard, building platforms and creating communities. We met with two such women — Tijana Tamburic and Franzi Klein, co-founders of a London-based, all-female collective and creative agency, Female Narratives. As their name suggests, Tijana and Franzi create branded content with bespoke teams of real women, all showcased on their online collective.

As both Tijana and Franzi are both models, fashion and beauty clients came naturally, but through their tireless dedication to FN, their base now includes clients from hospitality, F&B clients and charities. 

We caught up with them between work trips to get some tips for how they juggle life as both full-time models and company co-founders. 

Tijana: I listened to a talk recently with Jeff Bezos (of Amazon) where he said he prefers the phrase ‘work-life harmony’ as balance implies a trade-off. Instead, having a fulfilled social life makes him a better co-worker, and being happy at home makes him a better boss. This really resonated with me and I’d go one further and say that I love running FN — it’s all the things I’m passionate about and interested in so my work and life are always blending. So, my input into this list bears that in mind! 

Franzi: Time management and good scheduling is key, but also, we love to go to yoga classes. It’s a chance to zone-out and re-group and, sometimes, when you take your mind off of work for a few hours, you can get back into a project with a new perspective. Here are our 5 top tips for keeping on top of things, especially when you run your own company, are self-employed or do multiple jobs! 

 

Keep scheduling in one place.

It can be so confusing to keep track of a Google calendar, wall calendar, emails, things on your mind… try to consolidate everything into one go-to calendar you find the easiest to check. We also like to combine our personal and work calendars — and share them — so we know if the other is available for something without having to ask. 

Make space to do both.

We like places that facilitate both work and play, like the new wave of female co-working clubs like The Wing in New York or The All Bright in London. We like to conduct afternoon meetings at the All Bright, and then catch up with our friends during cocktail hour!

Stop checking your emails! 

It can be hard when your personal email account becomes a work email account, to not check it at all hours, but you need to remind yourself that no one is expecting you to reply at 8am on a Sunday morning, so don’t do it! Give yourself at least one day a week to just not open your emails. 

Make time for zen and for you.

Traditional meditation works for many people, but not for everyone. Go within and find that thing! Give yourself time to zone out for an hour or so every other day, or half an hour every day That could be a yoga class, listening to a podcast or even the much underrated cat nap. 

Expand your mind.

It might sound like a bad idea, but add something a little left-field to your schedule, anything from rock-climbing to antiquing. We love to go to talks, conferences or festivals from disciplines totally different to our own like CogX (an artificial intelligence conference taking place in June in London). Or multi-disciplinary events that cover lots of fields like Tech Open Air in Berlin, SXSW, Summit and of course, our favourite, Burning Man. Often, more authentic connections can be made when you aren’t trying to push a business card into someone’s pocket but are just being yourself and genuinely interested in the other person. It’s also always great to learn new things.

 

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5 years ago

Looking good

Really enjoyed the interview, and loved the tips! ❤️

Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
http://charmainenyw.com

5 years ago

Obsessed <3

5 years ago

Those outfits!!

x
StephC

http://sstephcc.blogspot.com/

5 years ago

Lovely outfits <3
Nice interview specially time management tips part.

5 years ago

EXPRESS SHOPPING CART (http://www.fredyshop.com)