Dan Primack

The latest on private equity, M&A, deals and movements — from Wall Street to Silicon Valley

A VC's advice for working moms

January 14, 2011: 10:33 AM ET

I am not a working mother. But plenty of you are – or are married to one – so I wanted to share some advice from Juliet de Baubigny, a human capital partner with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. It was published in Gwenyth Paltrow's GOOP newsletter, in response to a reader's question about "finding a good balance between having a career and being a mom."

You can read the full piece here, but below are a few notable excerpts:

  • I'm an early bird—so I try to seize "Juliet time" first thing in the morning. I get up between 5:30am - 6am and quickly scan my email. Then my priority is exercise… I've found that having a trainer come to my house on a Monday really motivates me—she's knocking at the front door so going back to sleep is NOT an option…. On cardio days, I use the elliptical or spin bike for 30 minutes.
  • My Day: Is a blur from the minute that I arrive in the office but that's how I like it. I have the benefit of an amazing assistant, without whom I could not make it happen... On a Friday afternoon, I'm given the list of outstanding calls/topics/decisions that I need to make over the weekend. I carve out key moments during the weekend to do emails and return calls. During other windows, I turn my Blackberry off so that I can focus 100% on my children and my husband.
  • My great friend, Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, shared with me a great tip, when we were both on maternity leave after the birth of our first child, to create key spreadsheets to help manage your home life.
  • Condense your appointments: find a great salon that understands time pressure and can accommodate your schedule. I have a great salon near me that I can go to at the end of the day to have a facial, manicure and pedicure at the same time.  I'm in and out in 70 minutes. Not relaxing but efficient. Same for other appointments. I have acupuncture at 9.30pm at night. It's a wonderful end of the day.

See. You can have it all. Just get organized. Plus, get a personal trainer who makes house-calls, some home gym equipment and a personal assistant at work. I really don't understand why Gwyneth's reader didn't think of that herself...

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About This Author
Dan Primack
Dan Primack
Senior Editor, Fortune

Dan Primack joined Fortune.com in September 2010 to cover deals and dealmakers, from Wall Street to Sand Hill Road. Previously, Dan was an editor-at-large with Thomson Reuters, where he launched both peHUB.com and the peHUB Wire email service. In a past journalistic life, Dan ran a community paper in Roxbury, Massachusetts. He currently lives just outside of Boston.

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