One of the problems we face most often is how to balance your work and family life. If you give your full attention to your family you might have amazing relationships with your family members, but your professional life will suffer. However, turning completely to work is not the answer either as it might cause strained and dysfunctional familial relationships. So, instead of stressing over these two choices, you should try to find a balance between them. But how do we do that?
Set priorities
Usually, the problem is not that we cannot juggle our work and family life perfectly.It’s that we try to juggle a bunch of other things too and then fail when there isn’t enough time for everything. A day has only 24 hours, so you have to decide what is worth spending your time on. If you want to be a great parent and spend an afternoon with your family at home, your work doesn’t have to suffer, but you might need to cancel that shopping spree you planned with a friend or the barbeque at your neighbor’s. Once you know what your priorities are, you should plan your time accordingly.
Plan your time
Once you see a calendar in front of you, you will realize what you can realistically accomplish in a day or a week. That will stop you from planning too much work or too many activities with your children and not having enough time to finish everything. Moreover, once you put something on a calendar, you are more likely to go through with it than when you simply make a mental note of it.
Build rituals
One great way of spending more time with your family while also having a busy workday is building rituals that you and your family follow daily or weekly. For example, you can have a family ritual of eating dinner together every day, or maybe every Sunday, depending on how flexible your schedules are. You can also have movie nights, game nights, or even date nights for you and your partner.
When you choose the activity, make sure all members are available and on board with the plan.
Do not bring your work home
If you can, try to finish all of your work in the office, and limit working at home as much as possible. That way, you know that once you enter your house, it is time for your family.
