How To Balance Work And Family Life

Monday Motivation #01

Tips For Balancing Work & Family Life

Balancing a career and family can be difficult. As a working parent, you have to meet deadlines at work, care for your children, worry about your bills, spend time with your spouse, and keep your home neat and orderly. It’s not easy. Especially when unexpected things happen when you least expect it. Fortunately, there are some simple strategies that can help you manage your time and keep your household running smoothly. Here are 5 tips for maintaining an appropriate balance between work and family life:

1) Stick To A Schedule

Develop and stick to a schedule. Decide what hours you will work and what hours you will have for yourself and your family. It’s very important you stick to this plan, as you will see a massive difference once you implement it properly. Use a time management planner with to-do lists to plan your day, prioritise your tasks, and keep you on track. Planning, preparation, and organisation go a long way. You may also want to go to bed earlier and rise earlier. Some parents wake up before their children, so that they can organise what they need for the morning. Either in this time or the night before when the children are in bed, you can get the school lunches packed and the clothes prepared for the kids for example. But the point here is, sticking to a strict schedule makes life so much easier.

2) Enjoy Quality Family Time

Make sure you plan for time with your kids as well as time with your spouse. We all have our worries and preoccupations. But when we reserve time to be with the most important people in our lives everything becomes so much better. ‘At the end of your life, you will never regret not having passed one more test, not winning one more verdict, or not closing one more deal. You will regret time not spent with a husband, a friend, a child, a parent.’ Said Barbara.

3) Be Flexible

Forgive yourself when things don’t get done. Understand that with children things can get messy. Be ready and willing to assume responsibility for any of the tasks that need to get done at any time. Because the faster those things get done, the less stressful it will be. Never get too comfortable, because as soon as you seem to get things under control, they change! So always be ready for the unknown.

4) Plan Your Meal Times

Plan ahead for mealtimes. “Plan out your meals for the week ahead. Double your recipes and freeze meals for later use,” says Pyle. This cuts out a considerable amount of time and stress, and leaves more time to be spent with the family.

5) Take care and create time for yourself

Take care of yourself. This is very important and not an easy task for most people, but it is essential. This means exercising, eating well, and taking time out to de-stress. Take time to exercise to alleviate anxiety and irritability and give you more energy. Exercising also improves focus, so that you do not get distracted and can be more productive. In addition, breakfast is key. Make sure to have a balanced breakfast. Skipping breakfast is a recipe for disaster. Meditation and imagination are great tools for relieving stress.

“Try to meditate or visualise for five minutes in the morning – breathing deeply to one’s natural rhythm with closed eyes, you imagine your favourite place using your five senses to feel, taste, and smell the fragrances. Then you give yourself a calming message you need to hear to get your day off to a great start. When you open your eyes, you feel like you had a mini vacation and are ready to deal with whatever comes your way,” says Debbie.

Finally, although work is important, make sure you aren’t continually sacrificing time with your spouse or your children to work. If you feel over-extended or over-worked, you may need to hire a babysitter, a housekeeper, or ask for help from your family. And remember: You can only do so much in one day.