Its all about strategy!
As with all things in life, if you don’t have a clear strategy for how you are going to achieve your goals; your odds of success are low. Balancing family and work is no exception!
Key notes
- Create YOUR own strategy.
- Set realistic expectations for success.
- Keep it simple & adaptable.
BOUNDRIES are one of the most important aspects of creating balance between family time and work. Have clear definite boundaries between the two. Some of the best advice I ever received from a co-worker was from a gentleman in a leadership role when I was starting my family. His advice: leave work at work. If staying at the office an extra 30-minutes allows you the peace to not take work home, it may be worth it. Give work your focus while you are there and run hard from 9-5 but then go home and leave the work behind.
This doesn’t mean you can’t be friends with a co-worker or take a call outside of regular work hours. But have a clear understanding of what you are willing to give for work and how you are protecting your time with your family. For me personally, I have two different cell phones. The company provides one of them. I do not have my work email on my personal cell phone, I do not share my personal cell phone number with co-workers or clients. This might feel excessive to some, but for me it keeps my boundaries in check.
Prioritization is huge. There are only so many hours in a single day. Be realistic with yourself on what you can and will accomplish in those hours. Create a rotation schedule for task that need to be done but don’t need to be done daily or weekly. With a defined rotation schedule for household task, you’ll be able to keep up without the guilt of not getting to everything at once. This is highly personal, what task I opt to do monthly, weekly or daily and the ones most or least important to you are not going to be the same.
Prioritizing applies to work as well, for the vast majority of us no one is going to die if we don’t return every single email today. Be smart, be a professional, and prioritize the items that MUST be done today and let the rest roll to tomorrow. Whas replying “thank you” to an email worth missing part of the evening routine with your kids?
Self-care is the most common focus for a third most critical point in achieving balance. I disagree. A great self-care routine isn’t going to help you achieve balance between family and work. It will help you stay sane while juggling the two and is important but does not contribute directly creation of balance.
Organization on the other hand, does contribute to the creation of healthy balance. If you set boundaries and prioritize but are not organized, you are going to fail. By no means am I suggesting you need to be OCD organized to have successful family-work balance. But you do need some basic organization and corresponding structure in your life.
Organization difficult for you? No worries, there are so many resources available to help those who are not natural organizers! From time management tools to meal planning services to simple calendar reminders – my advice here start small.