Striking a balance between work and family!

While building a successful career, working adults find it difficult to combine work with family life; hence, they abandon the home front. Their children, friends and other family members suffer the brunt of the neglect. Immersing yourself in work with no fun time with your family might make you lose them. Your work and family are the cornerstones of life, neither of which you can ignore. A full-time employment requires dedication and hard work to be successful; also, for you to have a happy family, your commitment and presence are needed.

It is important to recognise the need to be flexible to avoid stress associated with the two sides of life. Balancing both aspects of your life means you have to give yourself equally so that one will not suffer at the expense of the other. In the long-range, the joy, happiness and fulfilment derived from both are worth the effort.

Experts have explained the means by which a balance can be created between work life and family life, using the following methods:

Manage your time well

Experts say time is a precious asset that is neither perishable nor replaceable. It is valuable and should be managed appropriately. As an adult, time is not always enough when you consider a lot of things you want to accomplish. Time management may necessitate a change in your attitude towards your life and work and the things you want to do. Essentially, it involves managing yourself. Brian Tracey in his book on the ‘Principles of Success’ explains that time can only be reallocated from activities of lower value to activities of higher value. All work requires an adequate planning of time. Time is totally crucial for the important relationships in your life. The very act of taking a moment to think about your time before you spend it will begin to improve your personal time management immediately. To achieve this feat of having a balanced work and family life, you have to practise personal time management. Identify the important things in your life. You need to ask yourself, “What is really important to me?” Whenever you find yourself with a lot of activities with too little time to accomplish them, stop and ask yourself, “What is it that is really important for me to do in this situation?”

Afterwards, establish boundaries for yourself. These boundaries set limits on what you are willing to do; they express the extent of your responsibilities. Always remember to make use of them to balance your family and work.

Prioritise your goals

Experts have identified the importance of career and family life. However, they often create conflicts which can be managed by setting priorities. Understand that the most important factor to consider in setting priorities is your ability to make wise choices and being able to identify high-value and low-value activities.

First, set goals for each area of your life: for your career and your family life. You can then categorise your family goals into tangible and intangible goals. Tangible goals are those goals that involve spending money like buying a house or a car while intangible goals are related to commitments and time spent with the family for recreation or vacation.

Career goals that you need to set for yourself should improve your productivity and competence in order that the reward will cater for your family goals, because your family is the reason why you work hard and worry about money. Consider ways by which you can achieve the level of income that will enable you to fulfil your family goals. Set goals to improve your competence and get you promoted with corresponding increase in income.

Experts say setting priorities start with making decisions on the activities that are most valuable to you and organising your time and activities so that you spend your time sensibly to achieve these objectives. Therefore, once you have achieved your goal-setting, proceed to organise them in order of priority. Make decisions on the most important thing you want to achieve in your family and the most important career goals that will support essential family goals.

Communicate with your partner

Experts say the quality of the relationship you have with your partner is central for the happiness of your whole family. Without adding to the pressures on you both, it is important to have at least a little focus on building and enriching the relationship. Identify ways you and your partner can use these ideas to optimise how effective you are at work and to increase both of your happiness levels and build rather than put strain on your relationship. Determine how both of you support each other and get your needs met. The key to a happy family life is communication. Both the quality of time and the quantity of time you spend with your family count. Quality moments are precious and important.

Avoid time wasting tasks

Experts say there are some activities you engage in that seem exciting but actually waste your time. Activities like surfing the Internet, playing video games or watching television. Pull yourself away from such activities and concentrate on making your family happy. Moreover, taking home office work creates tension in your family and portrays a form of neglect. It also shows that you have concern for your job only. Ensure that you complete all the tasks associated with your job in the office before getting home.

Make up for lost time

Sometimes, spending extra time at work is inevitable, but you can make up for time spent away from your family by making emergency or surprise plans. Such plans should be exciting enough to compensate for the moments you were not around. The Managing Director of Stevens Associates, Mrs. Chioma Okeke, said because of the nature of her job, which involves travelling, her family feels her absence often. She says, “Whenever I promise to be at home at a particular time and am unable to, I just surprise my husband and children with a well-planned outing that makes them forget that I have been absent from home for a while.”