Balancing Work and Family

Balancing work and family commitments can sometimes feel like a juggling act.

With many balls in the air at one time, work life balance requires focus and prioritization.

Prioritizing what is important to you and writing it down and committing to it is important.

The average worker has about 300 hours of unfinished projects to do.

This can mean that balancing work and family can be seem like an impossible task.

This is why it is important to be strict in this planning process.

Otherwise other things are going to over-run you and crowd out the important things that give you work life balance.

For example, when I get home from work, and I try to get home at a reasonable hour each night, I turn off my Iphone and computer, and ensure that this time is for my kids and family.

This rule has allowed me to spend more quality time with my family.

I find that just with this simple rule I get closer to my ideal of balance. I get quality time at home with my family and also work hard when I am at work.

Here we provide some strategies and templates that develop an action plan for you to master work life balance.

Usually when we are talking about work life balance we are talking about a balance between work and family or between work and personal life - or more specifically how to become more effective and spend less time in one area (work) and more time in the other area.

In your work and family life there are a number of responsibilities and roles that you are in.

If you can think of a bike.

The front wheel of this 'bike of life' can be thought of as your work domain and the rear wheel as your personal life.

Front wheel of the bike of life: Your time at work

Rather than thinking of the number of hours of work, think of the effective time your spend at work.

Many people spend a long time at work yet don't seem to accomplish their high impact activities.

Think about your role at work and the different responsibilities that you have.

Each spoke of your front wheel is a responsibility or project that you have at work.

Each spoke could consist of:

• marketing and/or strategy,
• finance,
• project X or Y, or
• administration.

For each person, the responsibilities will be different across different jobs.

Take some time to think of the different responsibilities in your work life as it is important to get a clear perspective of your overall job function.

When you have a clear idea on your job function and the different roles and responsibilities then write it down in the top half of your work life balance template.

Calculate how much time you spend on each area of your overall job.

How much time do you spend on marketing or strategy?

How much time on project X or Y.

Write these hours down in the NOW column and give it a score in terms of how happy (0 - not happy, 10 - very happy) you are to spend this time doing this responsibility.

Now in the future column write down how you would like it to be in the future.

This is important to do as people who complain that they do not have any work life balance are out of control - which can lead to job burnout, fatigue, and stress related illnesses

This worksheet allows you to take more control over the work side of your work life balance.

Just as it is important to work on the front wheel of the bike it is also important to work on the back wheel of the bike, the personal side of our life.

We need to understand the different areas of our personal life.

Rear wheel of the bike of life: Your personal life

If we imagine the spokes of the back wheel, in which each spoke is a responsibility in your personal life, the different responsibilities may include:

• family
• health and fitness
• education and growth
• recreation and social life.

Take the time to identify the different areas of your life.

In the work life balance worksheet calculate how many hours you currently spend and your happiness ratings, and what you would like in the future.

This gives you a sense of where you are in your work and personal life.

Once you have an idea of what you want to do more of and what you want to do less of, the next thing to do is to develop an action plan that moves you in the direction of balancing work and family commitments.

Developing an action plan for balancing work and family

Many of the people that I talk to who tell me that their lives are out of whack and they want to achieve work life balance, have one thing in common.

They feel a sense of losing control!

They feel over-run by all the things they have to do and that this crowds out the important things that give them enjoyment and more time with their family.

Having an action plan that clearly defines the steps that you need to take in balancing work and family life and gives you a greater sense of control.

Developing action plans for work

Action plans for work is about ensuring that you identify your high impact activities and then focus your effort on these.

These career goal setting guidelines will get you to:

• identify your long-term career goals
• break these long-term career goals into short-term career goals
• funnel these short-term goals into weekly action plans for work.

By developing an action plan and then working to it, you instil one of the core habits of success.

Developing action plans for home

Are you wanting to spend more quality time at home? What does quality time look like for you?

Rather than zoning out for too long in front of the TV you can spend quality time with your loved ones.

These family goal setting tips will ensure that you:

• construct long-term family goals that balance on the needs of each member of the family
• construct shorter term goals which provide the foundation for good family time management that is focused on your high impact activities at home
• this can be a good lesson to reinforce core principles of good time management for kids which can help your children use their time more effectively and get more out of life.

Balancing work and family is important for you and your family.

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Focus on the Family: Increase Quality Time with Family