This is a user generated content for MyStory, a YourStory initiative to enable its community to contribute and have their voices heard. The views and writings here reflect that of the author and not of YourStory.
Achieving work and family balance – it’s no magic!
Bothering yourself with work, or worse, going to the office for a few hours on weekends, is probably one of the quickest ways to achieve a disastrous work and family balance.
This is a user generated content for MyStory, a YourStory initiative to enable its community to contribute and have their voices heard. The views and writings here reflect that of the author and not of YourStory.
Corporate America couldn’t care less about your personal life, or even your work and family balance for that matter. And why would they? It doesn’t help their balance sheets, nor does it have any effect on their bottom line. Or at least they think so…
Anyway, the point we want to get to is that you will have to take the responsibility of maintaining a healthy work and family balance in your life in your own hands. And if you’re ready to make the effort, we are ready to help you.
Below we help you discover some less common but extremely effective ways to keep both your kids and boss happy.
Getting more out of your time
A great way to get more out of your time at work is to find out when you’re able to work at your best. There are some who would find themselves being the most productive in the morning, while some others may be able to work in a more focused way at night.
However, given most are morning people, an ideal approach for them would be to hit the office as early as possible (given the office timings are flexible) and get most of the time-consuming, demanding work done before lunch. This is because morning people would experience a steep fall in their work efficiency post lunch; and that’s when they should consider taking on the less taxing tasks, such as catching up with the emails and phone calls.
You would find that this approach not only helps you get done with your office work way faster but also helps you avoid the usual work traffic back home. This would leave you with a lot more time that you can turn into quality family time than you ever did with your usual work routine.
Say no to lunch at the restaurant
We know it’s going to be very difficult, but those extra fun moments with your family are going to make it totally worth it. And although you may want to dismiss it as an important part of your workday, it’s actually a huge time waster.
Just take into account the time it takes to drive or walk to and from the restaurant, getting seated, being given the menu, ordering a meal, waiting for it to arrive, eating, then waiting for the check and paying it, and you would understand what we are trying to say here. The unnecessarily extra time spent over lunch is usually one of the biggest reasons many find themselves working well past 6 or sometimes even 7 p.m.
On the other hand, bringing your own lunch is not only going to save you all this time but also a considerable amount of money over time, as well as pave the way for an improved overall health.
Finally, you can also consider limiting your lunch time to 30 minutes. This would go a long way in helping you make yourself available for your family by 6 pm or even earlier.
Don’t jump on a promotion
Well, this might seem like a rather rough piece of advice, but honestly, promotions aren’t all that good or lucrative at all times. Sometimes, they may hardly offer you a significant financial advantage in your life but may take away a lot of your precious time that you would probably otherwise spend with your family.
Some of the important things to think of before grabbing the promotion with both hands include:
• Will the promotion mean an increased work burden?
• Does the increase in salary justify the additional work burden?
• How many hours will you be working more?
• Will it mean more foreign business trips?
• Will it require you to do about 10 hours of overtime every week?
Taking all these factors into account will make it way easier for you to take an informed decision.
Weekends mean no work and only family
Seriously, how many times do you let the workweek eat into your weekend? Bothering yourself with work, or worse, going to the office for a few hours on weekends, is probably one of the quickest ways to achieve a disastrous work and family balance.
Weekends should mean the only family, especially if you’re not able to give enough time to your family on weekdays. If you find on Friday that it may not be possible for all to finish all the work that you have left that day, you can consider getting to the more important, urgent stuff first and letting the less important things wait till Monday.