How to Balance Work and Family Life
It's not easy balancing work and family life, but how well you manage it can make a huge difference to your relationships at work and with your family.
I'm sure it will come as no surprise that balancing work and family life is one of the most common sources of high-stress levels among working parents. Work plays an important part in our lives. Our salaries ensure that we have money to pay the bills and have a little extra for making memories.
Since the pandemic, we have grown more connected through our laptop screens. For most, working from home has become the new normal. As great as working from home is, it's made it harder to switch off. It's become normal to check emails after you would have clocked off from the day and take business calls into the evening but this shouldn't be happening.
People have started to realise the need to achieve a better work-life balance and while it might seem daunting, it is possible to enjoy both with a few tweaks.
Effects of Poor Work-Life Balance
If you've noticed that you're working far too much than your job demands, it can have a negative effect both on your physical and mental health. You might find yourself becoming disconnected from your children or partner and begin doubting your abilities as a partner and parent.
When you feel disconnected, you can experience some common side effects including:
Irritability
Fatigue
Low motivation
Higher stress
Lack of quality time with friends and family
Poor sleep
Thankfully, there are a few steps you can take to ensure a healthy work-life balance, including:
Good work-life balance
Let’s look at some ways to bring your life into balance!
Reduce your stress levels
You might be thinking this one is easier said than done, but scientific research has shown that there is a connection between stress and illness. The more stressed someone is, the more likely they are to fall ill. With this in mind, reducing stress is incredibly important if you want to get achieve balance in both your work and family life.
There are plenty of great techniques you can incorporate into your everyday life to de-stress including meditation, breathing techniques, daily mindfulness, and exercise.
Get organised!
If you often have a busy schedule (both inside and outside of work) it might be worthwhile trying to organise your time better. If you get stressed when you leave the house because it's manic, consider packing bags the night before so it's less stressful when you leave. You don't need to make drastic changes to notice the difference.
Create a healthy daily routine
Creating a healthy everyday routine for yourself is incredibly important. Humans thrive off routine and by taking the time to implement one you can start to pencil in some much-needed time for yourself and your family.
Your daily routine doesn't have to be jam-packed, but it can include things such as eating breakfast together as a family, and starting and finishing work at the same/similar time each day. The key is to add in things that are achievable and this will lead to a fulfilling life.
Request the right to flexible working
If your current workload means that it's difficult to balance work and family life, then consider requesting flexible working.
Since the pandemic hit, many employers are much more open to the idea of flexible working to allow you to balance the demands of your personal life and work commitments. Getting the option to work your hours over a certain amount of days, or work from home a few times a week are all great options so it's worth opening the conversation with your employer to see what they can offer.
Talk to friends and family
It can be hard when you're a full-time employee and parent to stay on top of relationships with close friends but it's incredibly important to try and keep them alive! While it can be easy to send a simple text message, most of us usually forget to reply so why not consider setting a reminder in your phone each week to make phone calls to close friends and family?
Studies have shown that when we have positive relationships with family and friends, it can drastically improve our quality of life!
Set out time for exercise
Raising children is hard and sometimes it can be hard to practice self-care such as exercise. Rather than trying to make it a solo activity, you could consider family exercise such as hikes, riding bikes around the park or just going outside for a kickabout.
Prioritise and delegate
There aren't enough hours in the day to do everything on our to-do lists, it's that simple! But rather than get stressed about the things you're not ticking off start to focus on your priorities. What things need to be done? Is there anything that can wait until next week?
At work, think about whether you can delegate any work out to colleagues and at home think about how you can share the jobs with your family members.
Ask for help
If you've tried everything and you're still finding that you're struggling to balance your work and family commitments, it might be time to ask for some help.
This might mean looking at breakfast or after-school clubs, seeking help from grandparents or another immediate family, or even getting some home help to assist you with things like cooking and cleaning.
Step away from the devices
Technology is everywhere, we spend the majority of our daily lives glued to a phone or laptop screen and it's not good for our health. Research has shown that there are plenty of benefits to be had when we step away from our devices including improved sleep, better human connections, and improved productivity - all factors that help to support work-life balance!
Consider taking a technology break each day and enjoy some much-needed time with your family.
My corporate talks cover this topic in more detail. Find out more here