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Tips to Balance Work and Family Life

Tuesday, September 1, 2009


The title is a misnomer because balancing work and family life can never be achieved with ease. This takes a lot of juggling, planning, experimenting, emotional upheavals, professional compromises – among others. In other words it is one of the toughest things an adult would ever have to do.

Both family and work are glass balls, neither ball can be dropped without serious consequences. Thus balancing these two areas of responsibility can be particularly challenging. The following suggestions for achieving a good balance between work and family life.

Be very organized - you will be amazed how much time you could save is you spend just 15 minutes every morning to prioritize and plan your day’s tasks. Ensure that you impose on yourself to be organized – both in your personal and professional life. A lot of time is wasted by doing things haphazardly.
Do not try to be a perfectionist –Learn to say NO particularly at your boss, though sometimes even co-workers can be pretty painful. The ability to say ‘no’ would buy a lot of time that you would otherwise had to spend in doing things that you would not have wanted to do/ did not have time to do/ were not really qualified to do.
Delegate -understand you cannot possibly be in two places at the same time and since you would need to spend at least eight hours at work, you need to work out alternatives for the time you are not there at home. Get a driver to drive your children/ spouse to where they need to be taken; get a cook, a relative, a friend or a neighbor who could supervise your children meal time (usually lunch) or leave them with their grandparents.
Do two things at once – Sometimes multitasking helps in balancing work and family. Take children to work at occasions. While you work let them stack papers or take their coloring books along and let them do some creative work. Use your frequent flier miles to take an older child with you on a business trip.
Get a better sleep – If you are well rested than you will be able to have more fun with your family.
During breaks, call home to talk to your spouse and children. This will help your children feel your presence.
• Try and healthy as a healthy person can deal in a better way with stress and emotional ups and downs.
• If you’re on a business trip be closely in touch with your family. Talk to ever child individually. Discuss their homework and daily routine.
When your work is through, stop. Don’t work more than you need to. Remember the spending quality time with your family is as important as your work.
• When chatting with your co-workers try and talk more about your family, your kids rather than discussing office politics.
• Enjoy quality time with your family – When you are with your family give them your full attention. Celebrate birthday’s anniversaries and festivals this helps in bringing closeness in the family.
• Try and have dinner with your entire family. This is the time when all can get together.
• Always have a contingency plan at your work place. Have some friends, relatives who can help you in case of emergency at your family front.
Last but not the least Work to live, don’t live to work..

Remember, there is no single formula for balance. It is a personal decision how one combines spouse, children and career.

6 comments:

Yudhishthir Kaushik said...

Nice blog Meghana, Specially I would like to comment on the WFH aspect, which is really picking up in western countries. As per a popular survey conducted in Australia, more than 30% of working professionals have shown a positive inclination towards the WFH concept in last 2 years.

Parv Kaushik said...

very informative and interesting article meghna... i think you summed all the points very well!!

keep it up!

Meghana said...

Thanks Parv!
In today's fast life sometimes it becomes very difficult to balance b/t work and family life.I have experienced the same many a times,so just wrote points which might help in maintaining the balance!

Unknown said...

Very well said Meaghana. It is really true to have nice balance between work and life and neither can be dropped w/o serious consequences.

It's more so important for me and many others who live abroad outside of India where things are even more difficult w/o parental and other family support.

Keep the nice thoughts coming.

Unknown said...

I recently came accross your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I dont know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Yudhistira
BTopsites.com

Juhi said...

Good post Meghana, I feel is it almost impossible to perfectly balance work and personal life especially for women, cause we tend to be more emotional than men, One thing either work or family is bound to take up more time.....I totally agree with you about not trying to be a perfectionist.....