You should have realized by now that the corporate world does not recognize how much dads are needed at home. After all, your family will never be part of the annual report; neither can it be weighed on the bottom line.
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Today, many men feel that work alone does not provide them with complete life’s satisfaction. They want a balance between work and personal attachments, and this shouldn’t attract penalization at work. If you are spending so much time at work, with hardly enough time to spend with your wife and children, there are several ways to create a few more hours for yourself and loved ones, as we will explore.
What are the Consequences of Work-Family Imbalance?
Maintaining a balance is an essential element of a harmonious existence. If you are too heavily burdened by work obligations, both your professional and personal life stand to bear the consequences; you could even end up being a subject of California family code due to divorce issues. Here are some notable effects of imbalance:
- Loss of personal time
- Chronic absenteeism
- Mental complications
How to Balance Work and Family
Work Smarter
First, you need to understand how your body works. When do you work best? Are you a morning or night person? Effective time management is the best solution!
If you are more efficient in the morning, you can consider starting to work earlier in the day. This will even be better if your employer allows flex-time. This will allow you to get off earlier and escape heavy traffic. Hence, you’ll be able to save more time to spend with loved ones.
For example, if you are most productive in the morning, you can slot the more demanding tasks for this period. When the post-lunch doldrums comes, you can switch your focus to less-taxing tasks, thus you’re working less but getting more done.
Live Closer to Work
The process of relocating to a place closer to work obviously has got its own share of challenges. It can be challenging to sell a house, or you just don’t like the idea of living in a neighbourhood close to work, or your children are well-established in their current school.
Nonetheless, living in a neighbourhood closer to work has lots of advantages. For example, by reducing your drive time to around 10-15 minutes, you could gain an extra hour or two each day. That can be enough time to coach your son’s basketball team or watch your daughter’s soccer game.
Living closer to work can earn you up to 10 hours every week. Not only will you save time but it will help the environment!
Weekends Should Be Reserved For the Family
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If you’re the type that let work encroach on their weekends, then you are headed in the wrong direction. It’s time you worked out how you can stop working on weekends. It’s best to reserve Saturdays and Sundays as the time to spend with your kids and their mum. You kids need to know that from Friday evening to Sunday is family-time, and that you are going to enjoy some activities together, whether that’s watching a movie, researching family history together with the help of archives like these Chicago Tribune obituaries to help you learn more about your past, spending some time in a local park, or something entirely different altogether. The point is that weekends are for family, so make sure to spend as much time with them as possible.
Conclusion
Balancing family and work has for a long time been issue between both men and women. With the rising demands both on the job and at home, men are now struggling as well. Work-family balance is a very sensitive issue and if not properly managed, it can have adverse effects on both your professional and social life. With the above tips, you’ll be able to maintain a healthy balance.
