10 Secrets For Balancing A Family And Work Life

Creating the perfect balance in your family and work life can feel almost impossible when you have a lot to juggle with both hats that you wear. It can feel overwhelming and feel as though no one understands your struggle.

People may give you advice that just doesn’t work, or others close to you may expect you to just deal with it since most people juggle multiple things similar to yours. Well, what if I were to tell you that it’s possible to get it under control and to balance it? 

There’s a secret to the sauce that I’m going to give you all the ingredients to. There are actually 10 secrets for balancing a family and work life. Once you discover and apply these 10 secrets for balancing your life everything will fall into place.

Here’s secret number one:

1. Ensure you create healthy boundaries

This goes for boundaries in both your work life and your personal life. You do not want them to overlap with each other. Unless you are on-call for work, please stop picking up phone calls while you are spending time with your family. 

Also, try to stop checking your work email at dinner. It can wait until the scheduled time to be read and calls to be returned. I’ll tell you more about what I mean about that in further secrets for balancing your family and work life.

Why would you want to incorporate this new habit into your lifestyle?

1. It provides your family with a clear picture of when you are emotionally and physically available 

2. If you have never separated the 2 and would like to start, then you will realize how much freedom you have once you mentally check in and out of each boundary.

                                           

2. Stop being a superhero

You can’t do it all single handed. Sometimes even with help you still can’t do it all. If you are the type of person that needs to have everything completed by yourself to satisfy something, then maybe look for external help.

You may be thinking, “but no one can do it as well as me!” Let me stop you for just a microsecond. I’m going to give you some scenarios where you don’t need to be a superhero. These are when it’s okay to get a spouse or hire help.

1. Home cleanliness/ organization/ managing seasonal designs

2. Perfecting the laundry game for the entire household

3. Landscaping/ gardening for your home

                                              

3. Create a schedule/ time management

Though this may sound time consuming it may be more helpful than you think once applied effectively. 

Also, you need to be realistic about your schedule creation and allow room for error. Some errors include traffic, your child having an accident just as you are walking out the door, grocery bags ripping as you walk up the stairs…you know, busy parent stuff.

You may now ask yourself how you are supposed to create a schedule for two polar opposite worlds to combine and make happy together.

Well, I’m glad you asked. This is how you create chaos into a schedule:

1. First, create a to-do list of your normal tasks that you complete on a daily basis for both the family and work and separate them into two columns.

2. Get a planner (digital or paper) and add them to your monthly calendar. Don’t worry about time frames yet.

3. Hone in on a weekly schedule and break down your schedule into 1-2 hour chunks of tasks and allow room for error and pop up appointments/ events/ meetings.

4. If you really want to get nitty gritty, then set daily alarms for those 1-2 hour chunks of time so you stay on task. And remember, what doesn’t get done today you can fill into one of those ‘room for error’ spots to complete it.

4. Know when to unplug

We all need to recharge at some point and if you are balancing a family and work life, then you may need to recharge more often than someone who is only balancing one of those groups.

Try to unplug weekly, if possible. During your time unplugging it is important to engage in a relaxing social activity. It’s best to utilize this time to stay away from electronics and social media, if you can. I know it’s tempting. 

If you don’t have one I have a list of activities you can do to help you unplug. The point is to do something fun that isn’t a chore, so stay away from things like walking the dog or taking the kids to the park.

1. Horseback riding

2. Pottery

3. Drawing/painting

4. Learning self defense 

5. Yoga/dance class/gym

                                              

5. Have open communication

This may be obvious, but you may be surprised with how often people have bad communication. Take the time to communicate to your friends and family when you have a work obligation that absolutely MUST make the schedule that week. 

Let them know that they are also important and express how you would like to spend time with them when you are free and fit them into your schedule. 

Be honest with yourself with how much of you that you are willing and able to share with others so that you don’t become stressed and jaded. 

6. Figure out techniques to manage stress

This is a tough one because we all deal with stress and have our own unique way of handling it, which may or may not be healthy for us. Think about where you hold your stress on your body and how you deal with it when those emotions rise. 

Does your technique on managing stress need some tweaking?

Here are some tips for managing stress when you feel that it has become a problem:

Take a step away from whatever/whomever is stressing you out in the moment to gain some clarity. During this moment of clarity try to do any of the following:

• Practice some deep breathing

• Use a 5 minutes guided meditation

• Eat/drink something healthy

                                              

7. Don’t forget self-care

You may be surprised how often you may overlook this. It is easy to trick ourselves into believing that we are practicing self care when in reality we actually don’t even do much of it - and scrolling on social media for an hour during your 15 minute break doesn’t really count as self care.

For your actions to be counted as self care they need to actually be creating a relaxing environment where you are literally caring for yourself, such as showing, shaving, going to the salon, exercising, getting your nails done, putting on clean clothes, changing your sheets, cleaning your house, etc. 

These are tasks that make you feel better in your environment - even getting a body massage would count towards this!

8. Know when to seek support

It is completely okay if you need to seek help from friends, family, or even a professional. This can include anything, like needing a babysitter, going to therapy, utilizing a maid cleaning service, laundry service, etc. 

It can basically be anything that will keep you from ripping your hair out from feeling overwhelmed with stress. You don’t have to do everything by yourself and neither should you have to.

9. Embrace goal setting (Set A Daily Top 3)

I mentioned setting a schedule earlier to help you keep on top  of yourself and to ensure you don’t forget anything. I wanted to add something to that. There’s something floating around on the internet about setting top 3 daily goals to achieve every day. 

The reason there are only 3 instead of the true reality laundry list of long things that you need to do is to keep you from getting overwhelmed. It also sets a realistic standard so that you can actually feel as though you are getting something accomplished each and every day.

10. Quality over quantity 

What you are accomplishing in a set amount of time is more important than anything else. Think of the wholesome time that you are spending with your children as being more important than sitting in a room with them with your laptop and ignoring them the entire time. 

There will always be something that is more valuable or maybe time sensitive, but you win when you spend good quality time compared to an overly packed schedule. Have you utilized any of these 10 secrets to balance your family and work life? How have they worked for you?