Tips to Balance Work/Home Responsibilities

Time is a limited resource. Everyone only has 24 hours each day. No more, no less. You can always make back lost money you can’t get back time. Striking a balance between work/home responsibilities gains even more importance when you view them through the time lens. In addition, it lowers stress and increases happiness. Now all you really need to do is learn how to balance it all. Use these tips to balance work/home responsibilities.

Tips to balance work/home responsibilities:

• Prioritize. This step is vital. When you prioritize your day, both work and home day, this allows you to accomplish the most important tasks first and helps eliminate the tasks that have low or no priority. Without this step, you lose focus and productivity and interruptions, which are to be expected, tend to derail your schedule. Having your day prioritized, you can see where you left off before the interruption and seamlessly move on. Remember, there will always be interruptions and a simple way to determine if it deserves your immediate attention or can be scheduled into your day, is just ask. This goes for work and home.
• Create a distinction. Now that you’ve outlined your priorities, your next task is to ensure the responsibilities are properly distinguished. Are there certain responsibilities which really shouldn’t be on your radar right now? Earning another degree can certainly add to your qualifications, but is the timing right?  Use your time wisely so you can balance professional and personal responsibilities. It’s great if your kids can participate in tons of extracurricular activities. But do you have the time to attend all the games and recitals? Meet them halfway by limiting the activities or share the responsibilities with your spouse.
• Stick to a dedicated schedule. It’s only fair to give each aspect of your life the time it deserves. Once you’ve identified the priorities, avoid allowing both areas of your life to intertwine. If you’ve allocated three hours each evening to those special people in your life, ensure you stick to that. This will keep your relationships intact. Unexpected work occurrences pop up and throw your evening plans out of whack. No big surprise. What’s important to remember is it doesn’t happen every day and that you make the effort to stick to your schedules as much as possible.
• Make it worth your while. When you’ve identified set windows of time for specific responsibilities, maintain your focus and follow through. If it’s time for work, make it all about work. The same thing goes for personal time. Silence your cell phone. Shut down your computer. Allow yourself to take care of personal responsibilities without interruption. These boundaries between work and home responsiblities help maintain balance.

When you practice these tips regularly, you’ll find that it gets a little easier each day to balance these two different areas of your life. Soon, you’ll be able to handle any unexpected circumstance in stride, without getting flustered because you have a good handle on balancing your work and home lives.

If you would like help balancing your work/home responsibilities, please reach out.