Spending time with your family isn’t just enjoyable. It’s also important. You probably don’t need to be told parents play an absolutely critical role in the health of their children. On top of that, you need to make time for your spouse or partner to maintain a strong relationship.
However, making time for family isn’t always easy. People have busy lives. In our fast-paced digital world, that’s not likely to change.
That doesn’t mean it’s impossible to achieve greater work-family balance. If you’re trying to find more ways to spend time with your loved ones, keep the following tips in mind.
Look for Ways to Set Boundaries
The boundaries between our work lives and our personal lives have been blurring quite a bit in recent years. Thanks to our digital tools, it’s now possible to attend to work tasks even after you’ve left for the day. That can prevent you from focusing on your loved ones.
On the other hand, there are certainly cases when family members demand too much of you. If you rely on your job to support your family, you can’t let them distract you excessively.
That’s why it’s essential that you vigilantly seek out ways to set boundaries between your work life and family life. The way in which these boundaries manifest will vary depending on your specific circumstances. For instance, if you have a demanding job, you may have to make it clear that you aren’t on call when you’re off the clock. On the other hand, if being a parent involves too many responsibilities for you to be productive at work, you need to ask for help from a spouse, friend, or relative who can take over some of those responsibilities.
Finding out how to set the right boundaries will take time, but the benefits are worth it.
Turn Off Phone Notifications
This is a simple “hack” that can nevertheless be very useful!
The idea of kids and teens ignoring their parents because they’re more interested in their phones isn’t anything new. However, research also shows that phones have been making parents more distracted, which is in turn having a harmful effect on kids. Children report feeling neglected when their parents are distracted by mobile devices during time they spend together.
Of course, their parents may be distracted by email notifications and similar alerts related to work. An easy way to guard against this is to turn off those notifications altogether. If your work prevents you from doing that completely, you can try to turn them off when you’re spending time with family.
Schedule One Special Family Night a Week
Consistently devoting more time to your loved ones is easier when you remember to schedule it the same way you would any other priority. One night a week, make plans to do something special together.
This doesn’t have to be something extravagant or costly. If you’re looking to save money, experts agree that even simple activities, such as game nights, can have a very beneficial impact on your children’s emotional development. Playing games also helps kids develop such life skills as problem solving and language skills. That’s good for the entire family!
Don’t worry if you find it challenging to strike the ideal balance between family time and work time. This isn’t always a possible task. That said, if you remember to apply tips such as these, it’ll get easier to prioritize both over time.
