Balance Your Family And Your Business

The family is the most important unit of society and plays an essential role in fulfilling the emotional and physical needs of individuals, required for achieving economic and social development. A family thus provides the safety nest for children to be fed, clothed, sheltered, educated and loved. Tue family, also, is the principal institution for the socialization of children as well as the basic unit for raising children. Furthermore, the family provides love, companionship and mutual support for the parents. 

Both mothers and fathers play important roles in the growth and development of their children. 

Business is a person's regular occupation, profession, or trade. It is therefore, an employment, job or work. One may asking, why do people work? People work in order to earn money, to meet their basic needs of food, water, shelter, safety, and companionship. People also work to provide for their family, to achieve status or to find fulfillment /self actualization. 

One can see that both family and work are important aspects of our lives. Many people work part or full time in addition to raising children and trying to keep a home. Unfortunately, some people put in all their attention, energy and time in their work leaving no time for their families. Some couples are struggling with the relative priorities of their values, family involvement, career and material goals, personal growth and fulfillment all of which affect their effectiveness and productivity both in the family and at work. We therefore, need to balance work and family. 

To balance work and family means to give yourself equally to both areas of your life and not neglect one over the other. Creating this balance does not always come naturally and needs organisation and discipline. Like so many of the challenges and dilemmas of marriage, balancing family and work has no easy solution. Without a clear plan and commitment to maintain balance, time and energy for family or work, erodes and evaporates. 

The real task of balance takes place on a weekly and daily basis, even from hour to hour. Family work balance is a process, not a static achievement. The process nature of balance means that you can and must adjust as required. 

Good balance is characterized by having enough time for both work and family without expending great effort, so that your life feels relatively comfortable. The benefits of a happy family and a successful career are worth the effort. 

Ways to balance work and family 

Set Goals :- Plan your days, your weeks, your months and your years. Start with what you want to accomplish each day, each week, each month and for the current year

Let every hour count for something so that at the end of the day you have a accomplished something worthwhile. 

If writing down goals is difficult for you, begin with a daily to -do list which includes your schedule (day by day)  of events and appointments, basis things to do list (eg. House work, activities with your children and husband, activities in your job/business,personal goals, etc).

Establish your priorities :-  Prioritize your "to-do list" alphabetically as As, Bs and Cs. By prioritizing tasks, you plan the order in which you will do them, so that you can tell what needs your immediate attention and what you can leave until later. Prioritizing skills are your ability to see what tasks are more important at each moment and give those tasks more of your attention, energy and time. 

Note that only you can decide what is needed to nurture your work and family. For instance, if you find that a work obligation (eg. Schedule meeting) conflicts with a family commitment (eg. A day at park with your family), Decide which should take precedence by determining the significance of each. Remember, no decision, plan or approach needs be permanent. 

Delegate tasks:- learn the art of delegating work to your subordinates as per their skills and abilities. This is important to avoid stress and to make for efficiency and effectiveness. Also at home, learn to delegate chores to your children as per their age and abilities. 

Establish deadline :- When you have a task at hand, set a realistic deadline and stick to it. 

Take regular breaks:- Take 10 minutes break every 2 hours. Take a walk, listen to some music or do something quick stretches. working without break affects your productivity. It lessens mental sharpness and increases mistakes leading to doing the same job twice. 

Limit distractions and time wasters :- At your workplace, try to avoid wasting time. Kill notifications of e-mails, facebook, twitter, etc, that fight to distract you constantly. Choose to check these things when you have time to be distracted, say during a lunch break, and work through them together saving time. Do not instantly give people your  attention unless it is absolutely crucial in your business to offer an immediate human response. Focus on your tasks at work and talk to co-worker during breaks or lunch time. Also, stop procrastinating and shun laziness. 

At home, be disciplined and set time limits when checking e-mail or making phone calls, things you can even do when the children are sleeping. Reduce the time of watching television to maximize especially when spending time with children. 

Learn to say no:- Politely refuse to accept additional tasks if you think that you are already over loaded with work or when it cannot fit into your schedule. 

Purposely plan uninterrupted time :- Put up a "Do Not Disturb " sign when you absolutely have to get work done and also for tasks that involve complete focus. 

Spend time with your spouse :- Leave work in the office to have more time at home for your children and spouse. Often if you are busy with work at home, your spouse is the first to get neglected. You may consider having monthly date nights (going out or indoor) with your spouse to get closer, feel rejuvenated and enjoy each other's company. 

Create moments for yourself :- Exercise regularly to feel relaxed and effective. Exercise also can help alleviate stress and create a sense of well being. Hinting spa or salon for beauty treatments to improve your appearance. Focus on hobby. Eat well and get rest. Proper diet will enhance your metal capacities and keep you focused. Also try to get enough sleep (7-8 hours) each night. 

Conclusion 

Couples needs time management skills to create and Maintain the right family work balance in order to enjoy the benefits of a happy family and a successful career. They simply needs to plan, sort out, prioritize, and schedule some aspects of their lives