How do we juggle our time between work, family, and still take time for ourselves? It is like mixing a cake with all the ingredients for it to taste delicious. Everyone has a different family mixture of ingredients. Add in daily interferences and suddenly you’ve thrown a different flavor into the mix.
The interferences may look like this:
Work interferes with family time and time for ourselves.
Family can interfere with work and time for ourselves.
If you do take time for yourself, you know it will interfere with family and work.
How confusing is this, and how the heck do you balance and juggle all the balls that are thrown at you.
To be honest, I do not have all the answers for each of you. What I can offer is how to think this through to see what you can do to bring some sort of harmony to it all.
Tip Number One: TIME FOR OURSELVES
This is the area that is usually sacrificed when too many balls are thrown at you. What time in the day do you give to yourself? No - I do not mean when you go to sleep. I mean you actually shut the door on all the responsibilities and make the time for yourself. Is there 5 minutes in the day, you take 5 deep breathes just for you? When you are driving, do you listen to music you love and enjoy it? What creative ideas could you think of in 5 minutes that would make you smile? Take 5 minutes now and think of yourself… What can you do?
Tip Number Two: TIME FOR FAMILY
Family jumps in frequently because there many areas to family. There are the activities for everyone in the family, special events, holiday time, meal times, and those unexpected times when ill health strikes. The Vanier Institute of the Family states that “More people miss work for family reasons.” This makes sense because family is important and it will likely override work commitments. How do you deal with your family situation and manage the work commitment? What would help you to deal with daily life interruptions?
Tip Number Three: TIME FOR WORK
Work involves 90% of our time so it makes it hard to make time for ourselves and our families. How many hours in a week are you responsible for work commitments? What are some areas that you could delegate so you are not overwhelmed? How much flexibility do you have with work? How many break times do you take to rejuvenate yourself?
The purpose of this blog was to make you think about your life and all the balls you juggle in a day. What I know for sure is when you decide what is going to work for you, you will do it. We have a distinct way of thinking to sort through the time commitments to find the best route for you and your family. What is important is this. When focusing on ourselves think of yourself and nothing else. When it’s time for family, think of family and nothing else. Finally, when focusing on work, think of work and nothing else. Is this easy? NO, but worth the effort!
Now, go and have 15 minutes for yourself YOU DESERVE IT!!!
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