There is a simple philosophy that I live by to help maintain peace and harmony in life, and that is what happens at work stays at work and what happens at home stays at home. Letting the two worlds impact one another can have devastating effects on both areas of your world. This can be especially challenging for people that work from home.
Many people work long hours in their jobs or home business and find they don't feel like they have much left over for their families after a long day. Yet, the families are the priority, how to give your best to both can be a struggle.
Strategy One: Use the drive home to focus on coming home.
Granted this tip is more for people who work outside of the house, it's important none the less. However long your drive from work to home is, use that time to work through work issues somewhat and then focus on what you have to look forward to at home. Look forward to spending time with your loved ones.
Tip Two: Make a Schedule
This tip is for people that work from home, where keeping work and family separate is even more of a challenge. You might need to think outside of the box. There's a great tendency to put in alot more work hours when you work from home, simply because you're there. Perhaps you can work after the kids have gone to bed, or down for a nap. But look at the needs of your family and see if you can carve out times when their needs are less to use that for work hours.
Tip Three: Separate Your Phone lines
Fortunately for me, with my business I rarely have to be on the phone, almost all communication with clients is done via email. But if you are finding that you are getting business phone calls at all hours, having a separate number for them to call is great. You also have the option of making your cell phone your business phone and the home phone is personal. This way when your work day is done you can put the phone down and walk away from it. You can also separate the rings for people you know personally and business so you don't accidentally answer a business call after working hours.
Strategy Four: Have an Office that is separate from the rest of the house.
Do you have an extra room that could be used exclusively for this purpose? I know it's not always possible. Perhaps you could get inexpensive room partitions to create a work area. It's important that you try to make a space so that your roles can be separate and you can walk away from it when you need to. It also helps to keep family out of your work area as well.
There are lots of people who are so busy that they often neglect the importance of time management, that's why a good time management exercise is meant to transform your time into a something that you know and able to predict kind of resource. With this you are able to be on time with projects that you are currently working on. You will also find more time left in the day for you.
How to do this exercise
Simply write down the dates you start your exercise on a piece of paper to exactly a week from the dates your exercise is started. Those that cannot be changed, you have to record all those fixed blocks. Just remember that there are things that you have to do through the course of your day.
You just cannot simply put those important assignments till tomorrow. Then you take down how you will consume your free time. Make a note of how you used your time spent waiting at any scheduled appointments.
You must also keep focus of times during certain things that happen throughout your day. This will help maintain an accurate account of time being spent. This exercise will help you to recognize how all time is spent. Also, you should be keeping track of your commuting or even traveling to and from work. In addition, your household chores will not be easily forgotten. Any special activities you have to participate in. If you are religious, make sure you keep track of the time for that. Your family activities have to be take note of it, because family comes first. You will also have to schedule in entertainment and fun.
Learning from these time management exercises is important to you
Any events throughout the day should be written within your exercise. With more than 160 hours in a week, you have to make certain that will account for most of your time in your exercise.
Use most of your exercise information to look at the past and try to understand your plans for the future. Do take down any possible changes that you have made that make your management better. Take a closer look at the results once in a week and try to look at what you should be spend more time on. Look at how you can manage some of the time needed within the day.
Are you setting up clear times when beginning projects and ending them? You have to make sure you have ample time to do those shorter projects during those un-scheduled extra-time.
For the time management exercise to work, you have to willing to make some minor or sometime major changes in your life and stick with it. You need to use your time wisely. Making sure you plan everything in your day into the time table. This way you can account for all the time spent, and more importantly, for time that is wasted. This ultimate planner is the vital one if you want manage your time properly and most efficiently.
Both Rachel Rae & Eddy Kong are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Rachel Rae has sinced written about articles on various topics from Gardening, Work From Home and Skin Problems. Working from home creates mixed tensions between work and balance. Visit our our site to get suggestions about this for people who. Rachel Rae's top article generates over 27100 views. to your Favourites.
Eddy Kong has sinced written about articles on various topics from Travel and Leisure, Medical Insurance and Anger Control. Eddy Kong WW is the creator of the Quick Guide To Time Management Secrets. Drop by at for more de. Eddy Kong's top article generates over 110000 views. to your Favourites.