How to Improve Your Work-Life Balance and Make Time for Your Marriage
Managing work-life balance is one of the many challenges facing today's married couples. Amid financial pressures, long work hours, and the need to be always connected, couples struggle to find time to nurture their relationship. If you spend the majority of your day engrossed in work activities while your marriage remains neglected, then you also struggle in this area. With a little preparation and joint decision-making, today's working couples can improve their balance between work and life, and live happily ever after in the process.
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Instructions
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Minimize work stress. Work-life balance is easier to manage while working in positions where stability and job satisfaction are high. Find a position in a company where you are reasonably satisfied in your work environment, and in which you have long-term stability. Establish yourself in a role where you can take pride in what you do and the company you work for, and you will naturally perform better. Treat your boss and the management team with respect, and build healthy working relationships with peers and subordinates. This will help ensure that you are equally respected and compensated fairly. As a result, on-the-job stress should be minimal, allowing you to devote more time and energy to your loved one at home.
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Limit how much work you bring home. Confine hours worked at home to strictly scheduled times and locations. Spare your spouse from lengthy conversations about the office and don't talk about business at the dinner table. Coordinate your work schedule with your spouses' schedule and protect your free time together from work-related interruptions. Make time for activities that are reserved solely for you and your spouse, and turn off your cell phone, computer and pager to reduce distractions.
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Take advantage of company benefits and resources. Understand what your company offers that will afford you more time at home. Negotiate opportunities for flexible work schedules, telecommuting, compressed work weeks, on-site child care, extended family leave, job-sharing and sabbaticals in your effort to increase your focus on your relationship. Cross-train and empower your employees to cover your responsibilities and give you peace of mind when you are away from the office.
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Share the load at home. Divide and conquer household chores and family assignments. Share equally in childcare and parenting activities. Simplify commitments in order to reduce financial pressures and work hours. Avoid extra activities that would interfere with spending intimate time together. Learn to say "no" to unnecessary busy work and get the entire family to pitch in on big projects. Learn to rely on trusted friends and family members when additional help is needed with non-essential tasks. If necessary, hire additional help.
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Tips & Warnings
Work-life balance for each couple will be different, so it's important that you sit down together and discuss what is appropriate for your situation. Write down your stresses and areas for improvement and set small goals together. Talk about your collective priorities, possible allocations of time, and available resources and decide together how and when you will tend to your marriage and build your relationship. Revisit your work-life balance often, as it will likely evolve over time and as life seasons change.
References
- Photo Credit Balancing image by styf from Fotolia.com
