5 Habits Highly Successful Parents Use to Balance Family and Career

5 Habits Highly Successful Parents Use to Balance Family and Career

There is no end to the number of activities you could be doing, add to that the demands of parenting, children, a spouse and extended family and you could spend all your time tending to the needs of others and never get what you want out of life. The daily grind can and will consume you, you start focusing on the activities you feel you must do, and not the activities you want to do. Over time you may start to wonder if a balance is possible.

Every once in a while you lift your head from the fast pace lifestyle and realize that there are others out there who seem to have the perfect combination of family and career.

Here are 5 Habits Successful Parents Use to Balance the Family & Career

Habit #1 Priorities - Having the perfect family life balance requires the ability to manage multiple priorities. This means you need to find a way to divide your time appropriately across your career & family activities. Too much work and the family suffers, too much family & the career suffers. Juggling these priorities is something you must learn to do.

Habit #2 Work Smart – Daily tasks can be tedious, time consuming and can take over your day. At some point during your day you need to determine a reasonable stopping point. There are diminishing returns if you work too much. You should not only be thinking about the tasks assigned but also identify activities that will help your company grow & more importantly you! Choose the activities you focus on carefully; keep an eye on career growth.

Habit #3 Family Priorities – You may love your children and your spouse, but at some point you need to focus on you! Giving 110% to your family without taking time for yourself isn’t going to get you the balance you are looking for. While family may demand 100% attention, the reality is that they don’t need it, in many cases they will respect you more if you limit the amount of time you spend with them rather than servicing their every request.

Habit #4 Low Value Tasks – Doing yard work, cleaning the house, laundry and are all activities that can give you a sense of accomplishment. However these activities do take time, time that you could be spending on more productive higher value activities. If you have plenty of time then do the tasks, but if you find yourself stretched then delegate the low value tasks.

Habit #5 Automate your life - there are always repetitive activities that take a large amount of time but are necessary for your success, these are activities like bill paying, taxes, managing investment portfolios, and other critical activities. By delegating or automating the necessary activities you can free up your time for more strategic activities that only you can do.

Balancing family and career is no easy assignment. Those who are good at it know how to balance their work & family activities. You’ve got to learn how to work smarter on higher value activities. Keeping in mind that by managing priorities you will not only benefit your career but your family life as well.