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Balancing everything can be so hard. Sometimes just getting to the end of the week can feel like an uphill struggle. And that’s why I’m here to talk about two of the most important things in a lot of our lives: work and family. Work takes up so much of our time, and it’s way too easy to let it take over. I want to show you how you can take back control and be in charge of your own day as much as possible.
I’ve got some simple but effective suggestions to help you shake things up and reprioritise, and I also want to give you strategies so when you do have to produce the goods, you can focus on the task in front of you 100 per cent.
At the end of the day, it’s so important to learn to set boundaries and find a better work/life balance. That way you can have more time (and more energy) to do what matters most to you. For me, that’s spending time with my wife Rosie and my three kids, Indie, five, Marley, four and Leni, one. Because really it’s all about doing what you enjoy with the people you care about, whether that’s your partner, friends and family, or your kids. Here’s how it’s done.
WORK
Something we all strive for is a good work/life balance. This is not always easy to achieve, especially if you have young children and a busy career, but it’s so important to be aware of how to avoid burnout and stress.
Stress is something which can accumulate over time and builds up in the body. This will have an impact on your mental health, but the effects of long-term pressure and stress can be physical too. Physical exhaustion can cause fatigue, digestive issues, skin rashes, high blood pressure, muscle aches, headaches and much more, so this is something we must take seriously and always challenge.
Here I’ve included ideas for how to strike a balance, but if you are worried, then do reach out to your doctor.
FINISH UP ON TIME
A real crunch point is finishing work on time. We’ve all experienced ‘the creep’, and how easy it is to continue working in the evening. But you need to take this time back for yourself. If you don’t do it, no one else will. So decide a reasonable cut-off point. Say to yourself that at
6pm sharp you will stand up from the desk. Do whatever you need to do to make yourself step away – schedule an appointment, book an exercise class or arrange to meet a friend after work.
UNPLUG
It’s so common for people to feel pressure to be available and online all of the time. With more people working from home or working a hybrid model between office and home, the lines between the two are blurred.
It’s important to set boundaries with work and prioritise downtime. When you finish work for the day, you need to be able to rest. Make it clear to your employer (or to yourself if you are the boss) that certain hours during the evening and weekends are not for work.
Turn off your devices if you can or turn off all notifications and add an out-of-office response on your email. By setting these clear boundaries, you m and re can th havin
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manage everyone’s expectations educe pressure on yourself. You hen find more time for balance by ng time to relax, exercise or socialise. e key takeaway is this: the more nce you achieve, the better you will and the more productive you will hen you do sit down to work. n you’re off, be off. n’t check your emails after hours or on weekends, and physically put your laptop and/or work phone away when you’re not working.
Work will always be there. Being productive feels great, but it’s also fundamentally important that we make sure we look after ourselves too.
15-MINUTE WIN
One of the first things that always slips is taking your lunch break and therefore nourishment. It’s so easy when you’re working to cobble together a sandwich and sit back down at your desk, or to forget about lunch altogether.
But this is your time – start by taking back 15 minutes for yourself. Sit outside, go for a walk around the block, call your mum.
Time away from the screen will make you much more productive in the long run, and 15 minutes of fresh air and vitamin D will beat staring at your inbox any day.
LIFE
In today’s fast-moving digital world, it’s very easy to spend a huge part of each day looking at screens. I’m a big fan of doing non-screen activities together as a family. Just old-school, pre-ipad and pre-phone stuff.
Stepping away from our devices is not only important for our mental health, but it can really improve communication and connection with our children.
GET CREATIVE
We love doing creative activities like arts and crafts, such as making a birthday card, colouring in a picture book or finding stones from the garden and painting them. These calming activities can really help to release stress and tension from your body and can help you feel that closer bond with your children.
Two other really fun activities we have got into lately are the card games UNO and Dobble. These are great entertainment alternatives to screen time when eating out or when travelling together. We always make sure we take them in our bag when we go out and the kids really love playing them with us.
GO OUTSIDE
As a family, we also try to get as much time outside as possible away from screens and devices. Even on colder days, we find that our children are much happier being outside as long as we wrap up warm. Nature really is medicine and it’s healing in so many ways.
Sunlight helps increase the brain’s production of a hormone called serotonin, which has mood-boosting effects and can help you feel calm and focused. Another wonderful benefit of nature and sunlight is that it really helps with getting a good night’s sleep. Whenever possible, we love fun and energetic activities played outside, like hide and seek, climbing trees, playing basketball or riding our bikes or scooter around the block.
These suggestions are about creating moments of interaction, talking, laughing and connecting which make you all feel a little bit happier. I hope some of these ideas help you and your family too.
You can also find lots more activity ideas online, so keep trying new things and discover what you enjoy doing together. If you are doing an activity as a family, there is no wrong choice.
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DON’T FORGET YOUR PARTNER
It’s important for a relationship to prioritise time alone to talk without anyone else around, even if that is 15 minutes of chat before bed.
Catching up on the day and what’s going on in someone else’s life is really important. Listening and letting each other vent or get something off your chest is always a positive thing and helps them (and you) to feel fully supported.
It’s also really powerful to talk about your dreams and goals for the future. This can help you both realign and remember why you are in this together and have chosen to spend your lives together.
So, make time for each other. In the same way that feeling grateful about something else makes you feel good, telling someone you are grateful for them can really help them feel valued and appreciated too, and as humans we all need and want to feel that.
15-MINUTE WIN Next time you feel you and the kids need it, if they are full of energy or you are feeling overwhelmed, give yourself 15 minutes of nature. This could be as simple as walking around the block, playing tag in the garden or making your way to the nearest park, forest or beach. There really is nothing better to clear the mind, and when you combine movement with nature, you have the perfect combination.
Productivity is great but it’s important we make sure we look after ourselves too
Feel Good in 15 by Joe Wicks is out now