7 Tips to get More Quality Time with Your Family

Hi

Have you got to the end of the day and realized with a sinking feeling that you haven't even got through half of the things that you wanted to get done today?

Then we see others, who have no trouble achieving what they are doing and still have quality time with their family.

Regardless of who we are, we all have the same time available to us, 24 hours a day - so what's the Secret?

In this newsletter we:

• Give you 7 tips on family time management. You can put these into practice today.
• Explain why family time management is important for you and your family. At no time in history have families been more pushed for time. Time management is not just about managing your time at work to get the best results; it is also about making the most of your family time.
• Do you and your family show symptoms of being pressured by time? Take our quick poll. Results will be published in next fortnight’s newsletter.
• See this week’s question on family time management. Also, keep up to date with the latest time management news.
• This free online time management course is a month long but pays real dividends.
• Do you have time this weekend? Why not try Site Build It.

7 tips to get more time with your family

The typical family day is that there is no typical day! You have to drop the kids off to school and then when it is time to pick them up you have to play ‘chauffeur’ and drive them to their sport or other after school events. Somewhere in this time, the house has to be cleaned, chores to do, and food to cook – let alone holding down a day job as well.

In today’s faster paced society, families are under increasing pressure. Parents have greater financial burdens and spend more time at work, while kids have greater levels of distractions than ever before in history. These 7 family time management tips will give you not just more time with your family but more quality time.

The importance of family time management

In a study conducted by Galinskey (1999): Ask the Children: what America’s children really think about working parents, parents and children consider being unrushed and focused as the most important aspect of the time they spend together. However, the reality is that parents often have the competing demands of work and family, and that it is sometimes very difficult to find a suitable balance between the two.

The good thing is that time management principles at work and home are really quite similar.

Continue reading.

Is family time management an issue for you?

The people that I talk to in my lectures and workshops, one of the greatest sources of stress are a lack of time with their family. This is not surprising, considering that today we live in a faster paced society with parents under greater pressure to spend more time at work while kids have greater levels of distraction than any other time throughout history.

Some indicators that family time management could be beneficial to you are:

• Many unfinished household chores
• Difficultly in balancing work and family demands
• Relationships between family members may be strained
• Rushed and pressured feeling at home and at work

Are you and your family feeling pressured by time. Take this poll. Results published in next fortnight’s newsletter.

This weeks question

I have an issue with my partner who continually surfs the Internet looking for news on a particular topic related to his work.

I am sure that there is a more efficient way to search for the news, but I don't know it. Also, when he surfs the internet, he ends up spending alot of time being distracted by other topics which are of little relevance to what he works on. Any ideas on what I can do - he needs to do the work but it is taking away from family time.

See our answer here. Do you have a question that you would like to ask us?

Summary

In this issue of Work Smarter, Not Harder! we highlighted the importance of family time management and several tips on how you can spend more quality time with your family.

In the next issue, sent to you on the 15th July, we will look at how you can save time on email. People spend, on average, over 2hrs a day reading and responding to email. In the next issue we give you email tips that can reduce this time and make you more productive.

If you have any comments, then please do not hesitate to contact us at Effective Time Management Strategies.