Four Keys To Work-Life Harmony At Home and at Work

1. Agreement Together - Ensure you and your spouse agree this work is right for you both and that you are both happy with it - be in agreement - make sure that you both have a firm conviction that this is right for now

2. Make your first resolve to put your family before your career. Find times that you can routinely give to your kids, to your spouse and to yourself. Agree what those times are and then stick with them. Form your own family traditions - special times that each member of your family will remember and treasure for years to come.

3. Making a plan I had a businessman running his own company asking a very similar question. He had overcommitted to some clients to do some work. He and his wife were at a point of stress in it all. Two kids with one more on the way. The first thing was to agree points one and two and it was clear they had already done just that. Then we began to look at making a plan. They agreed together a time scale where he could work mad up until an agreed date. Reality was if he didn't do that he was going to lose some clients. Both husband and wife agreed to this and practically discussed when those hours would be. In their case it worked well to go home help at home with the evening meal and getting the kids to bed then working in the evening at home.

When they got to the date they had pretty much had done the catch up they needed, and then we began to agree what their normal hours would be and we have pretty much stuck to them. When the new baby came Stuart took 2 weeks paternity leave which probably cost him one customer. Was it worth it I asked? Yes but it was a tough one.

4. Sharing it with someone else will accelerate the process. Stuart said this to me. The key for me was believing that I can do my work within a certain sensible number of hours and making a decision to do that. Did it all work? Pretty well in this case his wife bought him a computer game as a thank you and tells all her friends what a wonderful husband he has become.!! The key to both these stories lay in sharing it with someone else.

I visited Stuarts new office a few months back. The business has grown and the plan has continued to work. Works good the family is good. In this case a happy ending. Of course it's not always that easy! & one thing I know is that life sooner or later will throw Stuart & Emma some more events which will birth a whole new collection of stress points but the 4 steps will be there to help again next time round too.
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