Balancing Work and Home for Dads

Many new dads spend long hours at work. This leaves them quite tired at the end of the day. Due to this exhaustion, they hardly find any time to spend with their family. In such cases, the child misses the father's love and support to a great extent. Here are some tips for workaholic fathers to balance work and home.

• Start prioritising the things that matter the most. Do not hesitate to say NO to less important things in your workplace.
• Maintain an organised work environment. Keeping things organised in your work environment can help to minimise time spent on searching for things such as a pen or a file. The more you spend time on such issues, the later it takes for you to finish your work. This can mean going home late and having less time to spend with the family.
• Plan frequent outings or picnics with your family. Make sure that you carry no official work with you during this time. Let your colleagues know that you will not be accessible at that time.
• Make it a practice to have at least one meal with the family. Ideally this can be dinner because there are no deadlines to meet later on in the day. It is also a time to relax. You may have to hurry over breakfast in the morning and you may be taking your lunch with you. So try and ensure that dinner time is time spent with the family.
• Remember to take care of your health. After all, "Health is Wealth". If you do not remain healthy, nothing else would be as important.
• Simplify your life. Remember that life is not just about rising through the ranks faster and earning a lot of money. A happy life with an understanding partner and children is the best treasure you can ever have.
• Try to do away with that "workaholic" label. Decide for yourself how many hours you will work in a day and stick to your decision. Deviation from this once or twice is acceptable. Avoid staying long hours just to give your boss the impression that you are hard working.
• If you have to travel frequently as part of your work routine, remember to call up your family every day and talk to each member separately. You can call up once a week if you are abroad. Avoid undertaking travels on special days such as birthdays of your spouse and kids or your wedding anniversary.
• Cut down on answering the telephone or checking your e-mail when you are at home. It is a good idea to follow this during week ends as well. This will give you more time to spend with your children. Make it clear to your colleagues that you will not be available during this time.
• Be there to cheer your child when he participates in extra curricular activities at school. This can be for a drama that your child is participating during the School Day function or a sport for the Sports Day.
• Consider leaving your work place slightly earlier than usual once in a while. To do this, you can have a quick sandwich and work through lunch time to ensure that your work is not hampered.