How to balance work and family in the leadup to Christmas.
Do you feel stressed with the thought of having a balanced work and family life in the lead-up to Christmas? Does it feel like they are competing for your attention?
If you are nodding or yelling “HELL YES”, you are in the same boat as many working professionals! The months of November through January include some of the happiest and most stressful weeks of the year.
Holiday pressure also brings the challenge of juggling work and personal obligations. Many working professionals have trouble juggling their personal and professional life, which results in conflicting priorities and additional stress.
Here are a few ways to manage the overwhelm of your work and family life during the holiday period. Amelia, a qualified career coach from Melbourne, can assist you in creating a work/life balance. Contact Amelia here.
Set Your Priorities
Do you feel like you are being pulled in a million directions?
We have all felt like that at some point in our life and this is why setting your priorities is so important. Life's demands are inevitable and life really is a juggling act. You want to be successful at work, enjoy healthy relationships, and be an involved hands-on parent. Maintain an organised home, stick to a fitness regime and have a thriving social life. All of these require your time and energy!
Start by asking yourself, what are the things that simply must be on your calendar this week? List them in order of importance and check each one off as you go. Are there any items on your list that could be omitted or delayed? Can you share the cleaning duties among your family members at home to ease the load and make more time for valuable family time? A better work/life balance may be attained through the prioritising and delegation process.
Be intentional with your time
Once you have prioritised your responsibilities, next you need to determine how to use your time and how to use it efficiently. Have you ever sat down to go through your emails and found yourself scrolling social media instead? We are all guilty of this. If you want to create a work-life balance throughout the holiday season, you need to make an effort to be intentional with your time. Create a few boundaries for both work and home and stick to them. For example, don’t do your online shopping while at work, instead use that time to get ahead. While you are at home with your family, don’t check your emails.
Explore flexible working
Being confined to 9 - 5 pm can feel restricted and can cause stress, especially during the holiday season! Talking to your boss about a flexible schedule or remote working opportunities around Christmas. Workplace flexibility can make it much easier to juggle the demands of your personal life and professional obligation. Family obligations can be much easier to balance with flexible work schedules and the flexibility to work from home (where practical). There's a good chance that the approach will also increase your level of job satisfaction.
Yes, you will still need to put in the same amount of time and effort to make sure you still meet your deadlines. However, having the flexibility to start early or finish later, or work from home can make a huge difference and help take a bit of strain off you! Also, chances are, you’ll also experience a deeper sense of job satisfaction in the process.
Chat with Amelia, a Melbourne careers counsellor, for tips on how to approach flexible working and how to maintain a healthy relationship with your job. Contact Amelia here.
Learn to say “NO”.
Saying no sounds a lot easier than you think! We are all guilty of over-committing and saying yes to things we don’t have time for or that we don’t really want to do. And yes, it feels great to be that go-to person that people can count on, it might not be realistic with your schedule.
Saying no is one of the best forms of self-care. It allows you to create space in your schedule to rest and recharge and sets boundaries with your loved ones and colleagues. If you are always saying yes, you may find people taking advantage of your kind nature.
If you find it hard to say no, when a situation arises, if you have the slightest bit of hesitation, you might want to think twice before yes. If you can’t pluck up the courage to say “no” straight away, say you will check your calendar and get back to them. This gives you the opportunity to think clearly about if yes is the right answer. As a career counsellor in Melbourne, Amelia can give you techniques and tips to tackle the word “no”. Chat with Amelia here.
Most importantly, don’t forget about YOU!
Christmas events and activities are fun but don’t forget to fill your cup up too! Try to schedule some “me time” in your day. It can be as simple as, sipping on tea in the sunshine for 20 minutes or going for a stroll around the block. Creating a healthy approach to balancing work and life is one thing, but if you leave one time for yourself, you may find yourself feeling stressed and overwhelmed!
Anything you can do to take some time and enjoy the spirit of Christmas will boost your mood! The key is to find a balance that works for you. Balance looks different for everyone so don’t compare yours to the next person. If you would like some support in the lead-up to Christmas, contact Amelia, a career counsellor in Melbourne, and she can help you feel calm and prepared before the new year.
Amelia McDermott is a Career Coach and Coaching Psychologist, based on the Mornington Peninsula in Melbourne. With nearly 20 years of training and experience working as a psychologist, Amelia has a strong understanding of how to uncover what makes people tick, and how to help people find an authentic career that aligns with their unique talents and values. If you’re looking for Career Advice or Career Counselling, look no further than Uplift Coaching and enjoy a consultation with Amelia to see if a Career Coach is right for you. Book a consultation here.