Too Busy For Family Time?

I don't know about you, but for me as a business owner and entrepreneur I find it hard to switch off from planning and thinking about my business and how I'm going to improve and grow. 

With the cogs constantly turning in my head, this often would get in the way of spending quality and present time with my family and kids. For me, family time is the most important time, however from talking to a number of business owners and entrepreneurs there is a common concern that we are too often neglecting this time in trying to grow our businesses. 

Realising that I wasn't actually present when I was spending time with my kids and that my business and work was having such a negative effect on my personal life really frustrated and upset me.

Time is one thing that we can never get back and we need to use it wisely.  

I couldn’t go on not fully embracing and experiencing those precious moments with my wife and kid’s so things had to change. 

As time was the issue, I committed to planning my days and weeks in a more structured manner.  

It sounds so simple and it is, but actually having the discipline and forming the habit of spending 5 minutes each day planning specifically the next day’s activities and separating the work from the personal, is the key to this concepts success. 

Literally in the first week of committing to this process, I felt so much more organised and proactive and was fully present with my kids and family. 

I can’t overstate just how much of a difference this made! 

Things were going well for a few weeks but then I missed a few days of scheduling and found myself slipping back into old ways. 

I realised that I had lost the discipline and commitment. 

Remember the reasons for doing this, I pulled it back and made myself each night spend that small period of time to plan ahead. 

It all came down to self-discipline. You must be DISAPLINED enough and commit to organising your time and schedule! 

In turn implementing a DISAPLINED approach to life and business in general will see greater positive results. 

On a daily basis I commit to maintaining a disciplined approach to the following 4 points. I hope they will have an equally positive impact on your life if any of the above resonates.

1. Schedule: Plan your weekly schedule and stick to that schedule. When you've got time sectioned off for your work specifically and time for family specifically it gives you greater focus. An essential aspect I found is syncing your weekly schedule with your partner or wife. This will ensure that you spend that quality time with your kids and with your family enhancing your work and life balance.
2. Habit: Habit is a very, very important aspect to master and once formed can be an extremely powerful. Opinions differ but in general, and from my experience, I would suggest that it takes around 60 days. It’s something that most highly successful people encourage, and this again takes discipline!  Personally, I sit down every night and plan my day ahead to ensure clarity and efficiency for the daily activities ahead, this leads onto point number three.
3. Must Do List: Most people’s To-do lists have too many tasks. This can cause overwhelm and frustration as we tend to only get a portion of the tasks completed and in time runs out we hurry through the list attacking the easier less time consuming and often the least important tasks. This in turn, can induce a negative psychological impact making you feel a little bit down having not completed your tasks for the day.  Sometimes we just over stretch ourselves and expect too much of ourselves on a daily basis, so bringing that list down to a maximum of 6 'must do' items would be my suggestion. The 6 most important tasks that you need to complete and allocate specific time slots for these. 
4. Daily Log:  Probably the most important of the four points. Over the last 4 to 6 months this is being something that has really changed my outlook and structure of my business and my life. It gives immense structure to your schedule and once formed as a habit it is a very powerful tool. Having a daily log makes you focus your performance on certain aspects not just related to work, but also related to other areas of your life. In completing your daily log or journal you are simply tracking your progress and what you're doing on a daily basis. This again is a pretty simple concept, but it takes a lot of discipline to commit to the daily habit. It's something the most successful people regularly do, and it holds you accountable by checking off if you're actually completing the tasks that you set yourself for the day. It is especially important as it allows you to see the progress you are making. We tend to focus on the negatives and the things that we’re not getting done but in seeing the positive aspects of your achievements, increases motivation and really makes you feel a lot more self-aware of how you're doing on a daily basis in both business and the other areas of your life. Areas like family time, your finances and your health for example. It is something that I would certainly recommend for anyone who is self-employed, a business owner or entrepreneur to complete. Especially if you are having a little bit of a tough time in organising your business schedule. 

Having the determination to implement the above 4 points will certainly have a positive impact on your productive, business and personal aspects of your life.

Have a try for yourself and let me know how you get on.

Click HERE to get a copy of the exact daily log template I currently use and get filling it out each and every day from now on. 

Would love to hear your feedback on this!