Often, busy Dads bring their work home
How can you avoid doing this for the next month?
Setting expectations and getting stuff done.
I’ll start again here by saying that I fully understand that sometimes work
demands a little more from us and this will encroach on to otherwise family
time. In a joined up world of time zones and globalisation it becomes harder
to define work hours a a steady and consistent 9 to 5. In fact, the younger
generations don’t want to be restrained by such timeframes. But that
shouldn’t deflect from the point in hand here that whatever times or rules
you set yourself for finishing work, don’t take work home with you this month!
I find it helpful to sit down at the beginning of a week (maybe sometimes on a
Sunday evening) and plot out my week ahead. This includes having the diary
open to make sure the meetings I have are locked in the diary. It includes
things I need to do at home – football practice, gym time etc and it includes
the more admin tasks I need to do; the day to day running of the business.
I also write down for the projects I work on what individual things need to
happen that week for me to sit down on Friday afternoon and thing its been
a productive week. From my list and the time allowed in my diary I apply
something called the Eisenhower Matrix to the tasks I’ve written down.
You may be familiar with the tool it’s very popular in management. You should
have a look online for more about it but I find this is a super way of prioritising
work, making sure my time is focussed on the important tasks at hand and
which tasks I might choose to outsource or get rid of all together.
Each morning I will do a to do list for that day and once that’s complete,
barring any emergencies that crop up, I know with a clear conscious that I
can leave work at work and focus on the roles I have to play at home.
I’m not perfect here and that isn’t my aim. I want to be in better control and
have better decision making about where I spend my time. I don’t want work
to regularly encroach on my home time and self, regardless how much I
enjoy doing what I do.
