What is the most important part of your life? What will be the one thing that remains when everything weakens and fades away (like your career, your friends and eventually your health)?

It’s your family. Your family is the one thing that won’t go away – that is unless you screw it up.

Work hard at the office. Be home when you’re home. Disconnect. Develop a shut down routine for the transition.

Work hard at the office. Follow your hobbies and passions. But not at the expense of the time you spend with and invest in your family.

You will not be able to get back time that you have wasted. When your parents left this world they will be gone. Anything you didn’t say until then will remain unheard forever. If you don’t bind with your kids while they are young and looking up to you, chances are they will not care much about you once they are grown up and independent.

Family should be your single most important priority. Then comes health and your own wellbeing (put on your own oxygen mask first). After that follow your passions. Everything else comes after.

When you’re home be home.

Work hard at the office but then turn everything off and mentally disconnect on your way back home. When you’re home, be home! Don’t check back on messages or return phone calls. Don’t fret over your problems at work, you won’t solve them that evening anyway. Tomorrow is another day. Often problems are solved over night anyway, as we grant our subconscious brain the freedom to go where it needs to go without our interference.

Develop a shut down and transition routine

Turn everything off when you leave your office. Develop a shut down routine to help yourself disconnect from work worries. Shutdown routines can be anything from closing your books, tidying up your work desk or shutting down your computer. Make it a routine though and over time it will automatically trigger your brain into the right state.

Further the mental transition on your commute. Drop work thoughts and get into family thoughts. Do this even if it’s just from room to room for folks who work at home. Physical separation between work and family helps a lot. If you do work at home, be sure to have a place for work and a place for family. If you are a stay at home parent, don’t make the place where you gather and play in the evening the place where you do your chores.

When you’re home be home. Don’t check emails, check in with your family and friends!

 

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Did you like this article? Want to read more?

I will keep posting articles here and I have them lined up way into summer 2020. However if you want to get it all in one comprehensive, structured, and grammar-checked (!) view, check out our new book:

 

Put On Your Own Oxygen Mask First

A practical guide to living healthier, happier and more successful in 52 weekly steps

By Alfons and Ulrike Staerk

ISBN 9781077278929

Find it on Amazon: Paperback, Kindle

 

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