23: Punch Out – When your work life interrupts family life.

Lance Osborne
9 years ago
Categories: Episodes
Tags: family time, wheel of life, work life balance, working from home, zig ziglar

When your work life interrupts family life

A big-family-focused response

UPDATE: Author Jim Joseph responded to this episode on his blog. Check it out here! Thanks for the conversation, Jim!

Work-life balance is a big topic for all parents.

We recently came across this article by Jim Joseph on Entrepreneur.com: “3 Ways to Soften the Blow of Work Interrupting Family Time,” and thought it would be worth bringing up in the context of raising a big family.

These interruptions – like emails, calls, last-minute reports, etc. – can have huge ripple effects on families. If one parent is ducking away to fire off an email too often, it can be hard on the kids and the runaway’s spouse! But the bigger the family the greater the impact. After all, even when you have many children there are still only two parents (and in some cases just one!).

In this episode, we discuss this article and the idea of work-life balance in general – but we approach it all from the big family angle. Are these 3 ways practical when you have a larger family? Are they really worth doing? Listen and decide for yourself.

(You’ll notice this episode is different in two ways: 1) the “Punch Out” thing, and 2) it’s a really short show. Don’t miss the first minute to find out what’s up.)

Listen to this episode on iTunes or Stitcher, or in the player below:

What you’ll learn:

The 3 ways a career-focused dad says you can lessen the impact of work interruptions at home
When these tips make sense for big fams – and when they don’t
Some alternative methods for dealing with work-at-home
Who gets impacted the most by these intrusions on your family time
Why and when it’s OK to let yourself get interrupted, while protecting your work life balance
One way to help your kids and get work done at the same time
Big picture: How to be more than just an employee (and also more than a parent)

Links to what we talked about:

Zig Ziglar‘s talks about the “Wheel of Life” and the need to constantly re-balance 7 critical areas of your life: spiritual, family, career financial, social, physical, and intellectual. (Your most successful self needs more than just a work & life balance.)
- Learn more from Chris LoCurto, but it’s best summed up with: “If we spend too much time in a certain area, our wheel is out of round. If we don’t spend anytime in some areas, our wheel is flat.“
Two other podcasts we recommend:
- The Good Dad Project, for dads (since we seem to be worse at the whole balance thing)
- Home Work, for people who work from home (e.g. freelance or telecommute)
Another great overall resource for fathers is “Fathers For Good,” a Catholic-centered site produced by the Knights of Columbus.
- They cover a lot of ground on this site, but this article from Air Force Reserve pilot and father of 6, William Gonzalez, hits the nail on the head when it comes to answering how to prioritize work and family.