You choose your family, your career ends. You wake up in your bed and start your day with omelets you’re preparing for your children.

You choose your job, you stay at the office and see how far you can progress, with no one waiting for you at home.

No, our lives cannot turn into a Matrix conundrum. Sure, there are those who claim it’s impossible to balance two roles and be equally successful at both. But let us tell you something – these are the people who never even tried to tackle this challenge. More often than not, people give up the moment it becomes difficult.

That’s not going to be you, not with our simple daily hacks. Here’s what you can start doing today and have a better organized work/family life tomorrow:

Minimize the overtime

This can be quite difficult for those who would describe themselves as a career-driven type. Still, in order to devote as much time to your loved ones at home as you do to your tasks at work, its essential that you segment your days in such way that you know exactly how many hours you spend at the office, and set aside equal amount of time for your personal life.

Make it a rule – no overtime! There’s hardly ever a justified reason why you should be working on weekends, holidays or late at night. If there are tasks with short deadlines and you feel all worn out, you could reach out for a smart pill that will give you an energy boost and help you complete what needs to be done in the shortest amount of time possible. In the end, you’ll still make it home to spend time with your family, just like you promised.

Organize your housework

Though having a strict schedule for doing the dishes, laundry and vacuuming might seem a bit much, it’s something a busy parent has to do in order to manage it all. Putting a time stamp on dusting sounds slightly goofy, but it will enable you to better organize your free time. Moreover, you can use gadgets to achieve a clean house without putting a lot of effort into it. For instance, you can look for Riccar vacuum cleaners or other cleaning tools and accessories that could help you finish household work easily and have time spare for yourself after work as well.

Still not sure how effective home organizing will be for a better life? Just remember how many times you dragged out the unpleasant daily chores, and something that could have been done in two hours turned out to be a day-long responsibility? Having appropriate cleaning supplies or professional help can reduce your daily workload. You can even consider getting housekeeping and apartment cleaning services here or by exploring maid facilities in your neighborhood. By opting for home maintenance and cleaning resources, you can save a lot of personal time for friends and family.

Use your lunch breaks wisely

The 9 to 5 workday can make you feel like you’ve spent the entire time at the office, and there’s simply not enough hours in a day to complete some of your personal obligations. Since at times, some things simply cannot wait late afternoon or evening, plan your lunch break around them. Whether you need to go to the bank, to the doctors, or shopping, do it during your break. This way you’ll have more time to spend with your loved ones when you get home.

Stop mixing the two

In order to get the best of both worlds, you need to realize that they cannot collide. This means that your personal problems cannot follow you into the office, or the other way around. The quality of your work should not suffer, nor should your loved ones spend the entire evening listening to the issues you were not able to solve in a meeting.

Always expect the unexpected

You will never be 100% in control of your life, so it’s best to embrace the 80/20 approach. Plan most of your time and leave those 20% to finish some last-minute projects at work, stuck in traffic, taking your kid to school, or maybe even for a romantic surprise. Those days when nothing happens, you’ll have the unexpected free time in the evening to spend however you like.

Final tip: Don’t forget to have fun. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy – an extremely unproductive and stressed out worker and a parent. At the end of the day, you have to ask yourself, how do I feel and how does it affect people around me?

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