Work-life balance [WLB]: I struggle. You?

That's the cost of committing too much. Put first things first. Learn on how to say no to some things which aren't that important. I suggest that you read Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I learned a lot from reading that book. Always have a goal and stick to that goal. Also, from the book, it states that you should dwell on the important but not urgent things and urgent and important things only. Never use your time for urgent but unimportant and not urgent and non important things. I am sure that you will learn a lot from that book. Or you can try to search some resources in the internet and see the basic concepts that book has to offer. I hope this suggestion helps!

I always was a work-a-holic now I am not anymore. It's not important to me anymore, my kids are. Interesting is that if I read your message your family is at the last place in your life. First it's work, next it's you and your hobbies and interests again and somewhere at the end it's your family whose expectations you can't afford to overlook. You can't afford? Does this mean you need them to and that is the only reason why you spend some time with them? It doesn't sound very great, nor loving. I wonder why you have a family at all. I don't struggle because I know what my priorities are and what I find most importing. And this is not my job, if I leave I will be replaced inmediately and nobody will say thanks for all the work I did. They will say it was my own free choice. And since it's my own free choice I choose to be with me and my family (yes me first because I am the one everybody always seem to forget about). Ask yourself where your priorities are and if they will be still the same in 5, 10 or 20 years. There are experiences you can only have now. You won't have a second or third change for everything in your life. It's the only advice I can give to you.

Most of working people tends to stay longer on their job than spending more time with their family. Companies are very demanding and as a result, employees became demanding as well with themselves. We tend to forget that the reason why we work is for us to earn a living for ourselves and our family. I am in the same situation as you do. But I have given up on my work and the company asked me to stay for 6 months just to do a proper turnover. I have two months remaining to finish my task and when I got free from my full time work, I intend to find a less taxing job and would give me more time to spend with my family. Time management would not really work because no one can manage or stop time. What we can do is manage our priorities. If you feel that you cannot properly perform a balancing act between your job and the demands of your family, then revisit your priorities. Weight which really counts. Work life balance becomes real or actually occurs if you feel you are fulfilling your obligations to those that matters most to you. Good luck to you!

I can suggest a better way that "a man can get the stability and can get the ability to maintain a balance between work and life after his marriage only". It is a universal fact.

It is difficult to balance work and family, sometimes you have to experience going to the extremes to be able to at least sort of balance everything. I was a full time mom for 10 years and I started working as a full-time teacher 3 years ago. It was hard because to be away from kids. I felt guilty sometimes. My work was quite demanding, I have to work overtime sometimes. There are times that I have to attend a seminar or activity that i have to be away during weekend. I realized that I am spending too much time in my work and I was not able to balance it. Maybe I was making up for the time that I have not been working or maybe I was just too absorbed with work that I did not noticed that I am spending more time working. My husband also complained because we rarely see each other. He is only home during weekend because he works in a distant city and sometime I am not even around during those times. I realized that I have to change this. Career or work is not my priority, my family, my husband and kids are. So, after setting my priorities, I decided to be a part-time teacher instead. I will only report to school when I have a teaching schedule. I teach modular courses so it works fine for me. I think, setting priorities will help you balance whatever you do. I don't mind spending too much time with my kids and husband because I love them very much and I am happy being with them. I don't want them to feel neglected especially the kids because they will soon grow up and I can't be with them forever. So, set your priorities and work your schedule from there, works best with me.