Zaid Mohamad
It’s a fast-paced world that we’re living in now. There’s always meetings to attend, deadlines to meet, clients to entertain, classes to send the kids to and household work to complete. It’s amazing how we manage to accomplish all of these things within such a limited time. That said, these accomplishments do come at a price – the time that we get to spend with those who matter most to us.
With the advent of technology came the promise that machines would take over the boring stuff so that we humans can have more time to enjoy life. Yet, the opposite is happening. With e-mails, our bosses can now get us to check on work progress even on weekends or while we’re on vacation. Clients or fellow co-workers call our handphones in the middle of family time and we’re obliged to answer.
MAKING EVERY MINUTE COUNT
This is one dilemma that most, if not all, working parents face. Everyone is in a different situation and under varying demands. The 24 hours that we get in a day has suddenly become insufficient. The unfavourable economic situation isn’t helping either as less people are doing more work because employers need to cut costs.
All these factors are tilting the balance further away from the family. Bryan Dyson, former CEO of Coca-Cola once warned his employees about failing to prioritise the family. He said: “Life is like a game of juggling five balls up in the air. They are Work, Family, Health, Friends and Spirit.
We must keep all these balls in the air. We’ll soon discover that “work” is a rubber ball; when we accidentally drop it, it will bounce back. However, the other four are made of glass – if we drop them, they can leave a scratch, chip or even break. They’d never be the same.”
Suffice to say, it’s not easy to juggle too many roles and to be able to come out feeling that we’d done a good job at it. It’s important then that we consider which ones are the must-haves? Which one is the most important? Which one is just taking up our time without any real benefits in return? Make that tough call to drop those that are not important to us and our family. If we choose not to, at least we know what their effects will be to the family.
With our limited time, we must ensure that every minute counts. By cutting down our roles to a more manageable juggling level, we’ll have a better chance of tilting that scale back to where we want it to be for the sake of our loved ones.
Zaid Mohamad coaches and trains parents to experience happier homes and more productive workplaces. Reach him at zaidi@smartparents.com.my.