Yup, you read that right. I’m cheating on my husband and not with another man (or woman) but with work! When I wake up, I think about work, when I go to bed, I’m thinking about work and when we kiss, you guessed it…I’m thinking about work. Allison blogged about this subject from the other side of things, but today, I’m blogging as the culprit.
How do I break this bad habit? I’ve tried shutting my laptop down the minute I walk in the door, but then my phone rings. I’ve tried sleeping with my phone in another room, but then I have major anxiety that I’ve missed a crisis in the middle of the night (which has only happened twice.)
What’s a girl to do? Here are a few things I’ve thought of to help cure me of my cheating…
1. Plan a “Work-Late Night”: Working late every night is simply not an option when you have a family to maintain. Set the expectation that two days a week or one night a week are going to be lots of late night working.
2. Ask your hubs/family to hold you accountable: Part of the reason it’s been easy for me to “cheat” is because Matt never says a word when I’m working around the clock. I’ve asked him to bring my back to earth when I’m stuck in PR-La La land. Nothing hurts more than when your family tells you that you’re neglecting them.
3. Skip your hour lunch. This is like a serious situation option because as a working mom, I totally relish my lunch hour. BUT if it means an hour that you can spend with your fam/husband, then it might be worth packing a PB&J.
Do you have any suggestions?
What about you? Does anything during your day take away from the most important people in your life to where you feel like you’re cheating?
That sounds like my life at certain points. It gets really bad when I have dreams about work. It usually is just a power through it situation until it slows down. It helps that my husband is supportive, but I don’t have any better solutions. I think #1 is the best thing you can do. Find that one night where you can just pound it out and it hopefully makes you feel less guilty!
Having been a workaholic for most of my life, the best advice I can give is make the most of the time you do have with your family. Turn off the TV, read books, play a game, take family outings, even if it’s just a picnic at the park down the street. Implement “tech-free” nights where you turn off your phones and laptops for a few hours. It’s hard but it’s worth it.
My hubby has gotten so great at learning to disconnect from work when he gets home….he still has moments though. It is hard for him, he is an OCD control freak about work, and it has gotten worse since he bought the company. There are days when he has to take certain calls when he gets home and we all understand that, but there are times when he will just take the battery out of his phone and be done with it. He also decided to not check his email after he gets off because most of the time he can’t do anything about the issue until the next day anyway so he just spares himself the worry over some thing he can’t fix at the moment. It makes him enjoy his time at home so much more.
It is important for the working spouse to do these things, just as it is important for the other spouse to be understanding. It is hard some times though.