If you are a marketer with a young family, you may find that the demands of home life can at times make it hard to give 100% to your career, and vice versa. This is a situation many find to be very stressful and unpleasant, but I have found that by making some simple time management tweaks it really is possible to give your family everything that they want and need from you, while at the same time keeping things moving in your marketing career so that you continue to learn new things, and reach your business goals consistently.

Here are a few tips I’ve used over the years that have helped me immensely:

Tip 1 – Find and take as many domestic shortcuts as you can

Back in the old days when one parent had the luxury of staying home and dedicating all of their time to the kids it was not uncommon for wives to find the time to do the floors, bake homemade pies, cook roasts, and figure out how to potty train their toddlers all in the same day.

These days however a lot has changed and most of us only have a few hours per day to attend to our domestic duties. This being the case, it is critically important to take shortcuts as needed to make sure that everything important gets done. For instance, if you have a toddler who is still in diapers you may be trying to figure out the best way to get your little cutie-pie potty trained. Rather than trying to read every book on the topic, it’s probably a better idea to just follow a done for you plan like the one presented in Carol Cline’s Start Potty Training eBook. This way, you can get your kid all trained and ready to handle their business on the potty, so that you can move on to other things.

Another example might be purchasing frozen rice at the supermarket. I always resisted this since rice is easy and relatively quick to prepare. But think about it, how much time are you spending waiting for that rice to cook when you could be doing something else? See my point? And my the way, if potty training really is an issue that you are working on (or procrastinating about) then checkout this video review of the aforementioned Start Potty Training system.

Tip 2 – Make sure that your primary relationship is fulfilling your needs

In addition to making time for your kids, it is also important that you don’t fall into the trap of neglecting your relationship with your significant other. One of the leading causes of divorce is the fact that most working couples with kids don’t put enough time into their relationship with their spouse.

A weekly date night is a must! I don’t care how busy you are. If you neglect this you might end up getting served divorce papers and then you’ll be in even worse shape. So call a sitter, and go out to dinner and a movie. Who knows maybe you will feel like getting frisky in the back of the movie theater. Fun like that can really improve your mood and energy levels.

Also, if you are currently single, make sure to take the necessary steps to find somebody new. If you are a man this means studying the acclaimed Pandora’s Box System about female psychology.

Tip 3 – Schedule time off, and honor those commitments

And finally, make sure to schedule an adequate amount of vacation time into your yearly schedule. A lot of people only take 2 or 3 weeks as this is considered about average in the united States, but that is hardly enough.

Vacations are very important both for recharging your creative energies, and for connection with your family and creating memories with them. My suggestion would be to shoot for at least 6 weeks of vacation time annually. If you have a boss or corporate policy that does not allow for that much vacation time then it may be a sign that you should look for a position that allows you a greater degree of autonomy.