When my older son’s grade school held career day, he told his class all about his dad’s career. When he described me, he said that I didn’t do anything. At first I was hurt, then I realized he answered that way because he rarely saw me work. The only time I worked was when he and his brother were asleep, with a sitter, or at school. Now that my sons are older and don’t need me as much—they get better grades when I don’t help them with math—my challenge is to stop working so much.

Balancing home and office life can be challenging.

I’ve recommended strategies for balancing home and office life to my clients for years, and now I’m taking my own advice:

• Make regular dates with your family. Schedule a weekday afternoon or an evening to spend with your family, or designate a weekend night as movie night. My neighbor used to hold “Smith family movie night” on Friday nights, complete with popcorn and candy. The trick was to find a movie everyone wanted to see and that was appropriate. If you want to make sure you’re renting age-appropriate movies, check out Clean Flicks.

• Schedule mini-vacations. When my family and I went on spring break a few weeks ago, I stayed in touch with my clients but still had plenty of time to spend with my family. If it’s too hard to get away from work for longer than a week, take a three-day or a four-day vacation with your family. It will be easier to catch up with work when you get back.

• Find an exercise partner (a friend or family member) and walk or run together, go biking, or work out together at the gym. When you partner with someone else you’re more likely to exercise regularly, stay in shape and enjoy a nice break from work.

• Be willing to pay for free time. If you can find someone to take care of things you don’t like doing and they’d do a better job than you anyway, hire them immediately. If you compared how long it would take you to do something vs. the amount of time you could spend with your family, you’d see that it’s worth paying for free time.