You don’t need a full day to stay close to the people you care about. Halley Nagy, LMFT, offers simple, effective ways to make the most of small windows and stay emotionally connected—even on a tight schedule.
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quality time strategies these can be for
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your partners these can be for your
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children these can be for your friends
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um make plans and stick to them so
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carving out one-on-one time that you
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both agree on how often and so maybe my
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partner feels closest to me or we stay
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connected if we have coffee dates once a
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week or maybe we
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do bi-weekly check-ins to see how we're
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feeling um making those plans and making
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sure not to break them and again they
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work with your schedule so don't
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schedule them for a time where you're
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going to be tired or not in the mood to
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do
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it along with that build routines create
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a routine or engage in a routine
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activity or event that you both enjoy
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with a child this could look like making
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sure you're there at bedtime um maybe
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our bedtime routine is we're going to
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read a story and we're going to take a
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shower and we're going to do all of this
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before I have to get ready for work but
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if that feels too much that feels too
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much like a rush maybe your routine is
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doing homework and then having some
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playtime after school but keeping these
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routines ensures consistency and when
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you're consistent that is something
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children need and partners need um when
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you're consistent it lets them know that
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you're safe you'll be there and that
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it's
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okay reminders for when you're
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scheduling quality time is to be present
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and intentional with your time it's not
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quality time if we're just sitting here
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together and you're on your phone or
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distracted so be present plan it
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intentionally especially again for a
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time when you're not stressed or
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overwhelmed do it when you have time
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agree on what feels like quality time
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again with the priorities right quality
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time to me might mean we are talking
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about how we feel and we're talking
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about our goals quality time to you
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might mean we're watching a new show
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together so talking to your partner or
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child or whoever about what quality time
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feels like and looks like to them and to
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you and then lastly take turns managing
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setup it's no fun if one person is
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always in charge of planning date night
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or one person is always in charge of
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making sure there's time to do something
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take turns and maybe that would look
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like okay this date night I'm going to
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plan and then you plan the next one
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something like that