This is
part five of a six-part series on relationships and family life for night shift workers. In this session,
licensed marriage and family therapist Haley Nagi discusses
life management strategies that help night shift workers maintain balance and organization in their lives.
Key topics covered include:
- Schedule coordination – Finding ways to align free time with others.
- Special occasions and holidays – Managing expectations and maintaining boundaries.
- Routine building – Creating sustainable habits for health and productivity.
- Time management – Structuring wake periods effectively to maximize efficiency.
This session provides
practical guidance on how to maintain
a structured and fulfilling life while working nontraditional hours.
0:01 - 0:08
hello and welcome back to your guide to relationships and family life as a night shift worker this is part five life management strategies
0:08 - 0:38
if you're returning from the other parts hi again I'm Haley Nagi a licensed marriage and family therapist I have experience working with couples families and individuals ages 4 to 65 I specialize in family systems and relational issues and I focus on understanding family systems relationships relational Dynamics and how to make changes within those systems
0:38 - 0:49
the agenda for today is to look at schedule coordination special occasions and holidays routine building and time management
0:49 - 1:33
looking first at schedule coordination um when you are making plans with other people and you're often working on opposite schedules you need to find days or times where free time overlaps um so that might look like days off um if you get off at 7 a.m. maybe we're going to go grab coffee or go to the gym or something of that nature um if you have time midday maybe they have a lunch break and maybe you're just waking up you guys could do something at that time or if you have an evening free again this might be on a day off it might be dinner before you go to work but finding times where that free time overlaps
1:33 - 2:03
and ways you might do this is through just talking about it um you might send a list of dates when you're available if it's something more than a cup of coffee or dinner um if for a larger group you might actually map out days and times you're free with an Excel sheet um having someone set up a calendar of sorts and people can fill in when they're available and plan something on the most popular date might not work for everything but it might work for some things
2:03 - 2:36
keeping in mind just like when you're scheduling other things you may need to compromise or adjust if you're wanting to attend something in particular again identifying those priorities and thinking about what you really want to be at and what you might need to compromise if you do and as always you can ask other people to accommodate or adjust hey I really want to be at this party but it cuts into my sleep time do you think you can push it back by an hour or two they might not be able to but they might surprise you and say Yes
2:36 - 3:36
special occasions and holidays um first it's very important to be open and clear about your availability um share when you can or cannot attend being really clear about those boundaries if you have it at noon I will not be able to get there until 2 just so the family or whoever you're celebrating with has a clear idea and you communicated that to them and stick to it if you say that you can't be there till two and you end up losing sleep and trying to make it work so you can be there at 12 again if you choose to do that that's different if you set a boundary and say I'm not doing this and then you do you are reaffirming to the family or whoever you're celebrating with that their boundaries aren't that um aren't that strong we can get them to come when we want them to
3:36 - 4:03
so if you set a time when you're not available until make sure you stick to it unless of course you choose to do something different um you also again prioritize if others can't accommodate or can't be flexible like everybody else is coming at this time and people are traveling or grandma can't be out that late um and they can't accommodate then you might have to prioritize okay Christmas is my favorite holiday I really want to be there for that here's what I'm going to do to make it work just this once
4:03 - 5:02
and then lastly you might find ways to celebrate independently or with a smaller group of people if you can't attend a certain thing or the big event can you still find ways to celebrate again on your own or with a smaller group or maybe you can be a part of the celebration from afar plenty of people have jobs where they have to work on holidays and special occasions um how do we find time to still get to be a part of it even if we can't be there and so sometimes that might mean FaceTiming on my lunch break um not lunch break if you're a night shift worker but you know FaceTiming at a different point um maybe if it's Christmas I would send over gifts for the family or if it's Thanksgiving I'm going to make a dish and send over and everyone can text me to let me know how it turns out um maybe I pick up a plate before I go into work or whenever I get off you know finding something that works for you where you can still be included or celebrate something on your own
5:02 - 6:12
routine building so like some of the other things we've talked about you want to First identify the things that you would like to do so identify the things you'd like to build into a routine that might look like making a list of what you would like to implement um so maybe your listing includes I really want to prioritize my skincare routine and exercising and diet and sleeping and time with family when you're saying it like that it can sound really overwhelming so putting it on a piece of paper where you can see it and then considering what's realistic and what times things need to be done
6:12 - 6:39
so if some things have time constraints like an exercise class or your skin care has to be done before bed or I have to pick up my child at a certain time um you need to map out when things are possible or when they would need to be done so if I'm identifying my list of what needs done and now I have a list of when it needs done I can slowly build a routine piece by piece
6:39 - 7:39
and so I'm going to start by focusing on one thing and then I'm going to build because if I try to do it all at once I might get really overwhelmed I might not know how to do it all but if I can kind of break it down into my list and prioritize and then build up it feels much more tangible so start small and see where you can go from there
7:39 - 8:19
with that comes time management um so similar to the last slide we're talking about mapping things out and seeing how or where they can fit so for time management I want to map out my wake periods so knowing the hours when you would like to be asleep so your ideal sleep routine maybe right now it's not where I want it to be but I know I need to get six to eight hours of sleep that time's blocked off and then knowing when you'll be awake so you know what time you have available
8:19 - 8:49
if I'm sleeping from 8:00 a.m. to 3pm then I know that I have 3 to 7 or whatever to get all of my other things done what can I reasonably and realistically do in this time frame so again maybe you pull from your list on the previous slide and you map out when you could do that
8:49 - 9:13
thanks for joining me for this part next we are looking at part six creating sustainable balance
