Just in time for Father’s Day weekend, a digital entrepreneur shares his rules for juggling a family and a growing start-up while keeping his sanity intact.

By Craig Zingerline

1. Work-life balance is a myth. These days, there aren’t clear lines between work and life—at least in terms of when you are “on” one and “off” from another. Consider “work-life integration” for the long haul. Work-life integration happens when you realize the two are not distinctly separate, and you embrace this as the norm. Work with your family to come up with guidelines that benefit everyone. For example, I’ll put in a couple hours of work each night, after the kids have gone to bed. Sometimes this cuts into personal time for me and my wife, but we’re O.K. with this because we get to spend time together during “normal” work hours. Eliminate the idea that work and life happen in finite time frames.

2. It’s your schedule, so take control of it. My work never really turns off or ends (e-mails still come in all evening, and employees need input in real time). I realized that it’s up to me to dictate how I integrate my work with my life so that I’m productive and happy in the long run. Find the times of day (or night) when you work best, and treat those windows with respect. Also, make sure your colleagues know your work hours and set expectations about your accessibility.

3. Maximize the potential for good ideas. One huge benefit of work-life integration is that you have the ability to jump in and out of the office mindset on an ad-hoc basis. That gives people the advantage of thinking creatively and strategically about work and when it makes the most sense to them. (In other words, don’t expect all of your great ideas to happen in a 9-5 timeframe.)

4. Plan for fun. Give yourself a reality check if you’re in work mode when you’re with your family. Once you embrace work-life integration, you’ll likely need to schedule more precious moments with the people you love. To make sure you’re not constantly checking in on work, have a standing family date, like Wednesday-night pizza parties. Separating yourself from work and putting down your phone for an hour or two will also help you recharge.

5. Do more with less (time). Being a parent with young kids means time is the scarcest resource I have. I aim to be hyper-focused on whatever I’m doing at the moment, and to only do that one thing. When I’m reading a book to my kids, I’m not also fielding e-mails. Conversely, if I’m working on a presentation for a client, I’ll put all of my energy into that.

6. Encourage your company to embrace work-life integration. Unfortunately, a lot of work environments still demand fixed schedules. If your company doesn’t support flexible hours, find out why. Propose a schedule that works for you and explain how this will provide more value to your company. Push your peers to do the same, and share how you’ve been successful with this new approach.

7. There is no “perfect day”… And that’s O.K. Parenting adds a whole new layer of crazy to an already busy day. I’ve had to accept that I won’t ever get as much done in a day as I initially intend to. Focus on being productive and accept that you are doing the best you can. There are always more chores, more ways to be a better parent, and more emails to send. But you can’t do it all. And that’s fine.

Zingerline is the Senior Director of Product at Red Tricycle. He wrote this while trying to convince his two-year-old to put on pants.

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