Prioritize Your Relationship in Just 60 Seconds!

Life is grand!

But life is also very busy and in between conference calls, social calls, meetings, drinks with friends, children's activities and your day-to-day responsibilities, it's not uncommon for your relationship to fall to the bottom of your priority list. But it doesn't have to be this way! You can prioritize your intimate relationship within the context of a busy lifestyle by making small changes each and every day. Consider these four approaches (you can just pick one) to make your daily interactions more playful and romantic:

1. Take 60 seconds every day to make your partner feel important by performing a simple favour: make them a tea, slice some fruit, lay out their clothes, warm up their socks over the heating vent, throw their town in the dryer and greet them after their shower, clean their laptop screen, warm up their car, shine their shoes — the possibilities are endless! Small favours pack a huge punch in terms of maintaining the connection — think of it like dollar-cost average investing; it pays off more than big investments in the long run. When you make them feel important, they benefit from a boost in serotonin, which can help to ignite passion in the relationship. Can you commit to performing a 60 second favour every day for the rest of the week? I know you can. Put a reminder in your calendar today!

2. Set tech boundaries. Put a basket, box or table outside of your bedroom (or at the bottom of the stairs if your bedroom is upstairs) and put your phone in it every single time you head into the bedroom. Sometimes it’s not about the amount of time you spend together, but the quality of that time; the quality will inevitably improve if you put your phones down and studies suggest that even the presence of a phone in the room can detract from trust and intimacy. If you can't imagine not bringing your phone into the bedroom, start by checking it at the door on Saturdays only. See if you survive (you will!). And if your phone is your alarm clock (yeah - I've heard that excuse before), start saving for an actual alarm clock. Seriously. You can make excuses or you can make change. It's your choice.

3. Schedule family/coupled vacations before you schedule anything else. I work with CEOs and business owners who manage companies of 5000+ staff and they manage to carve out family time despite their work responsibilities simply by planning ahead. If you ask them to book time away month in advance, they likely won't be able to commit. But by carving out dates 6-12 months in advance, they manage to plan their work around their family time -- not the other way around. Most of us don't look 6-12 months into the future, but doing so can help you to ensure that you prioritize what really matters -- your partner and/or family.

4. Stop bringing your phones to the dinner table. Start with once per week and then increase the number of days that you dine while disconnected. So many important conversations and connections are made over a meal and studies suggest that family meals are positively correlated with better physical and mental health. Unfortunately, you can't connect with your partner (or your kids) if you're connected to Instagram or email, so try a dinner-based digital detox and let me know how it goes.