October 20th, 2007 by Phil

Lately my other half has been complaining that I spend too much time working and that I’ve been neglecting her. So recently I’ve been trying to make more of an effort to spend time with her, when I’m not working. However, this has proved rather difficult since I spend most, if not all my time working.

So, to remedy this, I’ve been using my time at work more efficiently. Instead of spending time pottering about and sometimes in a daydream, I now focus on achieving the tasks quicker. If I get stuck on a task I move on to another and come back to it.

For this, I’ve given myself an extra half an hour to an hour free time to do what I want. We’ve also started playing a game I came up with. It’s a relationship building game which is also fun.

This is how it’s played: Get a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle. Write your name on the top left and your partner’s name on the top right. Now here comes the fun part. For any good act or deed that your partner does for you e.g. giving you a massage, offering to do the dishes when it’s your turn, or ironing your clothes for you etc – you will award 1 point. We’ve decided that 1 point equates to £1.

Now, you don’t necessarily have to award a point if you do not think the act or deed is worth the point. It’s best not to give out the points frivolously as this will detract from the point of the game.

But what you’ll find is that you will both make more of an effort to do things for each other and pay more attention to one another. We’ve decided that the game ends a week before Christmas. The money that we’ve each accrued will be the value of each of our Christmas gifts. I’m aiming for a set of drums, although it looks as though I need to do a lot more to attain that!

So give it a try, it will help you put the fun back in your relationship and get you to appreciate each other more.