I’ve read many different articles about balancing life and work and almost every one of them infer it’s a myth, and I must agree…to an extent. I don’t believe that we can ever attain perfect balance between work and personal life. My belief is that work/life balance is relative and based on individual perspective and personal needs. For me, when I’m feeling unusually stressed, this is an indication that some area of my life isn’t receiving the attention it deserves. So, regularly, I make a list of different areas I want to focus on:
- Self-care/Health
- Finances
- Relational
- Social
- Leisure time
- Business/Work
- Spiritual
- Personal downtime
- Education
Then, I list out all the things under each category that are important to me based on a daily, weekly and monthly schedule, then prioritize them. These are incorporated into my calendar based on chunks of time that make sense and are compatible with my personal energy levels. As an example:
7:00am – 9:00am
- Coffee/morning conversation with hubby in the reading room
- Breakfast
- Journal/Devotions
- Take the fur boys for a walk
9:00am – 11:00am
- Go through email accounts, address emails that require an immediate response, prioritize actions to address later
- Work on sales program/lead generation
11:00am – 1:00pm
- Workout
- Coaching Call
- Lunch
1:00pm – 7:30pm
- Attend scheduled meetings
- Client Coaching Calls
And so on…
This for me is what balancing life looks like. While this is a typical daily schedule for me, I put social activities, leisure time, and time with friends and family on a weekly or monthly schedule, as needed. Obviously work takes up much of the hours in my day. In fact, if I were to look only at the number of hours spent in all the areas listed above, it wouldn’t “balance” at all. However, the fact that I’m scheduling time for the more important things in my life and keeping that schedule, I feel productive and well-balanced.
Are you a list person? I have found that if I’ve scheduled my day/week/month constructively, in a way where I’ll see the most production and am able to check off the items in that list, then I’ve achieved what I consider balancing life which in turn gives me a feeling of accomplishment. You see…it’s all about perspective and how you perceive success, and balance, at the end of the day.
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