While you can’t completely balance your work and outside life, you can do many things to make them more balanced. You can find more time to spend with your wife and children. You can find ways to go to the concerts and movies you so enjoyed going to before the weight of leadership took over. And you can find more margin in your life to do more work.
Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen
The choices you’ll have to make will tip the teeter-totter of balance one way or the other. Yet you can figure out the balance that works for your life.
By using the work-life balance tips below, you’ll discover the extra margin for family, friends, and even business!
The Best Work-Life Balance Tips
1. Choose your priorities:
Do you know what truly matters in your life? If you don’t know what matters to you, you can’t create balance in those areas.
Create a list of what you see as the highest priorities in your work, home, friends, and community service. Set a priority level for these and make sure they’re the items you’re focusing on.
2. Set clear boundaries:
You may find yourself feeling overwhelmed and exhausted because you haven’t set boundaries in your life. It’s okay. We all forget to set clear boundaries… But then we pay for them.
Choosing your priorities will help you in setting clear boundaries for your work and personal life. Make sure you’ve communicated what boundaries you expect to be honored. Then make sure you and others are respecting these boundaries.
3. Schedule personal time:
Another mistake people make is failing to schedule what’s important. Sure, they may know what is important. They may have even set boundaries… But many people fail to schedule what’s important in their life.
Use your calendar to block out important times of your day. Set aside time for your son’s birthday party. Choose to schedule in a regular date night with your spouse. Make sure you’ve scheduled your devotional times.
If you don’t schedule the important pieces of your life, they’ll get taken over by the urgent and emergencies.
4. Know your best working hours:
People work well at different times of the day. Some people are night owls. Others are the early bird. Knowing where you fall with your energy level peaks and valleys will help you know when to do work and when to play.
You won’t do your best work if you’re not energized. This’ll drag other parts of your day down as you have to play catch-up if you’ve spent your time working in a valley.
Create a work schedule that works with your energy level flow.
5. Take time to unplug:
It’s hard to find someone without a cell phone or laptop connected to them. We’ve become addicted to technology and connection. This same addiction has created an imbalance in our work and life.
To find more balance in your life, learn to unplug from electronics and communication devices.
One of the greatest joys I have is when I go to St. Ignace, Mi for our camping trips. Our cell phone signal isn’t strong. There’s no place to plug in the laptop. And it’s a time disconnected from a lot of the technology that pulls my attention.
Unplugging will not only help you rebalance your life, it’ll give you a sense of peace. Find ways to unplug and recharge.
6. Schedule social time:
All those friends you loved to see when you were younger, you don’t see nearly as much. This is because as we age, we get so busy we fail to set aside time to spend with friends.
You need to schedule your social time as you would your personal or work times. By carving out time in your busy schedule for friends, you will make sure you’re spending enough social time with others.
7. Start small:
You won’t change your unbalanced life overnight. This is a big life project you’ll have to work on over time.
Start with small changes you can make. These include the work-life balance tips mentioned above along with other small things you can do to make your life more balanced.
Don’t go overboard in trying to change things. That rarely works out well. Start small and work your way up to the larger things.
Question: What would you recommend to someone looking to have more work-life balance in their life? Share your tip in the comment section below.
Please note: I reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive or off-topic.