Work-Life Balance

How to Balance Life & Work

1. Leave work on time – I know it’s easy to work five or ten minutes over. But try not to. Being home at the same time every evening means that you can plan family life accordingly. Kids thrive routine.
2. Think about introducing a 4-day work week – If you haven’t done it before-hand now is the perfect time to expand your weekend.
3. Have a ‘to do list’ at home to jot down ideas – When you have ideas simply add them to the list and action them on Monday morning.
4. Introduce an Adventure Day – Choose one day on the weekend and designate it ‘Adventure Day’. On this day no-one does any chores, cleaning or working. The only thing you can do on this day is hang out together and do something as a family. Whether it be going for a picnic, inviting some friends around or going to the farmers’ market.
5. Get up early – If you have to work try not to let it eat in to family time. Get up early and do your work before the rest of the family get up.
6. Have a second line installed or have a ‘work’ phone – it’s too easy to check your mail on your phone
7. Close the office door at night & weekends – temptation lurks within
8. Get into a new hobby which includes the kids – For example geocaching is great fun, uses technology (and the internet) and gets you out scamping around the countryside.
9. Don’t take your laptop (or phone) on holiday - Have at least one session of complete ‘downtime’ per year.

Be Happy: Find Balance and Inner Peace

Be Happy–this is the fun level, the one we’ve been waiting for and working towards! Thisis where you will get the highest return for your investment; this is the one that lasts for the rest of your life. There are so many ways you can explore your path to lasting happiness, and so many great resources and books. We will get to these in time, as this blog unfolds. For now, I would like to focus on three things that have greatly contributed to my happiness:

KNOW YOURSELF

I talk to people about this all the time. This is pretty much the key to everything; you have to know who you are and what you value. There are so many mixed messages and misguided expectations facing you every day. The best way to stand up to them and make it through intact is to know yourself well. Live with integrity, being true to what you value, and respecting others for being true to their beliefs.

This is the most important step, but sometimes it can be difficult for people to remove the distractions, calm the chaos, and look within. I didn’t find my personal truths by staring at a candle in deep meditation (although I hear that approach works too.) I discovered who I am and what I value when I started thinking about what I want to teach my son.

Imagine your child (or future child) asking you, “What is the most important thing? If I do nothing else in life, what would you want me to do?” The answer appeared so simply for me, and I tell him all the time: “Be loving, compassionate, and tolerant of those who are not like you.” I don’t know if this is THE truth, but it is MY truth; and it has served me well.

ACCEPT THE FACTS

In order to be happy, you will need to accept at least these two facts:

* You have limitations. Understand what they are. You can’t be all things to all people, you are not perfect, and you won’t be good at everything you try. It’s OK.

* You can’t make others change. It is interesting to note that an awful lot of people turn to self-help and personal development books in order to find ways to change OTHERS. “If only my (husband, wife, friend, child, co-worker, boss) were not so difficult, my life would be better.” That may be the case, but the only person you can change is yourself. You can teach or inspire by example, but you cannot force change on someone who is not interested in changing.

BE YOUR BEST SELF

Given your new understanding of who you are, and your limitations, make the most of it.Do something you are passionate about, contribute, solve problems, create, share, or help. Be flexible when things don’t go according to your plan; sometimes it is best to just go with the flow of life. You can’t force your way into happiness–you ease into it.

Once you find inner peace and lasting happiness, it doesn’t matter what happens; you will be OK. If one of the lower levels needs revisiting because your house burns down, you lose your job, or you have a health crisis, you will deal with it and get right back on track. Once you have experienced true happiness, it can never be taken away from you. It is always within your grasp, right under the superficial distraction

How to Find Balance in Life

Most people have enjoyed great successes in some parts of their lives. The problem is that most of us neglect some parts to succeed in others. Doing this corrodes your success and will over time start hurting your future chances.

If you do not find balance and succeed in all 4 areas you will start to deteriorate in all.

The Four Major Areas of Your Life Are: 
Health
Family
Career
Finances

How they work together:

All aspects of your life work in tandem. Success in one area will spill over to another, but on the other hand neglect will destroy your success in any of the other areas of your life.

Some examples of problems that can arise if you don’t take care of all areas

Health –> Relationships –> Career –> Finance
If you let your health slide your energy levels deteriorate, when you don’t have sufficient energy keeping quality relationships becomes difficult which will make you depressed which effects your results at work causing problems in your career and thereby your finances.

Finance –> Health –> Relationships –> Career
One of the most common causes of stress is money issues. Stress hurts your health and reduces your energy levels which hurts your relationships and thereby your career.

Career –> Finances –> Health –> Relationships
Your career controls your finances, which in turn controls how well you can take care of yourself and an unhealthy person cannot be a good friend since they are too tired and irritable to be around.

Success in one doesn’t compensate for failure in another

Because of this balance it doesn’t matter if you success in one area if you do not spend time on and focus on the other areas of your life as well.

As long as you are mindful of all aspects you will start improving in them all and success in one will fuel success in all the other aspects of your life.

Set your goals

Set goals for all areas of your life and remember to set goals for all for areas.

Ask yourself;

“What is my goal career?”

“How do I want my financial situation to look in 4 years?”

“What shape do I want to be in? How is my health?”

“How is my family situation? My relationship to my friends in 1 year?”

How it has changed my life

Keeping this balanced life style has made enormous changes for me.

I am in the best shape of my life which keeps me loaded with energy, I have a great family life and lots of good friends which keeps career opportunities coming my way so that I do not have to be worried at all about my finances.

Try it for yourself and I promise you will start seeing a difference

How to Maintain a Healthy Balance in Your Life

Write it downThe simplest and most effective way of creating change in your life is to start by getting the details down in front of you. Begin by listing the parts of your life where you feel out of balance. Too much work, too little exercise? Too many friends, not enough quiet time? Love to spend and hate to save? Whatever aspects of your life could use a moderation fix will become more evident to you as you make a list for yourself.

UnplugJust as we know that “all work and no play” makes Jack a dull boy, too much of anything can make us not only one-dimensional, but unhealthy. The technology of information and entertainment is so easily accessible that we have to be the force that says “enough!” for ourselves. This means making the active decision to disengage from your phone, computer, social media and e-mail at a certain point in the day (or at least for a certain part of your day) to engage in other activities.

Avoid unhealthy stress-relieversWith so much going on in the wide, wired, and too-busy world, sometimes having countless ways to unwind can be more daunting than too few. Being human, we like to do what gives us comfort. Get stressed enough and you’ll find comfort in what’s close at hand: your favorite online store, food, or caffeine and alcohol. Unfortunately, all of these outlets lend themselves to excess when they are used to fill a need — that of finding balance. Your best bet is to maintain that balance in a way that won’t backfire on you.

Find a positive way to unwindWhether you choose yoga, running, biking, walking or kettlebells, integrating some form of exercise into your schedule for at least three days a week (five is better) can make a significant difference to your overall health and fitness by improving the condition of your heart, muscles and mental outlook. Now that you’ve taken that good hour or two to unplug completely in the morning or evening, you’ve freed up time to maintain balance. Be careful, though — even healthy practices like exercise can turn against you if you don’t practice moderation.

Try inner quietSometimes just being alone can be a means of achieving a healthy balance in your life. Whether you meditate with quiet music or fish in the great outdoors, regularly doing an activity that allows introspection and mental stillness can be peaceful and rejuvenating.

Moderation is simple to envision and more difficult to practice. With all that you do — work, sleep, play, eat, create — ask yourself if the balance of activities (or lack thereof) feels right to you. With a little bit of mindfulness, you can accomplish all that you want and maintain balance in your life, too.

10 Tips To Professional-Personal Life Balance

• Separate Your Personal & Professional Life:
  
  Edit yourself personally and professionally. Let go of the things that are not critical. Don't be a member of a committee where you can't give your all to. Lower your obligation so that you are free for the most important ones.
• Prioritize:
  Consider what you want to get out of your work and your personal life. Prioritize and eliminate the less important ones.

Work-Personal Life Balance

• Develop a Support System:
  
  We are all human beings and there will be times when we would need help. Identify and befriend people who can pitch in at times, like family, neighbours, friends, and colleagues.
• Know Your Employer's Policy:
  
  Many companies have set policies on flexibility. Often people don't know the options available to them about commuting and the workday that can make their lives easier.
• Communicate:
  
  Communicate effectively with your colleagues and boss. If you won't be available for certain hours during the day or weekend clearly communicate with your manager and make sure he agrees.
• Work From Home:
  
  Work from home but only when it is realistic and possible. Work from home saves chunk of time as it saves time of commuting, getting dressed, office chit-chat and time wasting meetings.
• Make Life Easier With Technology:
  
  Proper and optimum use of latest technology will help you achieve the work life balance. But don't let it rule your life. Make certain times like dinner, technology free for you and your family.
• Find A Mentor Who Will Help You Balance Your Life:
  
  Identify someone who is really good at achieving work life balance and ask for any tips.
• Set A Time Limit:
  
  Balancing your work and personal life is not a ninety days wonder. It will take time. So lay out your responsibility and set small goals and try to complete them in the specified time frame.
• Don't Hesitate To Ask:
  
  Don't hesitate to talk with your manager if you want to telecommute or work in flexible hours at least for a temporary period. You never know what you can get, unless you ask.

Work-life balance: Tips to reclaim control

• Track your time. Track everything you do for one week, including work-related and personal activities. Decide what's necessary and what satisfies you the most. Cut or delegate activities you don't enjoy or can't handle — or share your concerns and possible solutions with your employer or others.
• Take advantage of your options. Ask your employer about flex hours, a compressed workweek, job sharing, telecommuting or other scheduling flexibility. The more control you have over your hours, the less stressed you're likely to be.
• Learn to say no. Whether it's a co-worker asking you to spearhead an extra project or your child's teacher asking you to manage the class play, remember that it's OK to respectfully say no. When you quit doing the things you do only out of guilt or a false sense of obligation, you'll make more room in your life for the activities that are meaningful to you and bring you joy.
• Leave work at work. With the technology to connect to anyone at any time from virtually anywhere, there may be no boundary between work and home — unless you create it. Make a conscious decision to separate work time from personal time. When you're with your family, for instance, turn off your cell phone and put away your laptop computer.
• Manage your time. Organize household tasks efficiently, such as running errands in batches or doing a load of laundry every day, rather than saving it all for your day off. Put family events on a weekly family calendar and keep a daily to-do list. Do what needs to be done and let the rest go. Limit time-consuming misunderstandings by communicating clearly and listening carefully. Take notes if necessary.
• Bolster your support system. At work, join forces with co-workers who can cover for you — and vice versa — when family conflicts arise. At home, enlist trusted friends and loved ones to pitch in with child care or household responsibilities when you need to work overtime or travel.
• Nurture yourself. Eat healthy foods, include physical activity in your daily routine and get enough sleep. Set aside time each day for an activity that you enjoy, such as practicing yoga or reading. Better yet, discover activities you can do with your partner, family or friends — such as hiking, dancing or taking cooking classes.

How To Achieve Life Balance

Pick Areas of Your Life That Matter

Life balance is all about focusing on areas of your life that matter to you and having an adequate amount of time to be able to work on them. After-all, if certain things didn’t matter to you then you wouldn’t care if you got round to working on them or not.

Some aspects of life that you find important and require some of your attention may include:

• Health
• Relationships
• Personality
• Happiness
• Parenting
• Family Activities
• Finances
• Hobbies / Interests…

…the list goes on. Working on your finances could mean that you want to work on getting out of debt by budgeting or even be that you’re looking for ways to increase your income. Hobbies and interests could include building your skills at a certain sport or even something more practical like learning a new language.

It is important that you now take the time to identify areas of your life that really matter to you. I find that I’m far better at tasks like this when I use a pen and paper rather than a word processor on my computer.

The items in bold are the areas that I had chosen to work on for my schedule but everyone’s answers will be different. Once you have your list together, you’re ready for the next part.

Add Details to Each on How You Can Improve

It is quite ironic but it is often the case that we stress and worry about areas of our lives and let them consume our thoughts. Then, when our situation isn’t improving by its own accord we get even more stressful and anxious. Instead, wouldn’t it be much easier if we just set out a plan on how to improve each area of our life and then started taking action?

Now that you have a list of life areas that matter to you, jot down some points on how you think you could improve them or fit them into your schedule. For example, an area of my life that is important to me is my health and I knew I wanted to work on improving that. So, I would write down a few bullet points on how I can do just that:

• Go to the Gym 3x per week
• Take 2 Protein Shakes per day (I’m on a bulk)
• Try to eat healthy, regularly

That’s it; don’t make things complicated if they don’t need to be. If you want to work on a new language then write down how much time you would need to set aside to get to the level you want to reach. If you want to improve your relationship then list things you would like to do to work on that whether it is going out for a meal or setting aside time with your partner to discuss your issues.

Not every item is going to have some guaranteed time frame or task you need to do in order to solve it and not every item is going to have a recurring task. For instance, if you need to get out of debt, simply put down that you need to set aside time to work out where you could lower your spending and research increasing your income.

Fit Items into a Flexible Schedule

Depending on who you are and what matters to you in life you may have in front of you a huge list of items or a rather short list. There are 24 hours in a day and of course 7 days in a week, so this is the time frame that you are going to be working in. I think it is far better to work on a weekly schedule rather than a monthly schedule, and then add in extra items that aren’t recurring tasks or ideas afterwords.

Take my workouts for example; I work out three times per week and I know each session takes around one hour – therefore this must go into a weekly schedule of mine. I don’t work a regular job so I’m quite fortunate that I can literally do this any time of day. However, if you work 9-5 then you must set- aside time to do this either before you go to work (wake up sooner) or after work (get home later).

If this already sounds daunting to you then consider how much you really want to get your life in order and work on the things that matter to you.

Add all of the items on your list which have some kind of recurring task whether it is going to the gym or spending 2 hours learning French into a flexible schedule.

Put all my items into a schedule and my weekly plan would look something like this:

• Monday: Workout arms
• Tuesday:
• Wednesday: Workout legs, Public speaking club
• Thursday:
• Friday: Workout chest
• Saturday: Spend time with my family
• Sunday: Plan my week ahead, Check website stats

Note how basic and simple this all seems right now. The parts where I haven’t scheduled my time is where I will be working which is basically non-negotiable, it’s how I survive. So even if I have a 9-5 job Monday to Friday, I know that on Monday, Wednesday and Friday I need to work out. I also know not to make plans for a Wednesday night because I go to a public speaking club.

Don’t feel like you need to put the obvious tasks in there like eat breakfast, go to work, wash the dishes and that kind of thing. Instead, make sure the items on your list are extras; or in other words, the things you would not normally do.

The reason it is important to keep this schedule flexible is because life will never be the same week after week. If something comes up on a Monday or I sleep in and miss my workout, then I can push all workout days back one day and catch up that way. If you find that your list has tons of items with lots of details and you can’t fit it all in, it’s probably time to prioritize.

If you are looking for something more serious and scheduled with exact details then I recommending checking out ToDoist which I use daily and would probably struggle without.

Come Up with ‘Mini-ideas’ for Other Areas of Your Life

Some of the things we would like to work on don’t necessarily need scheduled or recurring tasks to keep them in order. For example, if you like gardening, it’s not like you will have to do the same thing week after week to keep your garden looking nice. Instead, you could dedicate a few weekends to getting things how you like them, and spend a few hours per month keeping things in order.

Additionally, for your health, instead of doing a regular program like going to the gym, you could try a one-month detox where you only eat raw food and drink water. This will have amazing benefits for you and for only 30 days per year, it’s not exactly excruciating.

If you look at the first section of this post I bolded the word ‘personality’ as an area of my life that I would like to work on. By personality I mean my behaviours, characteristics and my values. I’m a big reader and I came across the idea of a 21-day challenge in the book Psycho Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz. Therefore I decided to create a 21-day challenge for myself and it turned out to be an excellent mini-idea that I could use, and it also benefited thousands of my blog readers when I wrote about it.

Your imagination is your only limit when it comes to creating mini-ideas for areas of your life that don’t require schedules. You could spend a few weeks in another country to improve your language skills, take a Friday off work and enjoy a long weekend with relatives or even just buy a cook book and spend time to learn some new recipes.

If you can’t come up with any mini ideas then you could do some brainstorming online or re-evaluate how important this item really is to you.

Identify Time Wasters

As I’ve stated, there are going to be people with a list and plan far greater than mine. This is partly because my responsibilities are quite small and I’ve managed to turn my hobby into my income source over the last few years. For those of you who are struggling to see where certain things you want to improve are going to fit into your life, it’s a good idea to identify time-wasters.

Did you know that the average American by the age of 60 years old has spent over 10 years in front of the TV? 10 years looking at a screen that is probably most often showing the lives of fictional people. Remember that there are 24 hours in every day. Let’s say that your job takes up 9 of those and your sleep takes up 8. That is still 7 hours of free time that you have available; quite a lot if you think about it.

Even if you include making food, looking after your kids, getting up in the mornings to get washed and dressed then there are still a good 3-4 hours to work with every single day. Even if you have a 9-5 job and want to get all areas of your life in order, you still have plenty of time to do it…as long as you rid yourself of the timewasters.

Possible time wasters include:

• Procrastinating on jobs you are doing
• Waking up at the last possible minute, even though you’ve had enough sleep
• Browsing the internet for no real reason
• Gaming on your computer
• Watching the TV

Everyone reading this leads different lives, so it’s up to you to make an honest self-assessment and look at the possible time wasters in your life and eliminate those where necessary. Remember I managed to build the majority of my internet business today while working 7 days per week. I didn’t even have weekends to give me a solid run of directed effort, just a few hours here and there.

Even if you only find 3 hours in a week day, that could still be an hour for the gym, an hour working on building an internet income and some time devoted to your children are partner. Things can be simple if you let them be so.

Balance Will Only Make You Efficient, Not Happy

Balancing all areas of your life is an excellent idea for people who feel they may be neglecting things or even people. Taking the action steps in this post will also be great for people who have goals but need to make time for them in their otherwise busy schedule. However, if you are looking for life balance to make you happy, then I’m sorry to say that you’re searching in the wrong field.

I’m sure some of you are instantly thinking something along the lines of:

“If I get to quit my day job then I’ll be happy”, “If I get to work on my goals then I’ll always be smiling”

How do I know? Because I’ve been down the exact same path. It used to take me about an hour to get home from my job each day, most of it on foot. I kept saying to myself how amazing it would be to get to work on my projects full-time and how perfect life would be if that were the case.

Well, I’m now in that situation, and while I fully appreciate my opportunities, it’s not where my happiness comes from. True happiness comes from being here, in this moment, right now. Look around you, take everything in. The sounds, the smells, the energy of the environment and just everything you can sense. Stop resisting everything around you, even if the smells are bad and the energy is dull…so what. Feel your inner body and just let everything be. Everything right now is as it is, and it always will be that way.

Don’t wait for happiness to come to you, recognize it in your surroundings and inner-energy at any moment of time.

Be grateful for the fact that somewhere in this world you’re able to sit down, relax, and read an article on a subject that wants to help you transform your life. Are you going to be the kind of person that takes action, or are you going to sit back and watch the script of your life unfold like it will for those who view the past as something they regret.

It is up to you.