Regain Control of Your Work and Life Balance

October 11, 2022

Balance is often a moving target. One week it’s great and others prove more challenging with both work and home-life responsibilities competing for time and energy. Balance can be thought of as more a spectrum, rather than a constantly shifting scale. It isn’t just about having more time to spend for self-care or with your family – it’s also about being smart with your time. There can never be true balance, but as long as the effort is made on all fronts, successful ‘flow’ can be found!

Here are five areas to help you find work-life harmony:

Organize Your Time
Streamline similar activities together and/or block off specific amounts of time for each activity.

Stick to a designated time to respond to emails, and schedule another time slot to respond to voicemails. This will help minimize distractions and keep you focused.
Combine all social media tasks together, and then move on to other things. This helps with avoiding falling down a social media rabbit hole and losing valuable hours of time.

Use Resources Available
Take advantage of different apps that are available to help continue that organized feeling in order to keep you on track for the long run. Schedule everything in your calendar, and make sure to put notifications and reminders on.

Looking to get some meditation or reflection into your mornings? Use an app like Balance or Headspace, and get notifications at set times for 5-minute power sessions.
Need help staying organized with your finances? Keep your banking and financial software management tools handy.
Finding that you’re getting distracted too easily by notifications on your computer or smartphone? Use the “do not disturb” setting at set times and get hyper-focused in whatever task you’re taking on. Once finished, turn your normal settings back on.

Ask For Help
If there are jobs to perform that family members can do, ask them to lend a hand. This way, it is easier to check items off your list faster, and you can get back to doing what you really love or whatever is urgent on your to-do list.

Communicate
Family members may have different ideas on work-life balance and it’s important to take time to truly understand each perspective. This cuts down on unnecessary frustration between each other and helps to build understanding and support, as well as avoid resentment.

Good communication can look like a family calendar shared via smartphone, or printed out and posted in a high-traffic area of your home.
Once a week, try to sit down with your family and go over upcoming schedules for the week ahead, in order to eliminate any unknown last-minute happenings that can trigger stress and frustration.

Be Proactive
Don’t wait for people to be organized around you; start the trend and set the tone for how you want things to go. It won’t always be a seamless strategy, and things will always pop up, but when you make an attempt to take control of your time, it can have endless positive results not only for you, but also for the people around you.