5 TIPS ON HOW TO MANAGE A WORK-LIFE BALANCE

1. Identify & Eliminate Time-Wasting Activities

If we do not plan our daily activities in an organized manner, we tend to spend a lot of time on unwanted and unnecessarily time-consuming activities.

Do you always feel the urge to check your Facebook feed?
Do you refresh your social media page every few minutes to see if there is anything new?
Do you have your work email configured on your phone even when your company doesn’t need you to be available 24/7?
If your answer is ‘yes’ to any of the above questions, then you are wasting more than 60% of your time doing unnecessary activities.

You need to plan and organize your actions.

Make it a point to go online only to respond to all of your “online needs”. And when you have no more “needs”, shut down your laptop/cell phone.

Nothing will be lost if you do not respond to your Facebook notifications a few hours later.
The world will not collapse if you do not approve your best blogging friend’s comment on your latest post until you get to your “online time.”
For instance, I have a habit of going online only after 9 P.M. every day. That gives me enough time with my daughter to listen to what happened with at her school and help her with any homework. I also have quality time with my wife to discuss personal goals and activities.

After 9 P.M., I spend only 5 minutes per hour online, unless I am really required to do more. My downtime on my blog is in the evenings, as you can imagine from my schedule above. I am active after 11 P.M. for an hour to do my content writing and reading.

Once your kids turn into teenagers, you also need to instill such organizational habits in them, so they grow up understanding the value of their time. Such positive behavior in your kids will help them better manage their life goals and achieve results far beyond expectations.

But this post is not about parenting…

1. Be Among Constructive People

Take a minute to assess your surroundings; what’s happening at work, at home, and around friends and relatives?

Just observe what people have to say about a particular scenario or about other people. If you feel there is a lot of negativity around you when you are with a person, you will be better off without them.

We spend around 8-10 hours a day among co-workers. This is sometimes more than how much you spend with your family! So you can imagine how much their judgments and behaviors will affect your judgments and behaviors.

Be Among Constructive People

If you are surrounded by people who have a sense of optimism and share a constructive thought with you, you tend to think in a similar way. This will produce a positive feeling, and you will be geared toward achieving more by allocating more of your time in the right direction.

Your friends might be critics of your writing; they may have a say in what you write and how you project your feelings in your posts. This is good because you need both negative and positive criticisms to become a better human being.

But you need to shy away from a person who is always sarcastic about your work and whose thoughts and comments do not allow you to improve yourself.

1. Stop Procrastinating By Setting Priorities

“I will finish this post tomorrow.”

“It is Sunday tomorrow, and I can get up early and devote a couple of hours to finish my post. I will not have any disturbance, and it will give me the environment to get the flow of thoughts to write better content.”

Stop Procrastinating By Setting Priorities

This is what I’m constantly thinking, and it takes a lot of effort to overcome these thoughts.

In order to stop pushing your tasks to a later time, it is helpful if you can schedule your activities. There are many online tools and websites available that help you set your schedules and goals for each day.

If you need something to get started with, check out this productivity planner which helps you set goals and organize your weekly and daily plans:

Each day, I set goals for the next day that I have to achieve in my allocated time slots. These goals or tasks might be related to my blogging or even to my personal life where I have to perform certain chores.

For example, I typically devote my early morning hours for writing fresh content. I know that when I go to sleep, I will wake up and write.

I go about my day by checking off tasks as I complete them.

If I perform all my tasks for the day, and then achieve something unplanned for, I know that I am balancing my time properly between my work life and my personal life.

Here are a few hand-picked articles that you should read:

Productivity Tips to Get More Work Done In Less Time
11 Productivity Hacks and Time Management Tips to Simplify Your Work Day

1. Introduce A Little Change In Your Daily Routine

If you feel that there is no balance in your life, or if you feel that you are not getting things done that you have planned for, or if you feel that your family needs more of your time, then I think you need a little “change” in your daily routine.

Change In Your Daily Routine

Change comes with a price. But not in monetary terms. It means that you will have to forego a certain activity or you will end up paying the price with your time.

Don’t take this lightly.

Time is the most precious asset that you have.
If you think that you do not spend quality time with your family in the evening, try to reschedule your work hours. Maybe arrive at work a little early and come back home a bit early.

If you think that you are not achieving your work targets, you need to change the way you approach a problem at work. Think outside of your normal thought process and get into brainstorming sessions with people who do not share similar thoughts.

By re-adjusting your daily activities, you will be amazed at how easy it will be for you to find the right balance at home and at work.

1. Relax Your Mind – Enjoy A Workout

Do not be caught up in a race toward “the goal”. Do not stress your mind with constant thoughts and plans for the future.

Today is the greatest gift you’ve got; now is the only time you actually have.

Ease your mind and take your thoughts away for a moment. Enjoy a ride along the countryside and bask in the scenic beauty that nature has provided.