How do you create the proper work-life balance in your life?
Do you ever feel guilty that you’re not fully engaged in either your work or your personal life? Balance suggests an equal weight of the time, energy and resources. The boundaries can be blurred, so frame your work-life balance as integration or blending.
Ernest Hemingway wrote the following and I think its sound advice: “Try to learn to breathe deeply, really taste food when you eat, and when you sleep, really sleep. Try as much as possible to be wholly alive with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell; and when your get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You’ll be dead soon enough.”
Bottom line: Finding balance is a trial and error process. Creating balance is a full-time commitment. Achieving balance takes practice.
I would like to propose four strategies for you to integrate life and work:
Number one: Block Time. Set boundaries and specific times during the day for business, personal and family time.
Number Two – Take a tech time-out: Take a break from your phone, e-mail and social media. Leave your phone at home when you’re out as a family or as a couple.
Number Three – Be present: Focus on the moment.
Number Four – Prioritize the things that are the most important to you. Not everything on your to-do list can carry equal weight.
Let me conclude with this idea. Mark Train once said, “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” If you think of it a different way, your “frog” is your biggest, most important task. It’s the one thing are most likely to procrastinate on if you don’t take action right away. So, eat your frog each day by attacking the most important items on your list in order of priority and find the balance that works for you.
