If you are looking to balance your work and home life, you are not alone.
We talk a lot about work-life balance, let’s break it down with a yearly, monthly, and weekly approach.
Setting Priorities and Goals
Put your priorities in order visually. Use a planner or calendar that accommodates a daily, weekly, and monthly view, it may also be helpful to color-code work and personal goals.
Write or type what do you need/want to accomplish — both personally and professionally, then rank them. Here is an example of a possible ranking system, that will help ensure that you are managing both your own and other’s expectations.
HOT: What needs to get done this week? Keep a hot list of no more than 8-10 things that MUST be accomplished.
WARM: What needs to be done in the next 2-3 weeks? Set a date for these initiatives and schedule daily tasks needed to achieve them.
IN PROGRESS: What do you want to get done in the coming months? Set a date for these goals and then work backward, scheduling daily or monthly tasks to meet the yearly milestone.
🔥 Hot Tips
• Use block scheduling to schedule your work hours and personal responsibilities. Maybe color code them? Have fun with it! Do your tasks outside of work require the use of your morning, midday, or evening? Block scheduling is particularly helpful for those who need flexibility in their schedule, wear multiple hats, or are easily distracted. It allows you to hone in and focus.
• Create a routine and schedule in a “prep hour” each day to allow yourself time to prepare for the following day, week, months.
• Make a change in your career. Once you set your priorities, you may see that your work and personal goals cannot be achieved in your current position. The good news is…you are in luck! The job market is on fire with many different modes of work — temporary, contract, part-time, full-time, and remote. If your goal is to work from home, work on contract, switch industries, or find a new full-time job, you can find career opportunities that will help you meet your goals.
• Say no to additional prior commitments that are requested. Know you’re human limits.
• Never assume you will remember anything. Always put it on your planner in the daily, weekly, monthly time slot, not just a long-running “to do” list.
• Prepping Your Week. ✔️ Meal prepping, prepping laundry ✔️ Review your next day’s schedule, confirming meetings and appointments ✔️ Set up your morning coffee or shower ✔️ Putting gas in the car ✔️ Packing lunches and gathering gear for kids
• Keep Organized. One of the best things you can possibly do to make transitioning easier —from one day to the next—is to put things back where they belong when you get home, or when you move from one task to another. This eliminates the amount of time you have to spend and organizing each day!
• Schedule your downtime. It is important to use your downtime for you. By allowing your mind and body to relax, and rejuvenate, you are able to decrease your stress and have better mental clarity when you return to your next task, or the next day. Here are some great examples of things to help your mind wind down! — take a bath, watch a movie, meditate, hang out with a friend, have a date night with your spouse, listen to music, read a book or just go to bed early!
The longer you stick to planning out your weeks the better at it you will become, allowing for optimal stress relief and more efficient work! Finding the right balance both in and out of work is going to allow for optimal productivity. When we know exactly what we need to be doing, and when, it allows our mind to stay focused on the task at hand!
