The Ultimate Guide To Balancing Your Work And Life

The Ultimate Guide To Balancing Your Work And Life

How many times have you found yourself responding that you are so busy whenever someone asks you how you are doing?
Maybe you figure that it’s an easy response that doesn’t need much explanation or it has just hit you that it’s the end of the week and you have no idea where all the time went.
There is a common saying that time waits for no man. Yet why is it that so many of us waste ours and fail to prioritize what is important?
Why is it that you will schedule one thing on your calendar only to replace it with something else?
If you are a professional, you will find that a majority of your time revolves around work. Yes, work is important to you because it gives you an identity but so are other things in your life like family and friends.
If you are reading this, it means you have reached a point where you have no control over what you do. One aspect of your life has taken over so much that you don’t know who you are anymore.
In this article I will address 5 major ways you can prioritize your work and life without feeling like you are being sucked in by one thing and ignoring everything else.
1. Determine the value in every task
Even before you decide what to prioritize, you need to determine just how important that action is to you.
The value is what you gain whether long term or short term from a task.
So remember that when you invest your time in anything, you are doing that to create future value for the time you are spending now.
This will determine what you term as important.
2. Design your ideal week
That calendar should not be something that stresses you out when you look at it. Everyday should be an exciting adventure but if it’s not, change it.
The reason so many of us find ourselves using phrases like “I don’t have work life balance” is because we have allowed someone else to prioritize our lives for us.
You have allowed you employer for instance to run the show and no longer have a say on when you get to kick back and enjoy your life outside work.
Start re-shaping your schedule today by creating your ideal week.
3. Consider pursuing your passion
Here is the brutal truth; if you find yourself going weeks or months just doing things out of sheer obligation and not because you want to, it means you need a change.
Work should not always be stressful nor should it be something forced upon you. You should be able to wake up every day and look forward to going to work because you know you are in the right calling.
Though every job has its drawbacks, it should at least have a purpose.
You only have so many days on earth, and they go by faster than you may realize. So try not to spend them on things that don’t actually matter.
4. Work smart, not longer
Some people think that working more hours is the only way to get more done.
This however is more harmful and is the greatest contributor to depression among many Kenyan professionals.
Instead of working for long hours, why don’t you learn to prioritize your work?
What I mean is; when you get to work every morning stick to your schedule even if it means you don’t do everything perfectly.
Just do what you can and pick up from there the next day.
5. Don’t try to be a perfectionist
As humans, the impulse to spend extra time on a task to ensure that it is perfect can really take a toll on our mental health.
If you feel overworked, ignore it – assure yourself that what you have already done may not be perfect but it is still good enough.
And this also applies to your situation at home. Don’t stress yourself out because everything is not where it’s supposed to be.
Take life easy, whether at work or at home and realize that you cannot be perfect all the time.
You will spend half of your adult life working and at some point you may feel like your career is the most important thing and there is nothing wrong with that. However, always strive to balance between work and life with the above tips.

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