Why is today’s world SO BUSY?
We keep hearing people complaining that their life has become so hectic.
They say they have no time to spend on what they really like to do.
As a boy growing up in Bangalore, India, I never heard my parents complaining like this.
Once my dad came back home from work, it seemed like he had all the time in the world to spend with us. He never said he was stressed at work, and he never said he had to work overtime on weekends.
So what has changed now?
Why is everyone talking about ‘balancing work and life’?
Give it a minute’s thought and you will realize that the main change has been “technology”.
But of course, the ever-evolving technology sector has helped mankind achieve what it couldn’t before.
Man has gone to the moon and back, and now Man is thinking of setting up homes on Mars- things which were unthinkable a short while ago.
But with great innovations come mighty disadvantages.
Technology has provided a smartphone to almost everyone; it has given us access to unlimited data and content on the internet. We can practically access the entire universe with a small gadget in our hands. That is just so awesome!
But are we putting that awesomeness to “good” use, and more importantly, “limited” use?
Do not misjudge me and think I am against “technological advancements”. I am actually completely for it, and I understand and reap the benefits of this radical change every day.
But the point of this post is to take a step back in our lives and see how we can still make time to enjoy life to the fullest instead of having to repent at a later stage.
So I am going to list five important changes that you can make that will help you balance your life in an optimal manner. Take these as suggestions. Some may apply to you and some may not, but I do hope there will be a positive change in your thinking toward achieving this balance.
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…
2. 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.
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.
3. 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.”
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:
4. 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 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.
5. 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.
Once you take your mind away from its routine ways of thinking, it gets re-charged, and when you get back to your task, you will be able to think faster and with more clarity than ever.
Meditation is also a great way to relax your mind and body. Try it out. Check out this article on how meditation can change your life.
For me, a good one-hour workout in the gym revitalizes me for the daunting day ahead. I spend half of that time doing cardio and the other half lifting weights.
There are countless advantages of keeping your body healthy, but that’s beyond the scope of this article…
I just want to say that if you take your mind away and focus on a completely different activity, you will get back to achieve more of what you want in a shorter amount of time.
Over To You: How do you maintain your work-life balance?
I can keep on writing about this topic, but I will stop now. I wanted to limit myself to only 5 tips, and I hope I have chosen the most important ones.
I want to know what you do to keep your life in balance. Do share your thoughts with me by leaving a comment below.
Like this post? Don’t f0rget to share it!
I found this article very interesting. These tips can help to focus on the work more effectively and can increase enthusiasm towards the work.
Hello Kajol,
Thanks for your comment and hope you can achieve your balance between work and life. It is important for all of us to utilize our time efficiently.
Hi Praveen Sir
I am really thankful to you for such a nice post about work management as I am a bibliophile and first I used to read every day but as I started writing blogs my routine was broken and blogging took my most of the time I was surfing over internet and found this post its the best that I found in so many results. I think this will solve my problem
Thank You
Hello Vardana,
Glad you found this article useful. Good luck for your blogging but keep reading.
Hi Praveen,
Your article described exactly how I’m feeling, I spend a lot of time updating social networks to find out if there’s anything new and I also leave my projects always on the last level, always thinking that there will be tomorrow to do them. Your article was a snap for me to review what’s important in mine and start prioritizing them. Thank you for sharing words of great value.
Hugs,
Hello Tatiana,
I am glad you liked the article and can relate to it. Procrastination is an evil devil for all of us and we have to overcome that somehow. I hope you do well.
Thank you PRAVEENRAJARAO for sharing a wonderful thought with us.
Like you said, now-a-days people are frustrated by themselves. They could hardly manage the time. If we schedule our time according to our daily plan, hopefully we can succeed and prosper in life. Finally, we can manage our valuable time with our friends, parents etc.
Mintu – I am glad you liked the article. As you rightly mentioned, scheduling your activities will help to a great extent. Yes, and you can spend valuable time with people whom you love.
Thanks for your comment.
Great article. Some of the tips you share in this I am already doing. I have already started to plan for each day that I work and now I take out two mornings each week to attend a HIIT session close to where I live.
I use the journal that my husband brought me for Christmas to plan out each days tasks.
Hello Allison,
I am glad you are already following many of the ways you can achieve a balance in your life. Yes, keeping a journal and jotting down your plan for the day always helps. Keep it going.
Hi, Abhishek.
Thanks for your excellent article. This article is really helpful for all the professionals. Especially, the bloggers must know about it because a blogger has to do many things within a short time. If they can not balance their work life they will be a loser. You article must help us to maintain a perfect working life.
I thought my routine was near perfect but I was wrong after reading this blog post. lol
What I do on the days I have off work is that I don’t check my work email even if new email is coming in all day and spend 4 hours on my blog. After the 4 hours I clean my apartment, visit family or walk to the local park to relax and not worry about work or blog stuff. Sometimes I get ideas when walking. lol
I don’t let my blogging life take over my personal life. That’s how I do things. I don’t skip going to my 6 year old nephews basketball game because I need to publish a blog post. I go see him and spend time with him and not do blog stuff when I get home.
Sometimes I just login, check my blog email, reply to a few and call it a day for the blog and other times I pull all nighters and go into work as a zombie. Geez, I need to stick to a real schedule or I might miss out on happiness offline.
Derek – I see that you have a hold on the time you spend on each activity, which is good. When you know you spend 4 hours on your blog you are already limiting the time you spend on it.
Good to know you dont skip the other important things in life, those are always important, make sure no matter what you become in life, your loved and dear ones always matter.
You are already doing what you need to be doing. Have fun!!
Thank you for such an amazing post. I could relate with each and every point. Trying to implement in my daily schedule.
Thanks for sharing the your views. Actually recently I left my job and started my own business. Leaving job and doing business is not a small step. As you have left everything behind. And now I so tense related to my work that beside doing work for regular 16 hours, there pressure and no piece. I hope your view will help me to get out of this.
Hello Vishal,
I can totally understand what you are going through, taking such a big step is a big decision and I hope you have followed your passion and chosen the right path. Keep your mind cool and take it one day at a time.
Hope you make it big.
We must keep up with the balance between our social existence and professional existence. Because both of them are essential for every person all over the world
Rightly said Joel. Finding that balance is where a lot of people have challenges.
Great article, thanks for sharing. I completely agree with you regarding technology, it’s been a blessing but also a burden.
Between all the social media platforms, emails, notifications (like how this article popped up on my phones notification), our time seems to get slimmer each day.
Juggling a family, kids and work is exhausting, but at the end of the day shit has to get done!
Hello Yosniel,
Yes, there is a lot of advancement which has lead to a lot of shrinkage in the time available for us since we get tied up in unwanted habits.
It is important to schedule and allocate time to each task these days when we have so many to achieve.
Yes, shit has to get done…
Good luck.
Very good tips, making them practical can be a struggle at times.
This has been one of the hardest things for me to maintain: the balance.
Building a business/career(s) building, maintaining a home, caring for family members (financiallly), with massive student debt – all I do is work. Now, I’ve added building a successful blog to the mix.
If I’m not working towards my goals, then I feel like I am wasting time.
I know I need to take time for myself, so I am working on that.
Thanks for the tips!
P.S. #LoveLatoya❤
Hello Latoya,
You just need to take one step back everytime you feel you are under pressure to get things done. Take a deep breath and clear your mind. Just think of something pleasant.
Just a few minutes of your mind wandering away at something you would prefer, will recharge you and you will perform better.
I know it is easier said than done, but if you practice this technique, you will surely master it.
Good luck with your busy work schedule, but remember time lost is gone for ever…so invest wisely.
Maintaining a balance in your work life is very challenging task for everybody. I personally have face this issue. I hope that these techniques will help me to make a balance in my work life.
Hello Vishwajeet,
Glad you liked the article and good to know you will try to put these into action. Do keep us posted on how it goes. Good luck.
Hey Praveen,
It’s good to see you here.:)
I totally agree with you. Technology has made some disastrous changes in the lifestyle. People claim to be busy but they actually are engaged with those tiny shiny little pieces of plastic and metal.
Procrastination is the biggest blurry factor in your success. You should drive your career to a path where no irrelevant activity can be performed.
Great read.
~Ravi
Hey Ravi,
Glad you read my article here and good to see your comment. I am sure you are already mastered your time-schedule between work and personal life.
I hope you have all the success with your wonderful blog, I am a regular visitor there as well.
Trying to Balance is always a bit tougher task but we have to maintain the balance between our social life and professional life. I agree with praveen raja rao ‘ s Comment
Shad – Glad you agree on what I had to say in this article. Good Luck and have a wonderful life ahead.
Nice tips, Praveen.
When I was doing job it was tough to maintain work(blogging+job) life balance. but later as I left the job, I am maintaining my work life balance quite nicely.
Thanks for super post.
Hello Atish,
I am sure you would have had to choose between the two and found it really hard. It is great that you could leave your job to blog and follow your passion.
Thanks for your comment.
Last year, I decided what the biggest time waster in my life was So, I eliminated it, 100%, gone.
Hello Chris,
That is awesome, it is cool when something is so apparent and you can easily identify the root cause of all your problems.
Thanks for your comment
To maintain habit change is important, thanx for this helpful post 🙂
Hi Akash,
I am glad you found this post helpful. Yes change is difficult but a necessity in some cases. Have a wonderful week ahead.
Hi Praveen,
Thanks for this lovely post,
It’s really helpful to a blogger like me.
Hello Abhishek
Glad you liked my post. Try to balance your life with some easy methods.
Yes , we have to maintain the balance between our social life and professional life. Because both are equally important for every single person around the world. See if you have too much amount of money but you can’t find some time for family members and friends also, then what’s the benefits of that amount. Same thing is with professional life, a wealthy professional life can give you every thing that you need in your life. Because in this materialistic world no one can live without these things. That’s the things which every body should be careful during whole life. ……. Have a good life
Hello Tajinder,
Thanks for your comment on this post. I agree with you, we have to maintain a balance, there is no meaning of earning large sums of money when you do not have the perfect health to enjoy them. Family and friends matter in today’s world, we have to find the right balance and seek towards those pleasures.
Have a good week ahead.