How To Create a Work Life Balance

In this post, I’m sharing with you tips on how to create a work life balance. But, what even is the balance? It’s so vague that none of us quite understand what it is and whether or not we have it. Which is probably why we’re feeling like we’re doing it all wrong. We need to work but not too hard, we need to relax and make time for personal interests, family and other social activities, so how do we find the right balance?

Well, that depends entirely on you. When it comes to finding the right work-life balance, you can listen to other people’s advice but whether or not others find your routine “balanced” is irrelevant. It’s about finding out what is satisfying for you.

With that said, in this post I’ll be talking about finding a balance which works for YOU, so you can live a more satisfying life.

Understand what you want

The first step to creating a work-life balance is to understand what you actually want. To do this you need to grab a pen and paper, I’ve always found putting pen to paper works best for this type of exercise, rather than doing it digitally. Now, imagine your ideal day and think about where you are, who you’re with, what you’re doing, what your purpose is and how you feel.

The point of this exercise is to give you something to work with, so you can have an idea of what you want and what you don’t want. It might find it hard to piece together your ideal day when your reality is so far from this dream but it’s worth doing as it can help you find balance in your life and make time for the important things.

Try not to cater to your overindulgent self such as creating a lazy day in front of Netflix with unhealthy snacks, as this type of day will not cater to your best self. Because I know you want to be the best version of yourself that you can be, so think about how your higher self would act and what your ideal day would look like.

If you’re struggling, you can always create multiple ideal days and put some variation into your routine, there is no right or wrong, it’s about understanding what you want.

Analyse your day

Now you know what your ideal day looks like it’s time to analyse it. Take a look at what you’ve written down and note how much time you want to spend working, how much time you want to spend exercising, how much time you want to spend on personal development, how often you want to see your friends and family, and how much time you want to spend relaxing.

If there are some activities in your ideal day which are not realistic in your current lifestyle, then instead think about how these activities make you feel. Are there any other things which you could implement into your life which will give you the same feelings?

Plan your time

Now that you’ve analysed your ideal day and you know the things you want to spend your time doing, it’s time to make a plan. First, block out time for your non-negotiable’s such as work or school. Next, take out a look at your notes and see how you can schedule your time.

I recommend starting with your morning routine, if you set your alarm before the rest of the house wakes up and before you need to start your day, you can set time aside to do the things you love. The evening is a good time to wind down from the day, during this time you might want to schedule something a little more relaxing such as journaling or reading. You know what your ideal work-life balance looks like so do what works best for you, just remember to be realistic and don’t pack too much into your schedule.

Follow through

A plan isn’t anything unless you actually follow through. Just remember that you are in control of your life, you might not be living your ideal life just yet but you can bring elements of it into your current lifestyle. Knowing what your ideal day looks like makes it easier to make decisions and choose where to spend your time to create your perfect work-life balance.

I hope you have found this helpful in creating a work-life balance. And I’d love to hear what your ideal day looks like!