Living a balanced life is hard, when you are being pulled in so many directions at the same time — family, faith, work, friends, health and fitness, self-care, and the list goes on. Creating balance in life is all about feeling a low-level of stress with a high sense of happiness.
It is nearly impossible to find a sense of balance leading to your own happiness without relying on some system of organization. When your living space is a mess, or you are late completing a task (such as paying the bills or wrapping up a project for work or school), or you feel like your days just come and go without actually accomplishing ANYTHING, you may feel overwhelmed, defeated, or exhausted.
Relying on your system of organization will help to create balance in your life. If this seems overwhelming and you don’t know where to begin, just start small!
What’s Your Purpose?
The work-life balance will look different for each individual. It might even look different for the same person on different days. It is hard to create this balance and be organized, when you don’t know your purpose. What is your “why”? What fuels your soul? Why do you do the things you do? Organizing your life and creating balance will be a lot easier when you know the answer to these questions.
Make the Commitment
You hear it over and over — create a schedule, follow a routine, and most importantly stay committed to it! When you are creating your schedule and routine with your values and goals as the priority, you should feel confident sticking to it and putting your foot down when outside distractions get in the way. Try making a to-do list, scheduling your workouts (much like any other appointment), writing down your goals and intentions, and accommodating time for YOU. Keep these lists close by at all times. Look at them, cross things off when they are completed, and allow your lists to dictate the direction of each day to create balance along the way.
While you are creating your schedule and routine, you will gain a sense of the tasks you CAN NOT skip and how much time to allow for each of your daily tasks/obligations. Learn to say no to the things that don’t align with your priorities, values and goals, and drop the idea of perfection — it doesn’t exist.
Clean Up!
It would be impossible to move through your day in an orderly and organized fashion, if you are working in a disorganized and cluttered space. If you want to be your most productive self, you need to organize your space to limit distractions and improve focus. This will keep you on track with your to-do lists and goals — and ultimately create more balance in your life.
You can do this by starting very simple:
Get rid of non-essentials (read: clean out the trash!)
Sort your things — keep all like items together
Find a home for everything — and always return it to the appropriate place
Do a quick clean-up at the end of each day — so your space is ready to go in the morning
Fuel Your Soul
Creating balance will feel like a juggling act on most days. Don’t let food sabotage your efforts — this is an area you can completely control. Eating can be a real stressor and cause a great feeling of disorganization, if you don’t have a plan. Be prepared. Know when you are eating and what you will eat. Have fast, easy, and healthy snacks on hand so you can grab them quickly without putting much thought into it.
Prioritize Your Health
In order to have an appropriate work-life balance, you must value your physical well-being. Make time for exercise each day. You will feel better and more energized to move throughout your day and stay on track to keep all the things in balance.
Creating a sustainable and desirable work-life balance will not happen overnight. Work is a necessary part of life, but you can’t allow it to cause you to miss out on having a personal life. At the same time you can not let your personal life have a negative affect on your job. Do something today to start getting organized for balance. Your future self will thank you for it — a balanced and happy life is something you deserve!