If you’re struggling to find a balance between your work and personal life, you’re not alone. Many people have difficulty managing their time in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle. However, there are some time management tips that can help improve your life balance. By following these 5 tips, you can take control of your time and start living a more balanced life. Keep reading to learn more!
Time Management Tips To Incorporate Into Your Day
A huge barrier to health for my clients is time management. If you don’t have time to cook at home, have a social life, or get some exercise or creativity, you can’t find proper health.
Step 1: Look at the Calendar
Questions to ask yourself as you consider your calendar and schedule are:
- What events are always on the schedule?
- Are there any upcoming anniversaries, birthday parties, or dinner plans with friends?
Don’t forget to manage your expectations with reality. We would all love to eat around the dinner table and share about our day went. Our kids have a ton of extracurriculars that keep us busy, and sitting around the dinner table every night isn’t a realistic option. You’re not a failure to not have a home-cooked dinner every night. You are just in a different season of life right now.
Step 2: Decide What is Essential and Prioritize Tasks
As you prioritize tasks, ask yourself what matters most? If you don’t name what matters most, you will do things that aren’t beneficial.
Then, write it down in a to-do list. Make sure to put the items in order of priority.
Not sure how to prioritize? I highly recommend reading The Lazy Genius Way by Kendra Adachi. She will walk you through how to name what matters most.
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Step 3: Say No: One Of The Best Time Management Tips
Once you have looked over the schedule and prioritized what matters most, it is time to start saying “No thanks.” to events that won’t work.
We wanted to put our daughter in the summertime soccer program, but what matters most to us is traveling on the weekends to visit family. Her age group is only on Friday evenings at 5:15 PM. We didn’t want to commit to something every Friday because we knew it didn’t align with what matters most. So we passed on the soccer but will sign her up in the fall if it works with our schedule.
Step 4: Batch Similar Tasks Together
Multi-tasking is not an effective time management skill and does not make you more productive. Instead, you go from task to task, which can be a real-time waster. Task batching is when you group similar tasks into a continuous work time session.
Here are some ways you can batch tasks:
- Laundry: pick one day a week to do laundry instead of doing a daily load. You will dedicate one day to doing all the laundry. For us, Sunday is laundry day. We knock it all out in one day, which is great because it is available if we need to use the washer in the middle of the week.
- Cooking: On Saturdays, we batch cook all of our meat and sauces and pre-chop our veggies. Batch cooking helps with weekday meals because we all have different schedules. My teenage son can mix and match the protein, veggies, and sauces and eat them when he gets home from basketball practice.
- Emails: If I tried to respond to every email as it comes in, I would just be doing that all day long. Instead, I respond to my personal emails twice a day. I spend about 15 – 20 minutes in the morning and then after the kids go to sleep.
Step 5: Schedule Downtime, “Me Time,” or Rest
We all need some time to recharge, reset, and relax. These types of rest are all different. If you want to dive into the different types, I recommend listening to this podcast.
If you don’t schedule the time, it will never happen. I remember being so stressed out trying to handle the kids, the household, and working full time. I just never got a break.
So after telling my husband what I needed (men aren’t mind readers), we were able to divide up tasks that freed us both up to schedule rest.
Recap: Time Management Tips To Improve Your Life Balance
By applying these 5 simple tips for time management, you can take control of your life and start living a more balanced lifestyle. If you’re struggling to find a balance between work and personal life, don’t hesitate to contact Jamie today for life balance counseling. With Jamie’s help, you can develop a plan that works best for you and finally achieve the healthy lifestyle you’ve always wanted.
