There are always two
sides to every individual on the surface of the earth, assuming such an
individual is mentally and physically hale and hearty. These two sides ensure
that such an individual is able to live a meaningful and fulfilled life. These
sides are a work life and a personal life.
Do you know that one of
the causes of stress and ill-health in many people is their inability to keep a
healthy divide between their work and personal lives? So much so, that many burn
out due to feelings of inadequacy and guilt when it becomes apparent that one
phase of their lives seems to be encroaching into the time for the other.
So, it possible to
strike a balance between your business/professional and personal lives, so that
you can gain more productivity and be less likely to wear out? Yes, it is; it
will however take careful planning, loads of determination and the willingness
to keep trying even when you miss the mark. The following tips can serve as
your guide:
1.Create a List of Work and Personal Pursuits
The first step on the
way to maintaining a balance between your business and personal life is to have
a list of all the pursuits, goals and objectives that you hold dear in your
business/professional life. You should do the same for your personal pursuits.
Your aim with this step is to clearly see what activities and endeavors will be
competing for your attention.
In this way you are
able to have complete picture of what is expected of you in both areas of your
lives and then you can begin to apportion the time, energy and resources in
dealing with them.
2.Set Priorities
Now that you have
created lists for both your business and personal pursuits, it is pertinent
that you rank these activities on both lists in the order of the most important
to the least important.
It can also be some
other kind of classification that will help you gain clarity and conviction as
to what needs to be done at the time that it needs to be done, with regard to
the significant aspects of your activities.
Prioritization will
help you incorporate these activities into your overall daily, weekly, monthly
or yearly schedule and what efforts and resources should be channeled as
appropriate.
3.Create a Schedule and Stick to It
Now that you have
successfully created and structured your tasks and activities into prioritized
modules of action, it now time for you to fit in these activities into a
schedule that subsumes each and every activity as well as the time of the day
and duration.
In this regard, it can
be helpful you develop a weekly schedule that encompasses all your regulars
like going to work or your business, time-out with friends and family, sports,
hobbies as well as other one- time events that you normally engage in.
You can then formulate
a daily schedule for those repetitive tasks (aside work/business or school)
that you have to fulfill each day.
The aim of these
schedules is to do a comparative mix that will ensure that your achieve your
priority daily items while at the same time paying attention to one of the
other items that should come after you must have carried out your obligations.
A functional schedule
can also serve as a great means of keeping tabs on the progress you make in
sticking to your course of action and to see what areas you need to improve
upon.
4.Fight-off Procrastination
If
you truly desire to maintain a balance between your business and personal
lives, then you will need to constantly fight the tell-tale signs of
procrastination. It rears its undesirable head when you tend to put off things
that should be done at any given time until you are faced with the deadline and
you have little or no time left to accomplish it.
In that instance, two
things could happen: you will either
just barely make it or you will postpone the task until later.
The results are you
having to face more stress and burnout, especially when a business task seeps
into the time meant to relax and unwind with family.
One way of beating
procrastination is by breaking large tasks or projects into smaller, less
complex and achievable bits. This method makes the task much less formidable
and you can gain encouragement as you complete the smaller bits and pieces.
5.Cut-out Distractions
If you conduct a proper
analysis, you will be amazed at how much distractions take the wind out of the
sail of your productivity and time. Distractions may include the following: watching too many television programs,
spending great amounts of time on social media, engaging in idle banter and day
dreaming.
In order to fight off
distractions and get the tasks that need to be done on both your business and
personal schedules, you can embark on the following courses of actions:
- Place
a premium on important, rather than urgent, tasks. The reason for this is
that important tasks have been scheduled and are proactively carried out,
while urgent tasks steal into your apportioned time and force you to
react.
- Turn
off the internet and if your telephone must be left on, ensure that you
put it on silent mode.
- Ensure
that your work space is organized and clutter free
- Have
water, food and snacks at hand and also schedule times for short breaks.
While the above courses
of action are by no means exhaustive, you can actually create a balance in your
business and personal life, with a plan and a purpose in mind. It must also be
noted that a key ingredient you will need in this instance is the capacity to
remain disciplined and focused.
You should also not be
too hard on yourself when you fail at certain points. All that you need to do
is to pick yourself up and give it another shot.
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