7 Simple Steps To Maintain A Work-Life Balance
I was watching the news a few days ago and a study was conducted about what people would prefer when it comes to a good job, a lot of money, more time with family or the proper work/life balance. In the day and age we live in, I assumed people were thinking about money. I was WRONG. The number one thing people wanted was to achieve the proper work/life balance. I guess it isn’t surprising when another study showed that 53% of people in BC are not only working full time but then work on the weekends. Oddly enough, this is something I talk about all the time and it’s something I am always trying to master because I believe it is SO truly important to maintain a work/life balance. Let’s break down 7 steps to maintain a work/life balance.
As mama’s, we do HUSTLE. The beauty of that terminology is that I don’t even need to explain it, as a working mom, or just a full-time mom, you know exactly what I mean by that. I remember going back to work after having my first daughter and it was HARD. I promised myself though that I would only find a job that would allow me to work two and a half days a week. At the wage I was making, I knew that two and a half days would be enough to survive with my husband’s income. It wasn’t a ton, but it was enough. Again, instilling my frugal living is what made it doable.
But why? Why did I choose to work minimally to bring in JUST what we needed, at a job that offered me PLENTY more hours and a very good wage, meaning we could have had a ton of extra money floating around…
Two words. FAMILY LIFE!
To me, this is time I will NEVER get back with my family. I will never be able to see my kids grow up again and let’s be honest, time flies! Even if we’re watching it every day, it just flies by! So to me, I wasn’t interested in the extra money because in turn, this meant extra stress and less time with my kids and family. Needless to say, I stuck true to my words on two and a half days and barely offered them more (only when necessary did I give them a tiny bit more of time).
Why am I telling you all of this?
When I start breaking down the tips of how to instill a proper work/life balance, I want you to know it’s from a source who has done it. I am no master at anything, and always looking at ways to improve and implement something new to better myself at this. For now, though, I want to share with you what has worked at maintaining this balance. I was even in the elevator with a co-worker on my first week at the job I’m referring to and he asked me how old my daughter was. At the time she was 15 months and he asked me how many days I’d be working, and when I said two and a half, he immediately shot back, “that seems like you have a really good work/life balance.”
Why is that? Well, I’ve broken it down into 7 simple steps to maintain a work/life balance
Priorities
Nobody can do it all without setting priorities. What is your main priority? For me, as mentioned above, nothing was going to come in the way of my family being my main priority. So what does that mean? That means I have to somehow juggle everything else around my MAIN priority.
Being In The Moment
When you’re working, or in my case blogging, I have to be focused and at the moment. I need to be engaging, I need to be thinking of my next blog article, I need to be drafting my next blog article etc… But when I am out with my friends, playing with the kids or my husband just got home from work, I need to be at THAT moment. That means fully present, phone down, no distractions (which can be easier said than done, I will not lie about that).
What has helped keep me in check with this, is openly accepting reminders from my husband to “put my phone down” or to “stop working for the day because it’s our time.” I have asked and ALLOW my husband to say those things to me if I am losing sight or getting out of hand with my work to help redirect me into the moment.
Unplugging
This ties in with what I mentioned above but seriously has an “unplug” time. As a mother, I only have moments here and there that I am not taking care of my girls. Typically it doesn’t happen all in one peaceful setting (as it happens to be right now haha) where both girls are napping. BUT, should that moment present itself as it has right now, I use that time to jump on my laptop and get ahead for the week! I use this time while the girls aren’t around because there is peace in the house to focus, to be present and at the moment AT WORK. That way, when they wake up, I am all there’s and I can “unplug” for a while.
The same goes when my husband gets home from work. After not seeing him all day, I don’t like looking over and seeing him on his phone, so why would I expect him to like that of me? When he gets home from work, we “unplug” and it is our time to play with the girls, to communicate about our day etc… The only time I will pull out my phone is to capture a funny video or photo, but I am not aimlessly scrolling through Instagram, googling facts about things, checking craigslist etc…
Lastly, the other thing I have recently done to stay unplugged is turning my social media notifications OFF! Not having my phone light up constantly with notifications allows me to be more at the moment, to stay unplugged and to not get distracted by what’s going on. It has been beneficial, so if you’re reading this, I challenge you to do the same and see what it does for you!
Taking Time For Yourself
I talked about this just a couple of blog posts ago about self-care and the importance of it. If you are a mama (i am going to refrain from using the term “working mama” because I think we are ALL working mama’s whether we have a secular job or not), you know that to have a proper work/life balance, you need time for yourself. That time is so valuable to refresh yourself for your kids, your spouse, your work etc… It will allow you to be the best version of yourself, because what good are we when we are run down, exhausted, overworked and have zero time for a little self-care?
Use Your Peak Time
Knock out your most difficult tasks or write that blog post your feeling super inspired to write about at that time of day when your feeling your sharpest. That is what I like to call the “peak time.” I am not going to lie, this doesn’t happen every day, half of the week I feel frazzled in complete chaos. Yet, when I DO have those moments, if I can jot down some ideas to use later if the girls are up, that’s what I do. Or for instance, right now, my house is peaceful, the girls are sleeping and I feel so focused. So what am I doing? I am writing my blog post for the week because I need to take advantage of these opportunities and peak times.
Let the little things go
Ok so you made a mistake at work, maybe even one that SO easily could have been avoided. Big deal! It happens to ALL of us. Or, maybe you happened to look away for a SPLIT second and your child hurt himself somehow, but he/she is ok! But you, you’re not doing so good because you can’t believe you let yourself do that! Let. It. Go! At the end of the day remember where ALL imperfect, we all make mistakes, big and small. But what good in your day does dwelling on it have? Accept what happened and move on. Ruminating over it only makes you feel worse, which in turn can make the people around you feel off because YOU are off.
Don’t Be Afraid To Ask For Help
If you have a massive to-do list that you need to get done or whatever your case may be, ask for help if you have it! If you don’t, consider hiring help. After a long week of being a mother, a career woman and so on, maybe you don’t have the energy to clean the house, so why not consider hiring some help if that is doable for you and your family!
This does not make you a failure for needing help, this makes you human! If anything it should humble you to realize, it’s OK to ask for help. I’ll admit, some days I think I’m superwoman and can get EVERYTHING under the sun done. Then my husband comes home and I’m exhausted and I can’t give my all to my family because I am so tired. Those are the days I think to myself, “why didn’t I just ask my mom to come to get the girls for a couple of hours?”
Don’t try to be superwoman, just ask for help! This is something I am going to make more of a goal because I DO have lots of families around. Take advantage of it if you do because we ALL know the phrase, “it takes a village to raise a family!”
I hope you have found these 7 Simple Steps to Maintain a Work/Life balance useful
What are some tips that have helped you balance work and life? Let me know in the comments below! If you like what your reading, remember to subscribe and this way you will NOT miss out on any past articles and will get news on what is up and coming with my monthly newsletter.
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