How work-life balance can help you find true happiness and success!
By Jessica Tha Goddess – January 6, 2021
Today I spent my day dealing with emails, texts, interviews, business planning, and writing this article. I also worked out, prepared healthy meals, spent quality time with my son, and meditated.
I am learning the power of work-life balance, and boy is it a game changer.
Jessica Tha Goddess
In another article I spoke about the power of walking and how I lost 30 pounds in 2020 walking and putting me first. I could not do that if I did not first learn to balance life and to put what matters most at the top of my list…ME!!!
As an entrepreneur it can be particularly difficult to balance life. If you do not make things happen you are in the poor house, and often we over-achievers are much harder drivers than corporate managers. So, it gets easy to leave yourself last on your list. That’s what I used to do. Every day I write a list, and every day I used to be at the bottom. There were rewards and consequences for doing this. The rewards, I thought, were that I made more money, I made everyone else happy, more people liked me, and I was a good person doing good deeds. The downside was I made less money, people expected more and more of me, if I ever did have to put myself first people got angry and no longer ‘liked’ me, and I got very sick which meant I made even less money.
This upside-down way of life had me on a hamster wheel to nowhere. While work-life balance has always been an issue for many, according to the HR Reporter since Covid 19 pandemic 8 out of 10 people say they are struggling with work-life balance. Working from home presents new challenges, ones us entrepreneurs have tackled all along, however now much more of society is feeling that same pressure. How do you pour kid’s cereal, help them do their homework, manage a customer service call, and send a report to your boss at the same time…HELP!!!
You have come to the right place because I have been going it on my own since 2007, and because I have served as a crash dummy of sorts on the topic, I am happy to share my 10 Tips that Will Help You Balance Work and Life Like a Boss!
Tip 1. Start Your Day with You – I have found that one of the best ways to make sure I do not fall to the bottom of my list, is to start my day with some much needed me time. When I wake, I hydrate (water), I take my vitamins, I meditate, breathe, and then I work out! I am not perfect, and am still building this routine, but I have been trying it for a while and I love the results. No matter what happens in the day I know I did right by me – right away! Also, if something does disrupt my ‘me time’ I reschedule with myself for a later time in the day. I treat myself with, at the very least, the same respect I would give anyone else I had an appointment with.
Tip 2. Eat Breakfast & Make it Healthy – this can be considered an extension of ‘you time’ but it’s so important it gets its very own tip J. When we are hungry it’s hard to think. We can be moody at worst, and at best it can make us tired, sluggish, and a bit off our game. By putting good fuel in your body early, you are respecting yourself and setting the tone for the rest of your day. You are also helping to regulate things like blood sugar and reminding your metabolism you are not starving – very important information to let your body know!
Tip 3. Make a List – one tool I use to keep myself on track is a daily to-do list. It has improved my productivity and kept me accountable to me. It also lets me know if I have too much on my plate and helps me see where my Priorities-in-Action are compared to where I want them to be. For example: if I say my overall priorities are myself, my son, my home, my business, and my friends in that order – but then my entire list is my business and my friends, I am neglecting myself, my home, and my son. POA (priorities in action) is a clear system I developed for myself that helps me know when my priorities are out of whack. If my priorities need adjusting, I re-structure my to-do-list – and shift my focus so I can achieve the balance I truly desire for my life.
Tip 4. Take Mindful Breaks – no matter what work you do you have to remember you are human and you need breaks. Even if it’s just 10 or 15 minutes, you need to take a couple breaks each day, and you need to make them mindful. A Mindful Break is not just any old break. It’s deliberate time, often alone, focusing on you, enjoying your break, breathing. If you are eating, focus on every bite. If you are making jokes with someone else, really enjoy the joke. Savor your time so that it seems longer and even more enjoyable. It should be a refreshing experience that encourages your body, mind, and soul to feel respected and nourished.
Tip 5. Set Boundaries and Stick with Them – if you are working for yourself your boundaries may be set with yourself, and you need to stick with them. Entrepreneurs may also set boundaries with their partner or their team. If you are working for someone else, your boundaries will need to be set with yourself and your manager.
Boundaries may include:
- Take lunch – and eat that healthy salad, or go for a walk around the block instead of taking yet another phone meeting
- Go to bed at a decent hour – staying up all night writing reports, putting out fires, complaining with co-workers keeps you in the workplace. You need to set a cut off time and stick with it
- Respect your time – keep meetings on topic and to a specific time. A critical part of work life balance is time management. If someone is carelessly eating your time up, set restrictions that honor your personal goals while also facilitating successful achievement of your business goals
Make a list of boundaries you think will help you achieve work-life balance. Consider time with your family, personal health, hobbies, goals, and include the things that are most important to you. Then build some boundaries into your life that protect you while still allowing for optimal productivity.
Tip 6. Increase Professional Fulfillment – this may be a longer-term strategy, but people who love, and feel fulfilled by, their professions are generally happier than those who do not. Of course, happiness is high up on the work-life balance priority list, so making moves towards greater personal fulfillment within your career can go a long way to adding joy to your life.
Tip 7. Manage Your Stress – life can be stressful, that’s a reality. It is our job to manage that stress. Part of managing stress is eliminating the stressors (people, places, things) that cause us tension and unhappiness; then working to reduce the ones we cannot eliminate. If a stressor cannot be eliminated or reduced, then we must actively seek healthy coping mechanisms so that we do not build up years of harmful effects on our bodies that could manifest into disease. This is a very important one folks, but it’s really hard to do unless you also do number 8.
Tip 8. Stay Connected to Your Own Body – do you remember stories of wildfires, floods, and other natural disasters that we humans did not see coming but that animals gave first warning to by stampeding past our dumbfounded behinds. Well, in a way, our body – if listened to – is that herd of animals stampeding by. It will warn us when something is detrimental to us, or when we are in danger, or need to change something in our lives. To receive these warnings, we must be in tune with, and listen to, our bodies. Meditation is one great way to achieve this, so is mindful breathing, yoga, and a host of other gentle, loving, introspective practices. Find what’s right for you and make sure you listen to your internal ques. Our inner vibrations often know what’s going on before external ques show up. Trust your intuition and always put you first. Another important part of your connection to self is drinking water when you need it, eating when you feel hungry (not eating when you do not), and sleeping deliberately each night. Give yourself a bedtime, it’s important to repair your body and allow you to heal before you take on another day.
Tip 9. Ask for Help – listen, growth often requires assistance. Alone we can grow to a point, but after that we need to call in the troops. Jeff Bezos could not have grown Amazon to its size if he was the only one on the Amazon team! Assistance can look like many things depending on where you are, and what your goals are. Here are some tools that have helped me:
- Put all meetings in my phone calendar
- Set my times to take vitamins in my phone to remind me
- Set reminders to work out
- Set timers when cooking
- Enlist a support system that keeps me accountable to my goals (i.e. a naturopathic doctor, an assistant, a dietitian, or this great blog J)
- Utilize technology. Is there an app that can address some of your challenges in a simple way? I used to hate scanning until I got Tiny Scan app, it was easy to use and it shaved a couple hours off my days
- Be honest with yourself about your limitations – make a list of areas you are falling short and research possible solutions
- Be humble enough to accept help. There is no ego in work-life balance. Strong people build strong support systems so branch out, and recruit others to fill the gaps – you can not do it all alone.
Tip 10. Have Fun with Life – listen YOLO! So, there is no need to humdrum it to our graves now is there. At the end of the day no one died saying they wish that they got one last report done. When I was very sick in 2018 I realized I did not publish my book with my son (Passion Project, Legacy, & Family), I wanted more time with my son, to see him married, have children, thrive as an Artist (Family, Our Kids <3), and I wanted to make God proud and make a difference in this world (Love, Legacy, Spiritual Fulfillment, God). I never once, when the doctors said it was life-threatening, thought to myself – oh man I wish I sold one more house, or wrote one more business plan. It did not even occur to me! Part of balance is keeping it all in perspective. Don’t sweat the small stuff; and do whatever it takes to live and love this amazing life God gifted you with.
Sometimes work-life balance also means ensuring those around you are balanced too. If the kids have a regular routine, and are planned for, it can help you ensure they do not bounce off the walls while you are preparing your end-of-year report. Some other little tricks that could keep everyone at their best are:
- Meal prep
- Productivity calendars – this helps me to know what I am doing when
- Online groceries – this gives you an opportunity to read the ingredients in a way we don’t have while breezing through the isles (healthy food choices are definitely a part of work-life balance). This option allows you to just pull up, have the store load your car, and you zoom off – time efficiency meets healthy meal planning at its finest
- Stay positive – one thing that has helped me to get the most out of my day is when I have a challenging moment or experience, I recognize it as exactly that a challenging MOMENT. I do not say that I am having a ‘bad day’ because I do not want that moment to influence, or carry on into, the rest of my blessed existence. It has taken me so many years and so much discipline to get to this tip, but it helps me so much and I hope it helps you too.
- Guilty pleasures – listen, we all need a little guilty pleasure sometimes to maintain our sanity – plan for yours and make sure it’s not too guilty. Mine is herb and garlic goat cheese with Mary’s Organic Crackers or a peanut butter chocolate Mid-Day Square. Sometimes it’s online shopping for trends I can’t wait to wear when Covid 19 is over (though I need to watch that one). Sometimes it’s listening to music I love and singing along out of tune at the top of my lungs, or dancing around the house forcing my son to dance too as he looks at me like I’m a mawd lady. It’s all good – we need an escape. Whatever floats your boat – just make sure to get out on the water at least once a week and make the most of life!
Work-life balance is not just an unattainable buzz word – it is a real way to live that let’s you live your best life – and that’s what YevOne is all about.
Get started on incorporating these tips, and it’s my hope that before you know it, you will be maintaining Zen most of your day. When you are pulled down to your ‘lower self’ by external forces (it does happen at times), recognize that, heed to the signs, and steal a moment or two for you so that you can get right back on your higher-self connectivity.
As you work towards balance you will become a master at it, and you will realize all the benefits I am starting to see myself manifest from following these 10 tips.
Xoxo Jessica Tha Goddess!
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