Four Ways to Have it All

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Who doesn't want to have it all? To be able to have a great and productive work life and a healthy and rewarding home life is the goal of almost everyone. It used to be that in order to accomplish this, you had to find a way to balance your work life with your home life. These days, with more and more companies creating flexible work spaces and offering work-at-home options, the lines between work life and home life become blurred, making it even easier to become overwhelmed.

 

The good news is that it doesn't have to be that way. The best way to have it all is to stop thinking of both parts of your life as separate entities that have to be balanced. Instead, think of them as different aspects of the same life and use similar techniques to manage your time and increase your productivity.

 

Here are four ways that you can have it all and make both parts of your life as rewarding as possible:

 

Set your own priorities and take responsibility for your schedule – Plan your week yourself and decide what goals are going to be a priority for you. This might sound simple at first, but all too often, we wait to find out what everyone else needs and what other obligations need attention. The problem with that is that no one is going to tell you to do the things that are important to you. For example, if you wait for someone to tell you to go to the gym a couple times a week, it will never happen. Instead, accept that it's up to you to decide what needs to be done.

 

Spend time assessing what is working and what isn't – When you lead a hectic lifestyle, it's important to check in with yourself each week to find out where you're at in your schedule and determine what else needs to be accomplished. Taking time to be quiet with yourself can help you in so many ways, including opportunity to assess which time management strategies are working and which things need more work. These little check-ins make it easier to set goals and stay motivated as well.

 

Don't expect to be perfect – Expecting everything to be perfect is one of the greatest productivity killers of all time. In fact, I would wager that perfectionism is one of the biggest causes of procrastination. The thought is that if it can't be done perfectly right now, it's better to wait until later. Instead of waiting for the right time, just get started. Even if you don't get everything finished, take a moment and celebrate what you did accomplish and know that it's a good start. For example, if I have a lot of laundry to do and not nearly enough time to get it done, I can wait until I have a few hours available or I can just get started and do what I can. I might not get it all done, but at least I'll get a portion of it finished. If you wait for everything to be just right, you'll end up being paralyzed while the task continues to grow larger.

 

Making the most of your work and family time can be a challenge, but it's certainly worth the effort. There's no reason that you can't have it all, it's just a simple matter of managing your time across the board and not expecting everything to magically fall into place without a plan.

 

Do you plan your days and weeks? What do you do to make the most of your home and work time? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

 

Image source: MorgueFile

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