5 Ways to Maintain Life Work Balance

Oh the struggle. This topic is nothing new. But I feel like every once in a while, we need a friendly reminder of how important it is to balance life and work. I am quite literally your typical redhead, and along with that comes an enormous amount of stubbornness. I’m also a Leo, and along with that comes a lot of pride. Put the two together and you get a recipe for disaster. I catch myself trying to do it ALL, all the time. Don’t get me wrong, Vernon certainly does his fair share. But we both decided to start at new businesses at the same time. His job has him there from the morning until late at night pretty frequently. So I end up convincing myself that I can do everything without going crazy. It doesn’t end well. I typically get burnt out on working on my business, maintaining the house, going to the gym, doing things with the kids, and taking time for myself. After a while it leaves me on the sofa, watching episode after episode of Real Housewives. That overwhelming feeling takes over and I quit everything for about a week. It’s not pretty. My house ends up looking like the aftermath of a tornado, work piles up, the kids get antsy, and Vernon and I are usually at each others throats. It’s stressful.

I am still new at this. But I already know that some life work balance is a necessity. Part of the reason I’m posting about this is to hold myself accountable. These are things that I know that WE need. Your list may be different. But I hope this helps someone! Here are 5 Ways to Maintain Life Work Balance:

1. This is probably the MOST important. Since neither of us work a Monday-Friday 9-5, we don’t have assigned weekends most of the time. I am a planner, and I still write everything down on paper. (If you’re still a paper girl like me, check out these AMAZING planners by Emily Ley!) I am great at writing down special events the kids have or things coming up that we want to do, but not for just a regular day off. This is SO important to keeping your sanity! Not a day to do the housework, not a day for a family event, a day OFF. It may not be every week. That’s part of being a small business. But schedule them as often as you can!

2. Schedule time for exercise. The only workout you’ll regret is the one you didn’t do. With Vernon working in the fitness industry, it’s a huge part of our lives. We by no means are obsessive about it (pizza is a main food group in our house), but we know the importance of keeping a routine. If you do it in the beginning of the day, you’ll feel better throughout. For some of you that may be waking up before everyone else to get it done. For me, I wake up and have my coffee, do a load of dishes and put a load of laundry in the washer, take Chandler to daycare, Carson to school (in the summer she goes with me), and hit the gym. I get a later start to my work day than some people would prefer, but it’s what works for me.

3. Set timers for yourself. This is something I have been wanting to implement, but haven’t yet. Simply because I know I’ll be disgusted with myself in the beginning. Which is probably an even bigger reason to do it. Using your phone to time yourself with work tasks will bring to your attention how much you are or aren’t focusing. For me, that’s timing blogging, culling, editing, and working on my bridal magazine (which is coming I promise!) I think timing yourself for everything can get out of control. If you are timing yourself for everything, and racing a clock, that may give you anxiety issues of some sort. So start off with one task and expand from there!

4. Plan a vacation for some point in the year. You may not be able to go far, or anywhere at all. But a staycation can be just as great! For us, we try to get down to Florida once a year. That is my happy place. It’s a week of nothing, and it couldn’t be more perfect. Having that vacation in place gives me a goal to work towards. Not to mention you realize how fast the year is flying by! I feel like we just planned this years trip, and it’s already just a few weeks away.

5. Don’t be afraid to go away from the “plan.” One of the perks of being your own boss, is having flexibility. Scheduling your time is important to be successful. But life has a funny way of changing up on us and changing our so called schedules. Go with it. When Carson is in softball season, my weeks look a little different than the winter. Practices change last second, games get moved…I just have to go with it. What’s the alternative? Pouting, huffing and puffing? OK, so maybe a little of that happens too, but I try to not let it last too long!

I hope this helps at least one person! Since every post deserves some photos, here are some from our summer so far. Pool time & softball. =]

be silly. be honest. be kind.