Do you have work-life balance?
Balance Your Day Job, a Side Hustle, and a Life
There are only so many hours in the day. Finding a successful work-life balance can be challenging, particularly for busy entrepreneurs, full or part-timers (if juggling a job or other family obligations.
While it is commonly understood that high-performing individuals have less spare time than everyone else - I believe it is still possible to pursue entrepreneurial passions outside the typical workday.
Believe it or not, it’s even possible to have a personal business project, a day job, and a work-life balance that promotes happiness and success in your life.
Time Management Is Critical
Time management becomes more and more critical to success with the more tasks, projects, and deadlines you need to juggle.
Add in a concerted effort to take time to enjoy life with your significant others regularly; a schedule can look very cramped very quickly.
While it might seem counterintuitive to spend time planning instead of executing, proper time management helps ensure that you focus your efforts and energy on the most critical steps towards achieving your goals.
Here are a few tips that you can use:
- Break down significant goals into small steps that you can consistently work against
- Prioritize your work in order of time-sensitivity
- Ensure that you schedule personal time as seriously as you schedule work-related tasks
Be Realistic About Your Capacity
The most common problem senior professionals face when they add a passion project into their daily workload is overestimating their ability to do “everything.”
A natural characteristic of high-performing individuals is to be highly productive by aggressively putting as much of their energy against their goals as possible. However, when you have multiple competing priorities, it’s impossible to dedicate this same kind of effort to everything.
It’s important to understand that if you are already obligated to a certain number of hours each week to maintain success at your day job, then it will be tough to spend that same amount of time on a side business and still have time left to spend with your family or friends.
Maximize Your Productivity
If you can be realistic about your capacity and diligent about managing your time properly, correctly essential to seek methods for maximizing your productivity whenever possible to fully secure success in all areas of your life.
Every minute counts, meaning you must stay focused and remove distractions from your daily life. When you sit down to complete a task, turn off your notifications, put your head down, and get the work done quickly and efficiently.
Here are a few tips that you can use to help maximize your productivity daily:
- Recognize that tasks always take the amount of time allotted to them. Don’t give yourself an hour to do something that could be completed in fifteen minutes.
- Multi-tasking is not equivalent to productivity. You can’t do more than one thing simultaneously with equal success. Focus on a task, complete it, then move on to the next one.
- Understand your goals in intimate detail. It’s one step to set a dream, another to define that goal with every necessary action required to achieve it and why you are pursuing it. You can take more meaningful action against plans that you completely comprehend.
Don’t Worry About the Small Things
People with many competing priorities and multiple projects on the go can quickly become stressed and frustrated with their progress.
Practicing patience and being realistic about what anyone can achieve is essential. Failures will happen. New challenges will arise. Plans will not come to fruition.
However, remaining optimistic and adapting as you continue to push forward will help ensure that you can eventually reach your goals, find success in your passion projects, and enjoy your life along the way!
... Do you have a work-life balance?
As always, your feedback and comments are welcome!
Thank you for reading this blog...wishing all a VERY productive week!
-Mike
Recent Comments
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Work-Life balance is especially important when someone has ADHD. It is a real struggle and challenge to not multi-task, or to complete goals and complete them on time.
That being said, I tend to multitask too much, but try to keep it to 2 tasks, that is writing a post or doing email with Kirtan music in the background as the music helps me focus on the one other task.
Breaking down tasks into smaller ones is also crucial to ADHDers, because then it isn't so overwhelming. But it's not always easy to break it down, though it depends on the person and the executive functions and how futzed up they are.
In case people don't know, executive functions control organization, planning, goal-setting and achievement, time management issues sometimes exhibiting as "time-blindness" and emotional self-regulation, to name just a few.
Let's just say that Time Management and I are not "on a first name basis", and leave it at that, lol, however, I try to do at least one task or part of one task a day on my site.
Thanks again, Mike.
Thank you for sharing, Katherine!
Also, thank you for bringing the ADHD perspective. I agree with you that multitasking can be a problem - and personally I think it's overrated. I'm a good multitasker, but I feel it causes me to take on too much, hence hurting my work-life balance.
I would much rather manage one task at a time and therefore be much more proficient with it.
-Mike
I can multi-task, but only if it's one task and music in the background, Mike, if that helps. Otherwise, I feel like i'm running in place, and it slows everything down to a crawl, and then I'm too tired to do anything. Another ADHD thing, at least for some people. :)
I like music playing in the background when I’m working too…I find it keeps me balanced and focused better. Kind of like white noise.
What kind of music do you usually have playing? For me, it’s soft classical rock.
-Mike
I usually have Kirtan music using either Pandora, or Amazon Music Unlimited Streaming service.
For artists, if you want to explore this beautiful genre, think Krishna Das, Deva Premal, David Newman, Snatum Kaur(I believe she is Sikh) Jai Uttal, to name just a few. It's a form of devotional music that uses chanting, repetition, set to music honoring a God or Gods, depending on if it's Hindu or Sikh. Sikh is more monotheistic than Hindu, and is sung in Punjabi, as opposed to Hindu when they are sung in Hindi.
Sikhs also honor their gurus and saints with Kirtan as well. I can't get enough of it, lol. Just in case you wanted to know. There's a lot more artists, and you might find them, the music stations, like Spotify and Pandora play related music to an artist on "Stations" as well as Amazon Music Unlimited. Not really sure which streaming service you use, if any, though, Mike!
Have a blessed day! :)
I am not familiar with these artists, but it certainly sounds as if they are giving you grief guidance!
I hope you have a great and productive week!
-Mike
Great article Mike. I’m so work, life balanced it’s like living on the edge. Which is ok, because…what’s the saying, if your not living on the edge your taking up too much space.
Many thanks
Stephen
I wish that I did, Mike, but no two days are the same, so I knock out what I can when I can!
This is how I roll!
Jeff😎👍
Well said Mike!
It is a tight-rope walk sometimes for sure.
But like you said remaining optimistic and adapting to adversity will help you push on. I used to get so frustrated and throw my hands up in the air and just quit. That got me no where quick.
Thanks for sharing Mike!
Kevin
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Hi Mike this is an great post No I don't have balance, I wish I did because I can't get things done at all. I am always saying that I need to make a schedule out. but for some reason. I always get into something like working on my site or following someone or even going through my email.
I just don't know how to get a schedule made. I am trying but I am always tired but I am like the ever ready battery. I just keep on going without stopping.
Anyway Mike you have touch on something that each one of us can used. I don't think to may of us have a balanced work and personal life. I will just keep on keeping on. I will manage to get things done eventually.
Mary
Thank you for reading the blog Mary, I'm glad you liked it and hopefully found it somewhat useful.
-Mike
Hi Mike, Yes I did find it very interesting because we all need to find a balance. But what was balance yesterday may not be balance today. We just have to keep it in check and reevaluate our balance every so often.
Mary
Yes I agree!
-Mike
Mary, I'm not good with schedules either. I'm OK with to-do lists, but I always do end up pushing the due date back! 😔
Hi Maghdalena, yes I end doing the same thing pushing everything back. But I only do that when I have to. Which is about all the time. But I am slowly getting back on track though at least I am trying to.
Mary
The point is to try, Mary. To make small but important improvements. They may not be milestones in and of themselves, you know, baby steps, but put together, it makes for one heck of a milestone!
Hi Maghdalena, Yes I am taking it one step at a time. I am be more attentive they I was before . I am taking notes on the videos making sure that I have what I need for my website.
Mary