Achieve Work Life Balance: Identify your daily essentials

Sometimes the ability to achieve work life balance seems like the impossible dream. In our day we have several things that are essential – sleeping, bathing, exercising, generating income – these are things we must do to maintain a minimum level of sanity.

These “musts” are called our daily essentials and an important part of our ability to achieve work life balance.

Almost all of you fill the day with things that are not essential, and those non-essentials end up taking the majority of hours in the day, leaving you exhausted and overwhelmed.

What would it look like if you could take out those things in the day that are not essential?

What could you do with an extra 10, 30, 90 min a day? Do you think you could achieve work life balance then?

My observation has been that the wealthy have disciplined schedules, and those that struggle financially do not – they ebb and ow as the wind blows, so to speak, and are what some would refer to as ‘all over the map.’ Whatever your objectives are, you’ve got to have a schedule.

Period!

I teach my students that if it isn’t written down – it isn’t happening.

This is a major key in whether or not you can achieve work life balance.

Consequently, my students are taught to schedule everything…and yes, I mean absolutely everything.

From date nights with their partner to individual time with kids, production time, admin, and even time to dream – it is all written down in a paper day planner. In addition, my schedule is also kept on my phone and computer for ease of access.

Planning is the key to success, and the better your schedule is laid out, the more likely you will be to create results. And as a result, you will have much less stress having a greater sense of control over your schedule and your life.

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Make a list of all of the essential things you do in a week, and beside each item, allocate an amount of time.

The majority of people deliberately underestimate the amount of time it takes to do something, so add an extra ten minutes to each activity to be safe. Also, be sure to include commuting time to and from each activity.

  Here is a list to get you started:

• Sleeping
• Bathing
• Personal Hygiene
• Health Care Visit
• Eating
• Exercising
• Making Love to Your Partner
• Looking for a Partner
• Working
• Business Correspondence
• Social Media and Marketing
• Going to Your House of Worship
• Prayer/Meditation
• Banking
• Cleaning the House
• Taking Children to School and Programs
• Taking Children to the Doctor or Dentist
• Doing Homework with Children
• Paying Bills
• Laundry
• Cooking
• Home Repairs
• Landscaping

Once you have your list and have allocated the amount of time it takes to do each thing weekly, then ask yourself – where can I maybe delegate or delete five of these items to free up more time?

We all do things that are not essential to daily life, but when we can hire someone to do something or delegate it to a family member, we open up our schedule, so we can do more of the things we love.

Susan Sly is a best selling author, work life balance expert, speaker and entrepreneur. She has appeared on CNN, CNBC, Fox, Lifetime Television and the CBN. Susan is the mother of five children and resides in Scottsdale, Arizona.