How to Achieve Work-Life Balance

1. Faith/Spiritual – When was the last time you got away from the frenzy of everyday life and spent some time pondering life's most challenging questions? Or, maybe you can start creating a plan to live out your faith more in your daily life. Also, do you want to do more missionary/volunteer work? How about attending church more often?
   
   
2. Finances – Specifically, we’re looking at personal finances. This topic is really important because if your finances aren’t in order, it can negatively affect every other area of your life. A sample goal might be to create a well-defined budget.
   
   
3. Health – If you’re not healthy, you’ll feel out of it all the time and be less productive. Committing to eating more vegetables and exercising more often are great goals in this area. Also, if you haven’t been to the doctor for a checkup in the last year, maybe it’s time to finally schedule that appointment.
   
   
4. Business/Career – If you own a business, what’s your target growth rate this year and for the next five years? And if you have a job, maybe your goal is to get a promotion, or find a better position at another company.
   
   
5. Personal growth – This might be volunteering in your local community, starting/finishing a book, learning a different language, or even finding a new hobby. Basically, any activity that would enrich your life.
   
   
6. Romance/Spouse – Have you been spending enough time with your spouse? Set aside a day every week for date night, or go on a mini getaway next weekend. Or, if you want a partner but don’t have one yet, think about how to meet more people.
   
   
7. Family/Friends – You want to make sure that you stay in touch with your friends and family. Go out for a casual lunch with a buddy you haven’t seen in a while. Call and chat with your cousin in another state. Being connected on Facebook isn’t always enough.
   
   
8. Fun/Leisure – It’s important to have fun! Have a great time, and you’ll be rejuvenated when you get back to work. Plan a vacation. Block out every Saturday to go to the movies, have a picnic, etc.
   

As you go through the above list, remember that you don’t have to come up with goals for every category. If an area is not currently on your priority list, you can skip it for now. But be sure to come back to it later.

Once you have your list of goals, rank each area from most important to least important, and then create some action steps toward realizing each goal. Next, schedule these action steps on your calendar in a way so that you’re focusing on multiple areas a day. Preferably, these activities will replace low-value activities that may be taking up a lot of your time right now, such as watching TV or surfing social media sites.

Finally, get someone you trust to hold you accountable for these new, productive action items. This can be a friend, spouse, coach, or pastor. Let them know that you’re trying to achieve work-life balance and why it’s important to you. A lot of people put plans together, but they don’t tell anyone else. Eventually they’re no longer working on the plan because nobody’s keeping them accountable. Don’t let this be you!

To learn more about living a balanced life, be sure to pick up my book EntreBalance.

Thanks and have a fantastic week,
Jared Polak