Achieving A Work Life Balance

Work life balance, it that even a real thing?  How does one achieve that and what defines that?  Achieving it and what it looks like is a personal decision.  Achieving a good work life balances is  something I struggle with.  At certain times think I rock the work life balance thing and other times I fail miserably at it and feel as if life is working against me. Being the late bloomer that I am, things came later in life for me, the dream job, the dream husband and the dream life, add in being older and tired it’s not easy.  

The more responsibilities I take on at work, it seems like the less time I have for life.  It’s very important to me that I have a balance in my life, I want to enjoy every second of it regardless of my age.  My personal motto is I work to live, not live to work.  This motto and the steps I take daily help me ensure I have a work life balance.  

Achieving A Work Life Balance

First and foremost I put myself and Mike first, our little family is number one.

 I take care of us first, no questions asked.  I ensure that we have ample time to be a family and do our thing.  That means blocking off time at the very least, once a week to sit down with him and talk about life.  We call it staff meeting and have it once a week usually on Sunday mornings.  The meeting is about an hour and we focus on anything from bills to planning travel to just figuring out our schedules that week.

 That hour is free of tv, music, mobile devices and all distractions.  In addition to staff meeting we have time each night to just talk.  We decompress each day with each other, it’s super helpful for me because Mike gives the best advice and has a fair perspective on things.  

Second I literally shut off my mind when I leave work.  

Some days it is hard, like if I had a stressful day or if I have a huge meeting the next day that I need to prep for, but I try my hardest to shut it off.  Leaving work at work allows me to free my mind when I get home for the life part of the equation.  It also means that I have to to hustle at work.  No day is ever the same for me at work, since much of my day is driven by my clients needs.

Hustling at work takes focus and drive though.  Some days last longer then others too, but I try hard to end the work day no later than 6pm.  It’s easy to get off task in an office, things pop up, people stop by to chat, but staying on task is important.  Knowing that I have a defined end to the day allows me to prioritize my work day properly.  Not only do I work my 40+ hour a week day job I also spend time working on my side hustle, Later Ever After.  

It’s been challenging to find a balance here, but I have a groove going and set aside larger chunks of time to devote to planning content, taking and edit photos and all the other stuff that goes into this.  It also helps that this is fun for me and before starting this I spent the same amount of time doing most of this stuff without any direction.  Direction in any task or activity is good.  

 Third, I feed my body and mind daily.  

I’m a sleeper, I swear I need 9 hours a night to function, but that’s not realistic.  What is realistic is setting a bedtime and sticking to it or as close to it as I can.  I try hard to get to bed by 10:30pm, at the latest every night because I get up at 5am  every day.  I also make sure I work out at least 5 times a week.  Most days I work out in the morning and it provides me with an hour to challenge my mind and body and it fuels my day.

My daily sleep schedule is just a small part of my routine.  I strategically plan out most aspects my week, such as cleaning the house, doing laundry and planning meals.  Doing a little bit each day all week breaks it up for me and lets me spend shorter amounts of time on things rather than hours.  Take dinner for example, in my single days I would eat whatever was in the house, so if it was popcorn then I was fine with that.  

Being married I now cook full blown meals for dinner.

It’s not as bad as I thought it would be.  I do plan our meals a week ahead though. Planning lets me create a defined grocery list and takes the decision making process out of the equation every night.  With meals planned I can prep the meals a day ahead if needed. Also, I can stay on task when I get home from work.  Let me also say that having a defined grocery list cuts down the cost at the grocery store. So, I’m not buying random things I think I will use and end up not using.  Throughout the week I keep a running list of things we need either at the grocery store or at Target.

 This too elevates sitting down and thinking of all the things I need at a store at once.  Planning most aspects of my life allows me to also plan after work or weekend dinner and drinks with friends too.  Its important to continue to grown and build those relationships too.  As many of my friends have different life timelines then me getting schedules to jive can be challenging, but worth the extra effort.  We are all in the period of life when we don’t see each other as frequent as we would like, but when we see each other its as if no time as has passed.

Finally downtime, from work and life.  

It’s important to fully recharge once and while.  I may do this once a month or every other month.  I plan a full day, either a Saturday or a Sunday and do absolutely nothing. Or to take the time to plan travel or something fun, because I think you always need something to look forward to.  Like most other things this “do nothing” day is planned, I make sure everything I need to do nothing is at my fingertips.  I usually try to stay way from mobile devices on this day too, it’s hard though.  Part of my passion is reading other blogs, searching outfits and planning content for my blog.  Unplugging completely allows my mind (and eyes) to take a rest.  

There you have my special recipe to a work life balance.  Is it perfect, no, some days I fall off the wagon and get off kilter, but that’s life.  I just reassess and try to make the next day better.  Having the right attitude and approach to each day is half the battle.

What are your work life balance secret tips? What do you do to ensure that you are accomplishing everything you want, daily or in life?  Follow me on Instagram for more updates.