After a full day’s work, you might find me running to do any of these: right to volunteer at the food pantry, youth group to fill my role as a youth leader, Jump into Joy to run a girls’ empowerment workshop, yoga to unwind, coffee with friends or a double date to get my social fill, weekly dinner with parents.
The point is, I’ve got lots of responsibilities to manage and roles to fill. And sometimes, these things make my life feel unbalanced. I’m guessing you feel that way too sometimes. Keep reading and you’ll feel relieved because you’ll learn about balance in life which will allow you to manage all of your responsibilities.
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The Hurriedness of Life and the Never-Ending List of Responsibilities
Before we get into how to introduce balance into your life and how it can help, let’s just address the fact that we are freaking busy people!
As a young woman, I have quite a few roles and each requires certain things out of me. I’m sure you can name at least 5 roles you play. Mine include wife, daughter, sister, friend, employee, workshop facilitator, content creator, and blog owner.
Take a moment to acknowledge all the responsibilities you have on your plate. How are you managing them currently? Do they pile up? Stress you out? Discourage you? Give you life and energy? Excite you? Burn you out?
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If your responsibilities are overwhelming to you, know that you are normal, friend!
Balance in life is tricky, and it’s 100% okay if your life isn’t always balanced.
In fact, in the book, The Joy of Missing Out, Tanya Dalton makes the case that balance is not necessarily the goal, but managing priorities is. However you look at it (getting your priorities straight vs. creating balance in your life), I believe the end goal is the same- to not let your responsibilities take over your life.
I say all of this to normalize busyness, but also to remind you that your life doesn’t have to be run by your responsibilities.
Yes, life IS busy. Going from one thing to the next, fulfilling all the responsibilities of your many roles in life is tiresome and exhausting. If your to-do list is a mile long, welcome to the club!
Maybe you’re too busy to even make a to-do list! I’d recommend that to start! Here’s a helpful to-do list to help!
If you feel like your life is out of whack and unbalanced, it’s okay. You’re normal. But let’s work toward a little more balance so you don’t drive yourself crazy.
How to Introduce Balance in Life
Here are 6 tips that I’ve found success with in trying to introduce balance in life!
1. Schedule “Nothing Time”
I got this idea from the book I mentioned above, The Joy of Missing Out. Tanya Dalton calls this white space. I call it “nothing time” because that’s how strong of a reminder I need that during this time, I am to do noooothing.
Seems so simple and obvious, really. And I know you’re objecting in your mind right now that you don’t have any time to do nothing. I’m going to object though because I KNOW you have at least 5 minutes extra at some point in the day.
We all scroll on social media longer than we probably want to, so cut a small chunk of time out of scrolling maybe. Or find those five minutes right before bed, cut it off of your TV-watching time. Find 5 minutes a day for “nothing time.”
When you rush from responsibility to responsibility, your days can feel lopsided, where you spend lots of time doing things for others and not any time for yourself. This is when I feel the most unbalanced in life, in the rushing and business. In the doing, doing, doing, instead of just being.
“Nothing time” is a time to dedicate to just being.
Sit and relax, do nothing at all. You can absolutely add in sipping on your favorite drink, putting on a face mask, or any other relaxing activity that you love. But try to stay away from your phone or tv.
I can just about guarantee that taking even just 5 minutes (ideally every day) will help you feel more in control of your day, and more able to decide how your day goes. If you can commit to intentionally and consistently giving yourself “nothing time”, you’ll introduce more balance in life because you allow yourself time to reset.
Try this free self-care calendar I made to help you really schedule in small chunks of time for YOU.
I’ve even incorporated “nothing time” into a whole evening. I try to keep Thursday evenings as my “relax evening”. I remind myself of it throughout the week, and during the day on Thursday that in the evening, I will intentionally do much less than normal.
No cleaning or laundry. Nothing gets done on Thursday evenings after work because I have found that giving myself an evening of rest makes me feel a heck of a lot more balanced and less frenzied by all that needs to get done.
Plus I’m refreshed the next day and going into the weekend to put my productive hat on again if I so choose.
So what days or times can you commit to in the coming week to schedule in some “nothing time”? I want you to actually schedule it! And keep that appointment with yourself as best you can.
Try this fridge calendar to physically schedule “nothing time” in. Trust me, it helps because then it’s like an appointment with yourself that you’ve blocked of a small bit of time for.
BONUS Self-Care Calendar Challenge
Grab this 30-day feel-good challenge that gives you a small self-care activity every day to complete. It’s such great practice for getting in the habit of prioritizing YOU and incorporating more balance into your life.
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2. Time Blocking
It can be helpful to have designated time slots for your responsibilities.
This isn’t always possible. For example, if you’re a mom, those responsibilities are basically 24/7.
But there are plenty of ways you can time-block other responsibilities.
If your life is feeling out of balance because you’re juggling a bunch of tasks and things that need to be done, pick a span of a few hours on a day that works for you to group like tasks together.
You’ll find that when you confine tasks to a certain chunk of time, you’ll usually get them done in that time. It’s also true that a task will fill the amount of time you allow for it. So make sure not to block too much time to get tasks done because then you’ll naturally draw it out.
I’ve done this with content creation for my blog. I set certain days and certain chunks of time in the morning and afternoon to write blog posts, and it makes me feel so much more productive and balanced.
Try a monthly planner or a daily planner that you keep handy to physically write in what hours you’ll block off for certain responsibilities.
3. Disconnect When Things are Over
When you leave a responsibility (physically), leave it mentally too. So much easier said than done but do your best to not let responsibilities take up your headspace when you’re at home and enjoying your personal life. This is especially true for your workday.
The same goes for all the other responsibilities you have. Once you’re done with them, move your mind away from them too.
I had a hard time doing this when I worked as a workout instructor. I was constantly thinking about how to structure my next class, even when I wasn’t at the gym. All that extra thinking took away from and encroached on my time off.
Sometimes it’s helpful to have a reset action to help remind you that it’s time to disconnect your mind from what you were just doing. It can be as simple as putting your hand over your heart and taking one deep breath in and out, maybe even the deepest one you have taken all day.
4. Set Boundaries for Everyone and Everything
This is one of the most powerful ways to introduce balance in life.
Powerful? Yes.
Easy? No!
Balance can be found in setting healthy boundaries in your relationships. When you have healthy boundaries, the people close to you know how you need to be treated.
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My family has a boundary of calling before stopping by and this boundary allows me to have uninterrupted rest time.
You might consider setting a boundary with friends where you don’t call or text after 10:00 pm so that you can get the rest you need. Or maybe you don’t respond to Instagram notifications and messages while you’re in your productive work time. These boundaries help to keep work and rest time true and productive.
5. Free Up That Calendar
I’ve done this recently. I canceled plans that weren’t absolutely necessary because I was feeling so burnt out going from place to place each day fulfilling all my responsibilities.
Sometimes, temporarily removing yourself from the extra stuff in life can bring you out of burnout and into a more balanced state.
Then, when you’re ready, you can reintroduce things back in.
I want to be clear here: sometimes a girls night and all the social engagements are a great way to blow off steam and can make your life feel balanced. Don’t completely remove plans like this. My suggestion is to simply not book yourself for something every single day of the week.
Be sure you’re leaving days open for rest and to just be.
A varied calendar with some days where you fulfill responsibilities and others where you rest is where you find true balance.
6. Give Yourself Grace
When you’re trying to live a balanced life, it’s so important to be gentle with yourself.
You will mess up and slip back into an unbalanced, frenzied, busy life. Know that it’s okay. Don’t be hard on yourself for letting your life become off balance. Remind yourself that you’re doing your best to create balance.
How Balance Benefits You
You want to create balance in your life because it will make you better able to manage your responsibilities. When you’re balanced, you’re capable of giving 100% to whatever’s at hand because you’re not burnt out from the weight of a thousand responsibilities or trying to squeeze everything in.
Balance allows you to take charge of your life. You’ll be fully present for each of your responsibilities because they won’t be stressing you out.
You’ll have designated time for each item on your to-do list. And you’ll have the mental capacity to fulfill your obligations because you’ll have “nothing time” and be able to disconnect when you’re done.
Plus, your calendar won’t be jam-packed so you’ll have room to breathe and reset between obligations. Your friends and family will respect your time with the boundaries you’ve put in place.
Doesn’t this sound like a life you want to live?!
Balance gives you space to catch your breath in this busy life. Instead of your many responsibilities feeling burdensome, your life has a mixture of flow and structure that feels doable, and better yet, enjoyable!
Let’s Bring it Home
It’s far too easy to let all the responsibilities of life like school, work, chores, or family obligations overwhelm you. When responsibilities pile up, life can feel too busy and unbalanced which can lead to burnout.
Cue the sigh of relief because you now have 6 tips for introducing balance into your life. As always, my suggestion is to start with just one of these tips that resonates with you until you can implement it like it’s second nature. Then implement another, and get that one down pat, and so on.
I hope these tips make you feel ready to conquer all you have on your plate in this season.
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