5 Strategies for a Perfectly Balanced Life
Last week we had our article about how I started a company and why it failed horribly get featured on Rockstar Finance. That was really fun for our traffic that day. During the day a gentleman asked a very good question and I feel like my response needed more. So here I am writing an article to elaborate on my initial response to his question.
Basically what Adam was asking is if I have developed any good strategies to keep my life balanced after what I learned from my failed business adventure.
The simple answer is, “Yes I have!” Let’s dig deeper though.
Priorities
Of course, there is a lot of stuff I want to work on or do but that is not possible. Time is limited. That is just the reality of life.
What I have done is created a list of Priorities that are the most important things to me. I then only focus on those items throughout the week. These are items that will get me to where I want to be in life.
So how is my time split up? What are my priorities that I want to fit in on a daily or weekly basis? Let’s list them out.
- Time with my wife (daily)
- Time with my son (daily)
- Time with close friends (weekly)
- Work full time (daily)
- Time in the mountains (weekly)
- Exercise (daily)
- Reading (daily)
- Wallet Squirrel (daily)
- Sleep (daily)
- Practicing software development (weekly)
As you can see, there is A LOT going on here!
Curious as to how I balance it all? You should probably read on to find out.
Practice
I want to start off by telling you that it took me a while to figure out what methods worked best for my particular situation. It will also take you time to fine-tune your schedule to fit in with your priorities every day. There is no one solution that will fit everyone’s schedules. Sadly, that is just the truth.
My goal today is to help lessen those growing pains.
To get started you need to just start doing something. Jump right in with a schedule. You will need to be open to being flexible. Once started, you will quickly learn that your schedule is rough. It needs to be smoothed out with time and experience. Kinda like how a rough ball of clay can be turned into a beautiful piece of pottery.
Unlike a piece of pottery though, your schedule will never be solidified. I am finding that my evening schedule is having to change as my son is starting to go to bed later. This means I will most likely have to start working a little later into the night. GREAT…
Plan Ahead
Overall, I have a series of overarching goals that I want to accomplish for 2018. Every Sunday evening I like to put together a weekly to-list of smaller goals that are going to get me closer to those goals. Doing this helps me figure out what I need to accomplish for the week and then I can start planning what I am going to do on each day of the week.
I like to use the Tick Tick to-do list application. It allows me to create a to-do list every week then put those tasks on a calendar. I can literally plan out my whole week down to the minute. I don’t recommend you doing this though. Leave in some breathing room between events/tasks because not everything goes to plan.
Prepare
I have actually written a whole article just on this subject so I will just summarize. If you would like to learn more check out my 5 Ways You Can Prepare Tonight for a Productive Tomorrow article.
The thought around this concept is to take 15-30 minutes every night to prepare for tomorrow. This includes everything from the Plan Ahead section you just read. Also, you should do the following.
- Prepare your breakfast, lunch, and outfit for tomorrow.
- Sounds silly but this saves A LOT of time when you are waking up at 4:30 in the morning to work out.
- Look at what you did today.
- Take a look back at what you got done, what you did not get done, and what you can learn from today to make tomorrow better.
- Get a good night rest.
- This means exercise, turn off the phone, and have a proper diet.
Get Creative
Sadly, I could not think of another title for these concepts that started with a ‘P’. To be honest, that was a total accident.
Anyways, you need to get creative with your time to make more time. For me, I was struggling to find time to work out 5 days a week. I tried to do it after work but I was being pulled in different directions once I got home. Then I tried to do it after my son went to bed but then I would be wide awake till late in the night resulting in me being super tired in the morning. Finally, I found a solution. Now I get up every morning at 4:30 to work out for 45 minutes.
I know, I am crazy. But, hey! It works for me!
You need to find what works for you by not being afraid to experiment and failing.
If you have a long commute, is there a way you could take mass transit instead to get work done? Can you bike to work to get in some exercise? Looking for more time to work on your new blog, get up in the morning an hour earlier.
Conclusion
Well, I hope this answers your question better Adam and for the rest of you. I hope you are now ready to get your highest priorities done every day.
Wallet Squirrel is a personal finance blog by best friends Andrew & Adam on how money works, building side-hustles, and the benefits of cleverly investing the profits. Featured on MSN Money, AOL Finance, and more!
You didn’t fail, my friend. You’re merely in training to be a near future “side hustle millionaire.” You were only getting used to getting in the “side hustle blogging” trenches. That was the start of your blogging career and valuable experience gained. It trained you to stay consistent with content marketing and coming to reality that this line of work is truly for you.