(BPT) - If you're feeling overworked and finding it a challenge to juggle the demands of your job and the rest of your life, then you're not alone. Achieving the elusive work-life balance may be getting harder with today's connected lifestyle, but it is still possible.
A better work-life balance doesn't just happen overnight. It requires a lot of patience, careful thinking and attention toward understanding what is most important to you and your family. First you must focus on prioritizing your personal and professional life. Consider all the things that compete for your time. Then decide what to keep and what to discard. Think of it as streamlining your priorities, sorted by the activities that are the most important.
'No matter how hard you try, you can't squeeze more hours into your day,' says Dr. Nancy Aragon, professor of industrial organizational psychology at Argosy University, Online Programs. 'What you can do though is make more efficient use of your time. It takes persistent planning to get a management system started, but keeping a time diary helps you to become more aware of where your time is being spent.'
Aragon recommends a weekly block schedule coupled with a daily to-do list. The block schedule should be a fairly permanent, regular weekly plan that allows adequate time for necessary, recurring activities such as cooking, exercising, homework, grocery shopping, work, etc. A critical element to include in the block schedule is 'flexible time' or free time that is purposely built into your schedule. Scheduling flexible time is a way to account for unexpected, but inevitable events to be worked into your life with minimal disruption to your regular routine. In effect, you plan for the unexpected.
And although technology has the potential to improve the quality and efficiency of your daily life, it also has the potential to encroach on your work-life balance. 'Set boundaries when it comes to technology,' says Aragon. 'Schedule time for you and your family when it comes to accepting calls, texts, or emails. Make sure everyone is on the same page in terms of what acceptable technology use is, and what crosses the line into technology abuse.' In other words, technology doesn't have to be eliminated, but its use does need to be purposefully managed and monitored.
Also keep in mind the power of attitude. Learn to monitor your attitude and its impact on your work performance, relationships and everyone around you. A positive attitude can make a big difference in your energy, your focus and your pace toward achieving balance. You can't always change your circumstances, but you certainly can change how you react to them.
In addition, do not try to live up to other's expectations. 'Work-life balance is a very personal matter. If you seek to find your own balance by emulating the ideals, priorities and expectations of others, you are doomed to miss the mark,' adds Aragon. 'It can require some courage to live by your own values and ideals rather than what seems to be the prevailing social norm, but the payoff is worth taking that venture out of your normative comfort zone.' This is an important truth to keep in mind for not only improving your work-life balance, but also finding success.
In the end, you need to find the right balance that works for you. Celebrate your successes and don't dwell on your failures. Life is a process, and so is striving for balance in your life.