How to Have a Better Work-Life Balance.

We come across individuals in our everyday life, we can label them as productive, efficient creatures. While we all have 24hrs, just how are they doing it? Is there some mystical divine mantra only few destined blessed humans are able to get their hands on… then that is so unfair to the rest of us!

The answer is a big NO! It’s just they are good at managing Now. Now that’s where we need to work on, the big question arises. HOW Before we dive into the depth of mastering this technique, there’s a need to understand the importance of time, which reminds me of a quote which I deeply resonate with “TIME WAITS FOR NO ONE” an absolute truth of life, Time is supreme. The work we do and the
life we live must be balanced in the sense the time we allot or give to these two major aspects of life is what makes us truly successful at the end of story…a happy ending..

WHAT IS NEED TO LEARN TIME MANAGING:

Time Management is the process of planning and controlling how much time to spend on specific activities Good time management enables an individual to complete more in a shorter period of time, lowers stress, and leads to career success. To be honest its nothing about the need to learn, it is about the individual we are talking, if you are someone who likes getting your work done in-time and also
are considerate enough to think about the family time you are allotting and have no idea on how to resolve the issue. But if your someone who is ok with just focusing on one aspect of your life then that’s ok too!

Most of us we take time for granted, we never learn how precious an hour, minutes the very second, they pass, time teaches the greatest lesson a person can ever receive, the beauty of witnessing something just to know with the flow of time it doesn’t exist makes us question its very existence. So, in order not to have any regrets about loosing an opportunity or thinking “only if I had utilized all the
time, I had I could have done it.” It’s better to start respecting your time.

HOW DO I ACHIEVE THIS?

• Start saying “NO” – how hard can it be, definitely this is not a piece of cake for most of us. In other words, this is like start saying “YES” to yourself, the first priority in your life should be “you”. When many of us come across such statement they are misunderstood, its not implying that you say no to people who are in need of help. “The act of kindness” is a human value and we are all aging as fine as wine to able to distinguish between such simple things in life whether your help is needed or not, start making decision that is based on your logic, stop people pleasing.

• Set Clear Boundaries – Don’t let your work invade into your personal time and vice versa, work with your utmost focus during your work hours and once the mask of an employee, employer wears off and you enter the zone of personal life enjoy it. Have some tea or coffee get some time off alone, or enjoy it with your loved ones. Live in the moment.
• Prioritize – Make sure you’re planning for the week, have a daily goal that needs to be achieved followed by a reward given to yourself.
• Stay disciplined – Nothing ever works if you’re not showing Self-Discipline. Be sure of what you need to do. “Just do it” a straight thought without mushy chaotic thoughts being invaded. Consistency must be maintained towards managing time, and it becomes a habit in no time and you start handling everything without much stress as you compare with the day you started working on yourself.
• Take a break – Just shut down for a while, let the pressure cooker let its steam off.

TIME MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES

The techniques for one to master the art of time management isn’t something new:

• Pomodoro Technique – The Pomodoro is actually an Italian word for tomato, as the tomato kitchen timer are used in the country. The time management method was also inspired by this with a long 25 minutes of work interval followed by a short break about 5 minutes. This technique has been widely used among the students who sit and study for long hours and this helps them in avoiding having a burnout and increase their productivity.
• ABCDE Method – This is a method where we approach our task and goals systematically and prioritize them, this is also popularly known as ABC method. Boost’s one’s productivity. The highest priority on you task list is named A and the least one with E, that’s how you make decision regarding the task that needs your attention the most.
• Eisenhower Matrix – you have to organize your tasks by urgency and importance. Which helps you complete all your pending works.
• Parkinson’ Law – It’s usually expressed as “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” So, overcoming this will help us doing more work as we gain additional time on hands, we need to mindful of the time we are allotting for a particular task so we are accomplishing the task.
• SMART Goals – Wherein SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time bound. This type of time management deals with assigning our task into the four categories and this is one of the most popular techniques at the moment.
• Eat That Frog – This was developed by Brian Tracy, in his book Eat that frog! 21 great ways to stop procrastinating and get more done in less time. This time management makes you pick your most important, or the worst task which is your “frog”, and tackle it first thing tomorrow. This technique helps for those who suffer by an ineffective scheduling.

(Eat That Frog – book by Brian Tracy, a good read for the bibliophile.)

We have many such time management technique which everyone of us can try out and find which one suits us the best at the end of the day.

TIME MANGEMENT AND HEALTH

Time management and mental health are closely related as poor time management in an individual can cause the underlying problems:

• Most likely to experience stress.
• Sleep issues- irregular sleeping pattern is observed in these individuals.

• Anxiety – this is mainly due to lack bad scheduling and time managing skills, where an individual rushes to meet a deadline which causes anxiety.
• Depression

While a person with good time managing skills is seen to have a better mental health. The individuals are seen with less anxiety, stress, freedom. They tend to have more time to think be more productive and they also tend to have more focus when compared to the latter.

CONCLUSION

Definitely recommending people who are at this Moment giving this a read, to follow one such time managing technique and improve the quality of your life. Let’s try to achieve more productiveness’ and say bye to the life of being a procrastinator. Wise decision leads to happy life.

“Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time.”- Jim Rohn