Have you ever wondered how well you balance your work with your life? How about wondering how you can better balance your work and life? There are many resources out there regarding this conundrum. A good book is by Steven Hobfoll, PhD. titled Work Won’t Love You Back: The Dual Career Couple’s Survival Guide. I know I have often wondered how I can better balance my work and life. Unfortunately, I have work, internship, school, and life to balance. It starts getting very complicated the more dedicated activities that are added to your schedule. This complexity is especially true when you add children to the mix.

I am often asked how I manage all of my activities. My usual response is that I have to manage it, so I just do. I think back to when I was a child and wonder when I started to manage multiple priorities simultaneously. High school was the beginning of juggling multiple activities and projects. My time management just went from there. I don’t remember a time since then that I have only had one activity (such as work) for an extended length of time.

The question is: What are good ways to manage and prioritize your time? How will employees who balance work and life well benefit the organization?

Individuals who manage time wisely have more time to dedicate to specific activities. If one activity suffers then the other is likely to suffer as well. Everyone has had an experience where life is out of whack and time spent at your job is not as productive. The opposite is also true. If your job is running into your life, then the time spent away from work suffers. It is more than just making your employees more productive. Having happier, more engaged employees will naturally increase their productivity. It is in the best interest of the organization to help its employees better manage their time.

Some simple ways to start better managing time is to prioritize activities. You should write down a list of important aspects of your life. This list can include things such as work, spouse, children, etc. Now order the pieces on the list according to the importance to you.

This list should be prioritized not by what you thinks should be important but what is important to you. If you could focus solely on one aspect of your life, what would it be? What would the second and third things be? Keep adding aspects until the employee feels satisfied with the list. This list does not need to be shared with anyone other than the employee.

You should schedule private time. You schedule work, daycare, and other activities, why not private time? You schedule important aspects of your life and private time is just as important. If you don’t schedule it then it will probably get taken over with other tasks.

When you’re at work, focus on work. When you’re at home, focus on home. Focusing on one think at a time will allow you to accomplish more of that activity. Your family will also appreciate that you are mentally, as well as physically, at home. Quality time is not just being with your family but also leaving work at work. You usually can’t accomplish work tasks at home so why stress yourself by thinking about them at home? You and your family will both appreciate the quality time you spend at home.
The last tip is to remove all the unnecessary tasks and activities from your schedule. Plan only activities that are important. The rest can be removed because they take away time from the activities you find important.

All of the above tips can be used to help employees and yourself better manage your time. These tips are just one way to manage time. Any time management skills are better than none. With the work place now able to go everywhere with you, it has become increasingly difficult and more important to be able to separate yourself from work. Awareness of the struggle and a conscious effort to handle your time is the first step to balancing work and life.