PPI #136: How to Manage Your Time Better

Either you run the day or the day runs you. We all have the same 24 hours in a day. But how you use those hours has a huge effect on the quality of your life. And you actually have way more power than you think, way more ability than you think to create the balance that you seek. Now, getting work life balance wrong can have a devastating impact on your physical and emotional and even mental well being. Meaning you cannot be your best at work or at home and live an inspired life. But today I'm going to teach you the tactics and tips for work life balance that you can apply every day to live a more fulfilling life, not just professionally, but also personally.

Now, let me be clear. I used to get this all wrong. I wasn't following any of these tactics and tips to have better work life balance. I was working all the time, all hours of the day, never prioritizing my health, never being home early enough to actually spend time with my family. I was not doing it right at all. But then I started to try new things, then I started to change. And if you follow the tactics and the tips that I'm going to be showing you today, even though you don't think that work life balance is attainable, if you follow these tactics and tips, it is attainable. You will and you can have more balance in your life so that you feel that you're doing your best professionally and also doing your best personally as well. When I say personally, I also, you know, just mean for yourself as well as for others. So here we go. Tactics and tips for work life balance that you can apply every day. I'm going to take you through seven things, and the first thing is to prioritize your day. You need to have a plan for action for your day. When's the best time to do that? Do you think? Do you think it's to do it the morning of your day? Most people think that way. They think, oh, I should do that right at the start of my day. But I want to suggest something different that most people don't suggest. I want to suggest that you actually prioritize your day the day before. I want you to end your day prioritizing what you're going to do the next day. And I want you to do that by having a static appointment appointment that always happens in your calendar 30 minutes before you like your day to end. When that appointment comes up, you can call it your shutdown appointment or your planning appointment, your prioritization appointment, but put that in your calendar. When that appointment comes up, you're Simply going to do the following. You're going to reflect on what's happened today. Do I need to update my to do list? Do I need to think about any new actions or requirements? And then you're gonna look at your next day. You're gonna look at tomorrow, essentially, and you're gonna look at, okay, well, what's going on tomorrow? And then you're gonna ask yourself if tomorrow we're gonna be a winning day for me, what are the top three things that I need to achieve tomorrow? And then you're just simply gonna schedule those three items in your day as appointments with yourself, and you're gonna respect those appointments as you would an appointment with someone else. What do I mean by that? When you schedule them, you show up for them. And when those appointments happen, you actually do those things. You don't do other things. You do what you scheduled in your calendar. So prioritize your day by deciding, what are the top three things that I'm going to work on the day before? So the day before, you end your day by deciding, what are those top three things for the next day? The number two thing to have work life balance is to set clear goals. When we progress as human beings, when we're achieving things, when we're feeling like we're closing that gap between our current and best selves, when we're achieving goals and getting to new places that we haven't been before, it makes us feel happier, it makes us feel more fulfilled. And having clear goals. Setting those clear goals is such an important thing to create that work life balance that you seek. And you may have already decided what your goals are at the beginning of the quarter, at the beginning of the year, whatever that period of time may be. And if you've already decided them, that's fine. But make sure that you're checking in with them on a daily basis. What are those goals? Why am I doing them? Why are they important to me? And then use that as a bit of a sanity check on the top three things that you've chosen for the day. Do those activities that I'm choosing to work on today, are they actually going to help me achieve those goals? And if not, then maybe you want to think about changing those things up. What could I be doing? What could I actually work on that will help me with my goal achievement? You see so many times in the course of a day, in the course of a week, when you might feel like you're full of busy work and doing a lot of things, but you're not Actually doing the things that matter most to you, because perhaps the things that you're working on on a daily basis that are filling your time aren't actually connected to the goals that you think are most important for your life, for your development, for your fulfillment. So setting clear goals is super important to achieving work life balance because it makes sure that we're working on the things that matter most to us, the things that really move us, the things that will make us feel like we're living a more fulfilled life. The number three thing to create more work life balance is to make sure that you have more time scheduled to rejuvenate and recover. You can't rev your engine at the highest level throughout the day. Eventually you're going to blow a tire or blow out the engine. I mean, if you've ever watched, you know, race car driving, for example, what are the cars constantly doing during the course of the race? They're coming in, they're having pit stops, they change the tires, they change things up. There's a momentary relaxation moment for the driver before they get back onto the track. It's not just like revving the engine constantly. And if you are constantly doing that.

You won't make it throughout the day. You're going to burn out, you're going to feel even more overwhelmed, even have greater levels of anxiety. And you need to actually schedule into your day recovery and rejuvenation. And how do you do that? Well, by having breaks throughout your day. Simple thing that I do is in the course of an hour, I make sure that I don't work the full hour. I work for 55, 0, 50 minutes maximum. And then I take a 10 minute break. So every hour for me has 10 minutes of just complete downtime, complete rejuvenation time. Then the other way that I create that work life balance is that I have a static end to my day. I know when my day is going to end no matter what. That's 6:30pm for me. And when that clock goes off, you know, 6:30pm I know that I'm transitioning into my home life, my downtime. And this is very important for creating that work life balance that you seek. The number four thing to create better work life balance is to have gratitude for the things that you have. Too often when we're working throughout the course of our day, we're constantly thinking about the things we don't have. We never take a moment to think about the things that we do have. I coach and mentor so many entrepreneurs and leaders and the thing That I always do at the start of every single session is I always ask them, what are we celebrating? What are the big wins? What's gone well? Because those who are trying to achieve their best, the peak performers, the high performers out there, those who want something more often don't take enough time to reflect on what is it that they have that's already good. And the reason that this is important from a work life balance point of view is that if you constantly think that you don't have enough, and if you're not grateful for the things that you already have, that will probably compel and push you to continue working even harder. To feel like I must keep acquiring, I must keep doing, rather than simply stopping and being and enjoying what you already have. So make sure that you have a simple gratitude practice program somewhere in your day. What are the top three things that you're grateful for? You can do that at the start of the day, you could do that at the end of the day, but make sure you do it somewhere in the course of your day. Number five. To achieve work life balance, learn to say no. Your time is a precious commodity. You can't do everything, you can't please everyone. And if somebody is making a request on your time and you need to have the confidence and the security to say, I'd really love to be able to spend some time with you right now, but unfortunately I can't. I need to prioritize these other things in my work or in my life right now. Have the confidence to say that you can't be everything to all people. And equally, once again, you can't pursue absolutely everything. Going back to the goals point, if you have clear goals, you, you need to be asking yourself, well, is this request or is this idea about something new that I should be spending my time on or towards, is that going to help me achieve these goals? Yes or no. And make sure that you're consistent with that. Use that as your filter to decide what do I say yes to and what do I say no to. And that right there will massively improve and protect your work life balance number six, have fun. What is it that you enjoy doing? Who do you enjoy spending time with? Make sure that you're doing these things. Program into your week schedule into your week, your downtime, your guilt free play, your time where you're going to be working on hobbies or doing something, or just simply reading a book or simply not thinking at all, or just watching your favorite, you know, series or movie. But make sure that you have fun make sure you're programming that into your time. Make sure you're making time for that. It's so critical for work life balance. And it might sound counterintuitive, but here's the reality. If you schedule, if you know in your week when you're going to be doing the things that are fun for you, that are going to make you smile, make you laugh, or make you feel that sense of enjoyment, then you have something to look forward to. And when you have something to look forward to, you work a little bit more efficiently. It doesn't feel like you're just working for, you know, no end in sight. You know that you're going to have this little reward at the end of your day or during, you know, at some point later in the week. And number seven, to create more work life balance, spend more time with your family and friends. Kind of relates to the last point, having fun. Because sometimes some of the fun that you're seeking in life could simply be more time with the people that matter most to you. But make sure that you're spending time in your relationships. We as human beings, we are social beings. We are designed to interact and be with others. It's programmed into our DNA. And if you're not programming, if you don't have enough time in the course of your week spending with others, spending with people that matter most to you, then it's going to feel like your life is imbalanced. If you make sure that you're programming on a weekly basis, that you're having on a weekly basis, enough time with your family, your friends, you're going to feel so much more balance. And I'd love to hear from you. So don't forget to leave a comment and a rating as well. And if you'd like to get a copy of my new book, the Three Alarms, please head over to my website at ericpartaker.com that's E R I C ericpartaker.com where you can pick up a free digital copy of my new best selling book, the Three Alarms.