How to Achieve Perfect Work-Life Balance | Jack Canfield

Hi, I'm Jack Canfield and today I want to talk to you about how to find your perfect work life balance so that you spend less time working and more time doing the things you love. You know, in today's fast paced work environments, achieving work life balance can almost seem impossible. Technology has made us accessible 24 hours a day. The stress of never taking a minute off is impacts our health, our relationships with our loved ones and our friends, and our overall happiness. The days of leaving the office at 5 o' clock and driving home in peace and quiet are over. But the trick is to figure out a happy medium and follow a set of principles that allow you to keep that stress in the office where it belongs. In the office. Maybe no stress there at all. We'll talk about that as well. Well, first it's important to have as many days of recreation, which means re creation to recreate yourself so that you can come back to work rested and refreshed. However, it's challenging to create that kind of time without a system. My friend Dan Sullivan, the founder and president of the Strategic Coach, has a concept that is effective and easy to use. Dan's entrepreneurial time system divides days into three categories of time. Focus days, buffer days and free days. Now, focus days are when you spend 80% of your time making use of your primary expertise or unique ability to produce bottom line result, which is usually increased revenue. Now for example, a focus day for me is when I'm speaking, training, coaching or leading a retreat. When I'm enrolling people in one of those things or giving an interview or appearing on a podcast where I can promote our courses, our online training programs, my books, and when I'm in the studio developing a new product. A buffer day consists of things like planning, managing my staff, delegating tasks, reading or learning new skills. Now the goal of a buffer day is to do things that allow you to make the most of your focus days. Now, free days are literally free days just for you. It's a full day from midnight to midnight without any work related activity. No emails, no work calls, no business related reading, no nada. Now when I first learned of this concept, it was so foreign it took me time to embrace it 100%. But today I schedule 135 free days at the beginning of the year and I do everything in my power to take them. Now, all three days play on one another. Buffer days build skills and make improvements that support your focus days. And free days allow you the time to clear your mind and relax, making you more effective on both your buffer days and your focus days. Now my second tip is to have clear boundaries. In today's high tech world, it seems requests come in from every angle. Co workers, bosses, spouses and friends all have your ear, thanks to social media and the smartphones and so on. If you feel tugged at in all directions, you're human. Feeling like you should be there for others is noble, but it comes at a cost as it lets your projects and priorities fall by the wayside. Now the answer to this problem is quite simple. Learn to set boundaries and say no. Now. Saying no to those you love isn't against them, it's for you. And here's a valuable phrase. When you say no to someone, just say, look, it's not against you. I love you. I care about you. I think what you're doing is important. But if I say yes, it'll be against me. Because I'm focusing on this right now. People respect that. Now I have the word no written in large letters in several places on my desk and on my computer to remind me of this so that I can say no. Now. One way to preserve your ability to say no is to never say yes right away, giving you time to really consider what it's going to cost you if you say yes. So you can say, give me a day to think about that. I'll get back to you about that tomorrow. And then you can step back and really consider is this the best use of my time now? Third, take your vacation time. There's a growing trend in the business world of not utilizing all of your vacation time. In fact, a survey conducted by Harris interactive states that 57% of business people had vacation time that they did not use in the last year. And like free days, vacations are essential, allowing you to rest and regenerate. When you return from a vacation, you've allowed yourself a reboot, and that makes you a more effective entrepreneur or a more valuable employee where you work. This is why it's important to plan and schedule vacations for yourself in advance. A holiday doesn't have to mean a week or more. It can be a long weekend, exploring your favorite city, or taking a road trip with friends. The only two rules are that you schedule your vacations in advance and that you take them. Whether it's a weekend in the country or your dream vacation, take the time to schedule it. And lastly, master the art of delegation. Delegating allows you to stay in your lane whether you're a trainer, speaker, author or entrepreneur or manager of others. For example, a real estate agent should spend time doing those things which directly create commissions, listing and closing properties. By letting others create marketing videos or handling paperwork and other logistics, the agent can acquire more listings, close more sales, and increase his or her revenue. So life is about balance between work and play, business and family, focus and rest, time with others and time with yourself. And here's an important idea. Perfect balance is never achieved because perfect balance is never really achieved. Because balance is not a noun. It's not something you can permanently achieve. It's really a verb. Much like when you drive a car, you're always course correcting balancing your life is the same. You're going to constantly need to make adjustments to meet the needs of your job, needs of your family life, your friends, your happiness and your health. And we're all human and we'll all experience being on course and off course. And the more important thing is to notice when you're off course and not stay there too long. As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts after watching this video. Can you relate to feeling out of balance and what kind of support would help you achieve more balance in your life? And if you inspired, please leave a comment about that below with your answer. I love to read what you have to say, so thanks for watching. And remember, nothing in your life will change for the better until you do. Now, if you found this video helpful, make sure you like it, share it with a friend who may need it, and subscribe to my channel for more videos like this one. And for some additional resources on creating a work life balance, be sure to visit my website@jackcampfield.com thanks again for watching.