Are you searching for ways to find balance among the many things you’re juggling in life? Achieving a sense of balance can be challenging! That’s why I’m sharing with you some of what I’ve learned along my own journey of searching for balance.
Today’s episode is actually part two to a two part mini series on balance. So, if you haven’t listened to part one yet, go ahead and do that first! You’ll want to start there because that episode certainly lays the groundwork for this one.
How I Achieve Business + Life Balance
Setting Yourself Up For Success
First things first - if you haven’t already, you’ll have to figure out how your children are being taken care of (if you have kids). In our current season of life, our kids are in daycare because I need about 20-30 hours each week to run my business.
Here’s the thing, childcare will look different for everyone in different seasons! The factors that go into making a decision regarding childcare are many, but in case you haven’t already, be sure to take time to make the best decision for you, your family, and your work.
Workflow
Guys, my current workflow is new to me, and it has already changed the way I work significantly! The best part about my new workflow is that it has opened my eyes to how much time I spend on certain tasks specifically, and I’ve been able to align the time I’m spending on tasks directly with my goals. This has allowed me to really focus on my goals, and cut out the things that were taking my time away from my goals. All of this change has been revolutionary for me!
My workflow can be broken up into three categories:
- Daily tasks
- Weekly tasks
- Monthly tasks
After I determined what tasks fell into which bucket, I then determined how much time I thought it would take me to get each task done. If you’re not sure which bucket to place a task in, try to assign the time to the task first, and then determine which bucket it should fall into. Over time, I’ve been able to time myself doing each of these tasks to help me refine my buckets.
For a daily task example, checking my email falls into my daily bucket. But here’s the thing, I only check my email once a day. That’s it! When it’s time to check my email I get in there, read what I need to read, reply to emails that need a response, and then I get out of there. I don’t check it again until the next day. Putting a time constraint on my email has opened up so much time for me, and has become a large part of my work-life balance.
For a weekly task example, recording this podcast falls into my weekly bucket. Each week, I sit down to record a podcast, approve the podcast, and do anything else related to that specific weekly episode. As I’ve timed myself doing each of these tasks, I’ve been able to become more efficient with my time and redistribute my tasks to fit into my schedule better.
For a monthly task example, during the first week of every month, I do a bookkeeping check-in to ensure that everything is accounted for in my business, and make sure I’m staying on track. This is a good example of a task that doesn’t need to be done daily or even weekly, but it’s very helpful to check-in on a monthly basis.
Hopefully, shining some light on what these tasks look like in my business, helps you think through how you might set up your own buckets. Now, you get to determine what tasks you have, and how to best set up your time management buckets in a way that works for you!
Task Management Software
After you outline your time management buckets, input all of this into a task management software that fits your work needs. Whether you’re managing a team of people, running a business, or working for yourself, I highly encourage you to find a helpful software that works for you.
Not living off of a notepad has allowed me to better understand what I need to get done on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.
Using a task management software has allowed me to zoom out, and see things in a bigger picture. Being able to tangibly see where my time is going has allowed me to analyze my time better.
Now, I can see where most of my time is being spent, where not enough of my time is being spent, and I’m able to determine if all this time spent is pointed in the right direction.
If you take one thing away from this episode, I want to encourage you to take inventory of your time spent. Does the time you spend working on your tasks align with your top 3 goals? The truth is, you can work really hard, but you can be working in the wrong direction. You might be spending a lot of time on work, but the tasks you’re spending the most time on might not be pointed towards your goals.
So, take inventory of your time! We have to harness the time we have on this earth because it’s one of the most important gifts we have. We’re doing ourselves a disservice if we don’t steward our time wisely.
Want some good news? You can stream the follow up episode to this one, now! Listen to Productivity + Business Series: Behind The Scenes Of Our CEO Retreat. Goal setting + new operating systems!
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