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Are you looking for some work and life balance tips to help you balance your work life and your personal life?

Maybe you are a mom who is juggling between a full-time career, family, business and home life.

Does that sound like you?

These days it is hard enough to live on one income. You have got to pay the bills, so that means you must make these commitments.

You have work tasks that need your attention, family responsibilities to attend to and chores looking at you right in the face.

After attending to all these tasks, at the end of the day you go to bed all tired and burnout.

It is a struggle to have that work-life balance.

Honestly, is that even possible?

Sometimes it gets easier, but for most days it is downright hard that you want to pull your hair off (well you didn’t otherwise you won’t be reading this)
But, seriously, sometimes it feels like I will.

When the workload keeps piling you may feel like quitting or giving up, and you start having self-doubt about your abilities.

If you are struggling to have a balance between your work and personal life, you can implement these work-life balance tips and techniques to achieve that balance. These are 12 ways to improve your work-life balance.

12 Work and life balance tips for busy moms from @smartmommylife. Click To Tweet

Work and Life Balance Tips For Millennial Moms

Before we take a look at some of the work and life balance tips and techniques you can implement in your day-to-day activities, let’s talk about what work-life balance is all about.

What is work-life balance definition?

When it comes to defining work-life balance, I am yet to come across a suitable definition. According to the Cambridge dictionary, work-life balance is “the amount of time you spend doing your job compared with the amount of time you spend with your family and doing other things you enjoy.“

If looking at work-life balance by trying to compare the time spent at work and time spent with family and other things you enjoy, then it will be impossible to achieve work-life balance.

For a busy mom with a full-time career, you spend quite a lot of time during the day at work that by the time you get home, it is almost time for bed.

I look at work-life balance as the ability to be able to juggle between your work responsibility and your personal activities without the stress and burnout.

No two days are going to be the same. There are some days when you will have it easy and there are other days when you may need to put in a lot of work and effort. It may be that some days you have to work late and other days your kids and family needs you more. 

Importance of Work-Life Balance

For some, there are a natural at juggling tasks while for others, that skill doesn’t come easy. Achieving work-life balance can be tough and without that balance, it could result in more burnout and less productive.

Some of the benefits of work-life balance are, it can help reduce stress and prevent burnout. Maintaining work and life balance can also increase your productivity.

• More productive
• Reduce stress
• Less burnout
• Enjoy your work
• Stop missing out
• Better health and well-being

Here are some work and life balance tips and techniques you can use to better juggle between work and personal activities so you can achieve work-life balance. 

12 Work and life balance tips for busy moms from @smartmommylife. Click To Tweet

1. Managing Your Time

Having a better work-life balance comes down to being able to manage your time. Good time management skill is essential when it comes to juggling between work task and other life activities.

Without proper time management, you end up wasting valuable time. If you struggle with time management, there are useful time management techniques you can implement to enable you to gain control of your time.

I believe these three aspects are vital and go hand in hand when it comes to managing your time.

a. Set a Clear Goal for Yourself.

You need to know what it is you want to achieve because you will be lost if you do not know what you want to achieve. You may have heard the saying

“Always begin with the end in mind.”

– Dr. Stephen R. Covey

Before you start doing anything you need to have the end in mind first. Starting with the end in mind is very vital.

Think of it this way. Before you leave the house to go on a girl’s night out, you first decide on the destination. You have the end in mind because you know where you want to end up. That should also apply to every other aspect, be it with work or personal tasks.

Set clear goals and know what you want to achieve before you start working on any tasks.

You can use this vision board workbook to guide you to identify your goals, so you focus on those things you want. Set yearly goals and then further break them down into daily, weekly or monthly goals.

b. Identify the Task

You now have a clear goal set for yourself.

What are the tasks you need to do to get to where you want to end up? How are you going to get to your destination?

Having a clear goal is fantastic, but that doesn’t end there. You must go back and identify those tasks that will give you the desired results. Identify the task you need to do to achieve your goal — Breakdown broad goals and tasks into chunks.

If you were planning for a summer vacation to visit a destination country, first, you pick a destination you want to go to which means you have the end in mind. Then, you move on to find the route you will use to get to that destination.

It is crucial to start with the end in mind by setting a clear goal, and it is equally important also to list the things that will help you get to that goal.

Identify the activities that will enable you to achieve your goals.

c. Plan and Schedule Your Day

It is easy to wake up in the morning and navigate throughout the course of the day without any plan. You may end up finding yourself doing a task that has no added value, and you end up spending a chunk of your time carrying out unnecessary activities.

Planning your day is vital.

What do you hope to achieve when you wake up from bed in the morning? What are the things you need to complete through the course of the day?

For me, my mornings are crucial. It is my most productive time of the day. There is little or no distraction, so I make sure I schedule my mornings for those important tasks that require much focus like writing a blog post. I avoid planning other activities that don’t need much attention and focus during this time.

When is your most productive time of the day?

Endeavor to plan your day so you know where to always fit in those important tasks when you are still energetic. Scheduling your day also makes you aware of what you need to do for the rest of the day. Invest in a good planner.

2. Don’t Try to do Everything in One Day.

You may have tasks all piled which can be overwhelming. In your attempt to reduce the workload, you think it will be wise to schedule so many things in one day.

You are trying to get all the tasks out of the way, and you start racing against time attempting to complete all before the end of the day. Well, that may seem like a good idea at the time. However, you tend to overwork yourself.

You start feeling stressed.

Burnout!

Spread your task out during the week.

Trying to do everything in one day will cause you to feel overwhelmed.

When you decide to schedule a chunk of the task in one day, as the day comes to an end, you may go through the task list and out of the ten items you wanted to complete before the end of the day, you probably may have managed to complete three.

There is the tendency you started feeling like you haven’t accomplished anything for the day.
Spread your task out and allocate more time for those difficult tasks.

3. Don’t be Afraid to Ask for Help.

“You can do anything, but not everything.”

– David Allen

It is ok to ask for help. Asking for help is not a sign of weakness. You may be trying to do it by yourself because you may think it is a sign of weakness. Asking for help doesn’t mean you are weak.

You can ask your partner to pull their weight around the house with the chores and kids while you work on your projects.

Not everyone likes asking for help. If you are not comfortable asking for help, you can hire help and outsource some of those unimportant tasks and chores while you focus on the important task.

Know your strengths. What you are good at and what you can handle at a time. If you are not comfortable asking for help, you can hire help if that is something you can afford.

4. Be flexible with Your Schedule

Yes, it is good to plan, but there are times when things don’t go as planned.
It may be that you need to stay late at work to finish that report you were working on or that blog post you were writing took longer than expected.

You want to make sure you have a flexible schedule, so you can be able to move task around.

There are times when I scheduled my writings for early in the morning, but once I turn on the computer, I may not feel like writing, so I switch to something else and re-adjust my schedule.

While being flexible is good, you also want to make sure you are disciplined and not make it a habit always to move task around.

When you plan, try as much as you can to go by the plan and when those extenuating circumstances pop up, you can re-adjust the schedule accordingly.

Be flexible but also be disciplined.

5. Learn to Take a Break

Take some time and step away from work.

It is easy how we can get consumed by our work that we forget to take a break.
You may be committed to your work, but it is essential to take some time away from work to unwind and reset.

Learn to shut down those computers and step away from the pile of work. When you take a break, upon return, you may be filled with a new idea and perspective.

Take a break or have a recess time away from work every now and then so you don’t feel burnout.

6. Family Time is Important.

As a busy mom, you can quickly get occupied with your day to day task that you may end up not spending time with your loved ones. As much as your work is important, your family is equally important.

Always try to tune off your business mindset, leave work behind and spend some time with your family. Give your relationships with your family and kids the much-needed nourishment.

Make out time to play with the kids after work. There are a variety of toddler activities you can do at home with your little ones from coloring to painting.

7. Don’t Forget to Take Care of Yourself

Looking after yourself is very important. You can’t pour from an empty cup.
When you are busy mom, you quickly get into that conundrum of putting everyone and everything before you.

However, it shouldn’t have to be that way. When you take care of yourself, you can and will become a better and cheerful giver.
If you have been neglecting yourself, it is time to make some changes.

It would help if you made it a priority to do something for yourself now and then.
It doesn’t have to be fancy or expensive. There are simple self-care activities you can practice at home every day.

It is OK to put yourself first and look after yourself, and it is OK not to feel guilty about it. Take some time out to focus on you.

8. Meal Plan and Cook in Batches

Meal planning can save you much time.

The time spent on cooking meals every day could be used to do other tasks.
Meal planning and cooking in batches should be a must for every busy mom.

If you don’t know how to meal plan, you can use these simple step by step instruction on how to meal plan to get you started. With meal planning, I only cook once a week on weekends. When I get home after work on weekdays, I can focus on other things.

9. Don’t Try to be Perfect

Maybe you have been trying to be the perfect employee or the perfect mom.

Here is the thing,

There is no such thing as being perfect.  You need to let go of wanting to be perfect. Rather than striving for perfectionism, you can just be you and be a good enough mom.

Being perfect means being flawless and being flawless means there is no need for improvement or growth.

Not being perfect doesn’t make you a failure but trying to be perfect can cause you to let down your loved ones.

You are a good enough mom from @smartmommylife. Click To Tweet

10. It is OK to say no.

Do you always try to please everyone, saying yes to every request or task that comes your way?

You may feel compelled to say yes to your boss who is asking you to work late when you need to pick up your toddler from day-care or to say yes to that friendly invitation when you know you have work to do.

Quit trying to please everyone.

Everyone wants to be liked, but sometimes you must put your foot down and say no
And saying no doesn’t make you a bad mom or a bad friend or a bad employee.
Saying no makes you human, and that is OK.

11. Avoid Time Wasters.

If it is not adding any value, you need to get rid of it.

Simple!

Otherwise, you end up wasting valuable time which you could use to focus on doing more important things that will propel you towards achieving your goals.

Time wasters like social media, too much screen time take up valuable time.

Identify the things that are taking up much of your time and which are not adding any value and eliminate those from your routine.

12. Get Rid of Clutter and be Organized.

A cluttered space is a cluttered mind. Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication

– Leonardo Da Vinci

When your space and your mind is clear or clutter-free, you will be in a much better position to think clearly and act with purpose.

Take time to de-clutter your physical space and mind.

De-cluttering your physical space could be organizing your filing cabinet, kitchen cupboards, your work space, or putting the papers into a folder.

De-clutter your space and see the magic work.

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12 Work and life balance tips for busy moms from @smartmommylife. Click To Tweet

I hope you found these work and life balance tips useful in achieving your work-life balance.

What tips do you use for achieveing work and life balance?

Please leave your comment below.