Life is all about the balance between work, rest and play. Or at least it should be.
If you currently find yourself struggling to devote enough time to do all three effectively, then you are going to have to make some changes.
Thankfully, there are plenty of things you can do to ensure you hit that sweet spot between juggling your work and parental responsibilities, enjoying hobbies and an enriched social life, and getting the required amount of rest you need to enjoy good health.
In this article, we’ll examine how you can create a more balanced life through six savvy tips, tricks, and lifestyle modifications. If you adopt all of them, you’ll suddenly feel more in control of things.
1. Healthy eating
Maintaining a healthy diet is the cornerstone around which a balanced life should be created.
Eating three meals a day – each consisting of different elements of the five food groups – gives your body the fuel it needs to perform at optimal levels.
Good nutrition not only reduces the risk of succumbing to chronic non-communicable diseases like cancer, diabetes, and heart disease, it can also boost your clarity of thought and soundness of judgement.
Unfortunately, many people skip meals or take a convenient junk food option that has no nutritional value.
If this is something you occasionally find yourself doing, consider using a mail delivery service that focuses on supplying delicious and nutritious meals.
For instance, you can get same-day Sydney delivery with Food St for a range of Australian and international dishes, which will save you a lot in the way of preparation time.
2. Prioritise good sleep
We all know sleep is important, yet like food, it is something we often sacrifice in order to manage everything going on in our lives.
However, research has proven that the more quality sleep you get, the more clearly you think and the more productive you are. Therefore, it is within your interest to get between seven and nine hours of sleep every night.
Aside from the cerebral benefits, good sleep also strengthens your immune system, which means you are less likely to succumb to infections, illnesses or more serious conditions, such as obesity, hypertension, stroke, heart attack or depression, that can result from chronic sleep deprivation.
3. Practise self-care
Life can be very stressful at times, particularly if you have lots of different responsibilities that pull you in several different directions at once.
If you are not careful, you can find yourself not having any time for yourself. So, it is important to make sure you practise self-care every day.
This doesn’t necessarily have to take up a lot of your time. For instance, it could involve doing 15 minutes of yoga in the morning or a 30-minute walk before the kids wake up. Alternatively, it could take the form of listening to music with your headphones on in a locked room or a lazy soak in a bubble bath.
Whatever your preferred method of self-care is, make sure you do it every day. This will give you a chance to recharge your batteries and tackle the rest of your day with renewed vigour.
4. Get more productive
One of the main reasons we lead an imbalanced life is that we are not as productive as we could be. Indeed, we often spend a lot of time stressing about how much we have to do instead of actually getting on and doing it.
If this sounds like something you do, a clever tactic is to invoke the five-minute rule. This involves drawing up a list of all the things you need to do in the day that take five minutes or less to complete and then completing them as soon as you can.
You’ll be able to complete upwards of 12 things in an hour, which should help reduce your to-do list and provide you with greater mental clarity.
5. Learn to say no
Often, certain aspects of your life become unbalanced when you take too much on. This could be tasks at work, favours for friends, or other commitments for which you put yourself forward for.
If it is something you really want to do, then, by all means, agree to it. Just be mindful of the toll it will take on you physically, mentally and in terms of time.
However, if you are being asked to do something you don’t really want to do, then it is perfectly fine to say you are too busy with other obligations.
At the end of the day, you should never be forced to do something you don’t want to do, especially when it impacts your own free time.
6. Work from home
The average person works about 38 hours a week for their employer. Moreover, if they are based in major cities like Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide, they also spend about 66 minutes commuting to and from work every day.
One way to gain your commuting time back each day is to work from home, which may help you to achieve more work-life balance. Ask your employer for permission to work from home for one or two days a week to help create a better equilibrium. If they say no, consider moving to another company that will or speak to your employer about other ways to achieve more time balance, such as shifting to working a nine-day fortnight.
By following some of these tips and making some small yet effective changes, you can hopefully create a more balanced lifestyle and enjoy the day-to-day a lot more.