A topic that has been coming up a lot in my client sessions over the past few months is maximising productivity and time management when you are working from home, typically a one-woman-show, and trying to live your best life – all at the same time.
As an entrepreneur who constantly has a ton of moving parts (in my business AND personal life) over the past 10 years, I have embodied integrating the routines and habits that create balance in my life.
Have regular hours for work and play; make each day like both useful and pleasant and prove that you understand the worth of time by employing it well. Then youth will bring few regrets, and life will become a beautiful success.
And here’s the thing about balance – balance looks different for everyone and it depends on the season of life and business that you are in. Having enough self-awareness to know what will and won’t work for you is the key to finding what balance means to you and what that looks like in your current season.
The biggest mistake you can make is to take someone else’s daily routine that you saw on Instagram or TikTok this morning and try to implement it into your life without any context for what balance looks like for that person or if that is even their daily intention.
If you are blindly implementing what they are doing without any regard for what you truly need (been there – done that), you will be spinning in circles wondering why you feel burnt out every day trying to keep up instead of tuning into the hustle and flow of your day.
Hustle is the external work. It’s the action you take. Your wellness, your routines, your habits. Flow is the internal work. It’s your mindset, your thoughts, your confidence. (Because the reality is that you need to integrate both hustles and flow DAILY in order to thrive in all areas of your life.)
Not having balance leads to you prioritising other things and people over yourself, burning out, making excuses, and not living the life you envision for yourself.
The gap between where you are currently and where you want to be can be intimidating… which can often keep you from taking that next leap of faith that you know you need to take to get to the next level. Or keep you looking for answers outside of yourself.
But you have to take that leap in order to land on the other side. You have to believe that you can do it – and you have to be willing to put all of the excuses aside to find your balance. And it all starts with you. You are the only one who can decide that enough is enough. You are the only one who can decide to allow ease and flow into your life and business. You are the only one who can design your freedom on your terms.
Your business is an extension of you which means your business won’t flourish if you don’t. So you can prioritise all of the strategies in the world – if you aren’t mentally in alignment with the business you envision, you won’t take the action that will move you towards your goals.
Here are my TOP 5 integration tips to help you find balance in your business:
- Get clear on the things that genuinely bring you joy and refill your energy tank [Journaling, Reading, Movement, Working Out, Yoga, Bubble Baths, Nourishing foods]
- Create a consistent morning and evening routine that integrates the hustle and flow of your daily life
- Use a physical or digital planner to organise your thoughts, your vision and the task you need to take to execute your weekly priorities [Ask Yourself – What is 1 thing you can have accomplished by the end of the week that is going to move you closer to where you desire to be? What 3 action steps do you need to take to finalise your weekly goal?]
- Commit to doing the work consistently. Period. It is going to work – yes – eventually that work turns into momentum which will make all of the work at the beginning worth it.
- Focus on the vision you have for your life and build a business around that. You have to take action towards becoming the person you want to be, the person who naturally has the results you desire. Being in alignment with your purpose brings you clarity on the vision of your success. What you are here to create is going to come from within you. *Reminder – Give yourself the time and space daily to gain clarity on your vision so your action aligns with it.
