Bringing Balance to Life tips

Once you've worked out what you want, you'll probably be keen to make achieving it your priority. And that means using habits that make (and keep) Balanced living your normal way of life.

Bringing Balance to Life - 26th May 2008

Getting going on things you’ve been putting off

We probably all have ‘things’ in our minds or on our To Do lists that we want to do, think we ought to do, would feel better if we did do… maybe it’s clearing out a cupboard, having that potentially difficult conversation, getting your finances organised, taking more exercise, doing something more interesting in the evening that just watching telly… Things we don’t get around to nag at us, sap energy and often spoil our enjoyment of how we do spend our time. 

It’s decision time - do you want to carry on as you are or do you what to get on top of this energy-sapping list? (The next Tip will be about preventing such a nag list building up).

When you're ready to take action –

1. Write each nagging task on a separate piece of paper or sticky note.

2. Look at all the things you’ve written and organise the papers into 4 piles –

• Not For Me – some things might belong to or be better done by other people
• Whim’s – thoughts and ideas that might be nice one day
• Ought To Do’s
• Want To Do’s

3. Hand back or delegate all the Not For Me tasks

4. Analyse the Whims – discard the merely fanciful and keep a note elsewhere of good ideas whose time has not yet come

5. Look at the Ought To Do’s and work out where the ‘ought’ is coming from - Who says you should? What would happen if you didn’t? What benefits would it bring you if you did?  This analysis will help you to separate the Oughts into Whims (and you know what to do with those) and some ‘things you now know you do want to do’ and so can add them to the Want To Do pile.

6. Taking the Want To Do’s –

• Separate out the ‘Quick and Easy’ tasks, put them in order of priority (appeal, practicalities, urgency, benefit when done) and decide how much time you’re prepared to give each task and when you’re going to do them.
• For the more involved tasks, list out the separate actions that add up to you successfully achieving that task.  Make sure each action is small, do-able and starts with a verb (to give yourself clear instruction about what to do).  Decide on timescales and schedule the small actions.

Tips

Decide how quickly you want this backlog cleared

Trust that taking a little time to and sit and plan really will help you focus and so both get you moving and save time

You do then have to do the things! – decide how you’ll reward yourself for sticking to your agreement with yourself

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See Bringing Balance to Life Tips from previous weeks

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And more general tips...

• Use the Life Balance KiT Diary to help you get focused on what you want and stay focused on using your time to achieve it
• Actively plan what you want to achieve with your time at least yearly, monthly and weekly - daily is good as well if you're very busy
• Review and reprioritise daily, fitting smaller or less important tasks around your 'must dos'
• Put 'first things first' (from The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey) - let your plan inform and guide your activities. Seems obvious, but how often do you plan to do the important things and then actually do something different?
• Make your planning time pleasurable - it really is the key to balanced living and it probably won't take more than 5 or 10 minutes a week
• Involve others to get their support where you want/need it and to help make your plan realistic
• Remember to schedule (and take) time for yourself - just to do what's important to you. Looking after your own needs means you'll have time and energy for everything else you want in your life
• Leave unfilled spaces for the unexpected things that always crop up so you're not left over-stretched - if nothing happens you'll have some bonus time you weren't expecting! If lots of unexpected things occur, simply re-plan the rest of the week to take account of it
• Small things make a big difference - doing what you can on a regular basis will get you further than massive activity followed by nothing
• Noticing how much satisfaction you're gaining from achieving in each part of your life and from having a better overall balance will help motivate you through the 'can't-be-quite-as-bothered' times
• If your focus slips at times, ask yourself 'what can I learn from how and why it slipped?' ... and just start planning again
• Check in with yourself on a regular basis to make sure that your life overall is still what you want it to be