What do you think of when you hear the word “balance?” Balance is a part of life that often goes overlooked yet it is incredibly important to place an emphasis on it. Balance in life can help create a state of Zen or peace of mind. Having these things in life can lead to less stress and more happiness. But how do we find balance in our life? Well, it starts with balancing your time.
Time for friends:
Friends are a very important part of our lives. Spending time with our friends is one of the best ways to spend our time. When we spend our time with our friends, we’re surrounding ourselves with people who make us happy. We are putting ourselves in a situation that helps give us a sense of purpose and belonging. There are tons of benefits that come just from spending time with your family.
Time for family:
While spending time with your friends is great, your family needs to see you as well. Family time is incredibly important. You are helping create and boost one of the strongest bonds we can make in life. Your family can be a great support system. They can be there for you when nobody else is. Much like your friends, spending time with your family has a lot of benefits too, including improved mental health, stronger family bonds/connections, learning parenting skills, and much more.
Time for your partner:
Often, we rope our partner time in with family/friend time. However, it’s crucial to make an effort for individual time with your partner. Love needs romance. By spending some romantic time with your partner you are not only keeping the relationship alive, but you’re making it stronger through a deeper more intimate connection. Quality time with the one you love is only going to help your relationship so it’s important to make sure quality time is a priority.
Time for yourself:
Last but not least for spending your time, is time for yourself. This part of spending your time is one of the more overlooked ways of time usage. Yet, as it is with the methods mentioned above, it’s important to make time for yourself. Time for yourself can mean a wide variety of things. It can mean alone time for you to do nothing and relax. It can also mean time spent on improving your skills, time for your passions/hobbies, time for trying new things, and much more. Time for yourself is important because sometimes we just need a break to do the things we love.
We understand that our time is valuable. We also understand that it’s hard to make time for everything. This is where the struggle for balance starts to take place. We don’t usually have time to spend on everything we want to do in a day. So how do we balance out all of these things?
The simplest trick to balancing your time is to prioritize it. What to you feels like the most important thing you can spend your time on today? Ask yourself questions like: “What did I spend my time on yesterday?” If you spent time with your friends yesterday, today may be a good day to spend time with your family instead or even have some time just for yourself. “Are there any major events coming up?” Maybe there’s an upcoming birthday party, wedding, or get-together already planned. Prioritizing the major events is a great way of making sure you don’t miss something important. It also allows you to see where you’ll be spending your time in the near future, so you’ll know where you can prioritize the time leading up to that.
Finding balance is a constant struggle many of us face on a weekly basis, especially when it comes to how we should spend our time. The plain truth is it varies for everybody. Some of us value our time spent in certain ways more than others. That’s okay. The key to it all is making sure that nobody, including yourself, feels unvalued by how you’re spending your time. While it’s difficult to find a perfect balance, it is possible to do so. Here are some other tips and tricks on ways to help create balance in your life:
Get organized:
Make a schedule. A lot of us have a tendency to just wing the day. Having an updated schedule/calendar can go a long for creating balance in life. It allows you to see events coming up and also know when you will have the time to spend your own time on the other things you value.
Be realistic:
Be realistic with yourself. Do you really think you can do all these things in one day? Would you benefit from spreading it out a bit? We only have 24 hours in a day. A good chunk of that time is dedicated to healthy sleep and work or school. So how much time do you really have in a day? Don’t overdo it, prioritize the important things first and work your way down the list of things you want/need to do.
Say no:
Lastly, just remember; you can say no. We’re often so afraid of what happens if we say no to someone or something. Yet, it’s completely okay to do so. Sure, we may occasionally upset someone when doing so, but if they’re truly someone that cares about you, they’ll understand. We tend to overwork ourselves because we’re simply just afraid of saying, “No, I need a break today.” Don’t fear the word no, in fact, start using it more. Take care of yourself and spend your time wisely.