Discomfort is the Key to Achieving Work-Life Balance

Media mogul Ariana Huffington has said “work-life balance is a myth” and I tend to agree. "Wait, what? I thought this was about the key to achieving it?!" Well, yes. But I believe we need to think of BALANCING more in terms of BLENDING. ​

When we shift our mindset to the idea of blending, it lessons the stress and anxiety we feel caused by the pressure of balancing. Get it? Don't get me wrong. Achieving work-life balance {a-hem, blending} is going to be an uphill struggle. It just is. You can’t avoid it because it's a moving target that changes over time as your needs, wants, and desires change... but you can manage it. 

Whatever word you use to describe it, trying to create harmony between your work life and your personal life is not for the weak of heart. For most people, the responsibilities, chores, commitments, stress, etc. will just merge, and their entire life becomes a plate-spinning act where they need to rush back and forth to keep it all in order.

The key to reducing stress and bringing about some order in your life is to implement a few effective strategies. Here too there’s a problem because we’re creatures of habit and introducing new habits comes with its own set of problems. We’ll experience discomfort getting used to the new habits and routines, but you’ll gain so much more in the long run once you adopt them and make them a part of your lifestyle.
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​Habit #1 – Set clear boundaries
This habit applies to your family and friends, but most importantly, it applies to you. This will be your greatest challenge. So how do you go about setting boundaries? The first step will be to decide when you’ll start work and when you’ll stop. This is especially true when you’re working from home. The difficulty here that most people will face is that they have so much freedom when working from home that it’ll be tough to rein themselves in and be disciplined.

​You’ll also need to inform your family members not to intrude into your workspace and to give you time to work. Having specific blocks of time to work and rest will ensure that you’re not working for too long and end up getting burnout. "Music is the space between the notes." ~ Claude Debussy.

Habit #2 – Remove all distractions
This is another very difficult habit to develop. Most of us are so connected to the world that taking a break from it to work in isolation seems ridiculous. However, the best way to be productive will be to focus all your attention on the task at hand. Multitasking reduces your focus and productivity. Avoid it at all cost. The best way to remove all distractions will be to silence your phone during your working hours. It’s even better if you can place it in another room so that you’re less likely to be tempted to check on notifications and so on. Out of sight, out of mind.

Dealing with social media addiction can be trickier because these platforms cause a dopamine addiction in people. There’s a small ‘high’ that comes from checking your likes and shares and you get instant feedback. The best way to overcome the constant need to check on your social media would be to either turn off your Wi-Fi or use apps like Rescue Time (https://www.rescuetime.com/). Do your best to reduce your distractions so you can feed your focus.

Habit #3 – Prioritize your time
This applies to both work and other activities. There’s a difference between doing work that moves the needle and frittering away hours on ‘busy work’ that has you occupied but doesn’t actually progress you. You always want to dedicate most of your time on work that helps to elevate your business. Usually, the tasks that you keep procrastinating are the ones that matter the most. It’s just human nature. So, focus on the work that matters and complete the rest later. You’ll find that you have more time for leisure and have peace of mind without constantly worrying about your backlog of work.

​Conclusion
You’ll experience discomfort when developing these new productivity habits. This is par for the course. Endure the discomfort until the difficult becomes easy and the easy becomes beautiful. Your life will be immeasurably better when your habits are good and you have blended {aka balanced} your work life with your personal life.