The following post about finding balance is from a friend of mine in the publishing and marketing business. It appeared in a recent newsletter of hers. I like it and find it to be helpful in many situations and areas. See what you think.
Would these suggestions help you with finding balance when you travel or when you write about your travels? Think about them…
If you want to read more of hers, check out DocUmeantPublishing.com
Finding Balance
Are you fast becoming overwhelmed? Are the projects you meant to get done being pushed aside by life? If you hope to reach your goals in business, spend your time productively, and be sure not to waste what little time you are given. This brief article will give you four ways to help get each day off to a productive start.
1. Establish Boundaries
We often have a hard time focusing on our work when family needs are pulling us in many different directions. Yes, we should address immediate needs—our child just slammed their fingers in the door—but for smaller things, we will be able to make much greater progress if we learn to set boundaries.
Establishing our boundaries is an age-old challenge. Whether the boundaries are for our personal life or our business, the challenge remains the same. We need to discover, somehow, that perfect balance so that we can remain focused. There is nothing more precious than time, and we have to safeguard our productive time by keeping distractions to a minimum. One way is to let our family know that we need a certain block of time to focus on our writing, or marketing, or whatever needs to be accomplished. It is imperative that we do this in one way or another. A ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign posted on our door is one sure way to remind the family that this is our productive time. Once boundaries are set around our work and the time we’ve designated to be productive, we can turn our focus towards a second challenge we are bound to encounter.
2. Procrastination
This is another major challenge that we all face. While good intentions are all ‘well and good’, the best intentions do nothing to get the job done. If the bad habit of putting things off is the biggest challenge we face, we should consider making a list of the things to accomplish. It can be quite helpful. List items in the order of importance, or perhaps in the order of the length of time it will take for each to be completed, and then work through the list as the day progresses. Check or cross off each item on the TO-DO list as it is accomplished. At the end of the day, the number of checked off items might well show that more has been accomplished than expected! Any items on the list that were not completed should be carried over to the top of the next day’s TO-DO list.
3. Manage social media time
This is harder than it appears. We go online to check our social media sites and post an interesting tidbit or two, and before we know it half the day is gone. Again, set boundaries. Set aside small blocks of time for each social media site. Better yet, invest in a program that helps automate social media posts. This will prevent the wasting of productive time browsing through social media files.
4. Take a break
While consistent efforts to complete TO-DO lists will help keep our business moving in the right direction, some downtime can also be a valuable time management tool. As mentioned in my book, The Complete Library of Entrepreneurial Wisdom, “. . . know when to draw the line.”[1]
Step away and refresh mind, body, and soul. We should get plenty of rest and exercise. This will keep our minds sharp, allowing us to come back to the tasks at hand with a fresh energy and sense of enthusiasm. We might even come up with a new idea on how to grow our business, a direction to take our story, or accomplish a task more easily.
These are just a few of the ways to help develop balance in our business lives. If we go through the day paying attention to setting boundaries, avoiding procrastination, managing social media time, and even taking occasional breaks, we might very well find that we’ve accomplished much more than we ever thought possible.