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How to Juggle Your Work and Life Demands

Written by: Emma White

Article Overview: We live in a 24/7 global society, with endless access to sensational information and subliminal advertising campaigns which goes towards shaping our disposable culture. From a very young age we are generally influenced to keep up with the latest trends, technologies and “must-haves” to appear socially acceptable.

How to Juggle Your Work and Life Demands

We live in a 24/7 global society, with endless access to sensational information and subliminal advertising campaigns which goes towards shaping our disposable culture. From a very young age we are generally influenced to keep up with the latest trends, technologies and “must-haves” to appear socially acceptable.

I believe that it is so easy to be consumed by what we should be, we often forget about who we truly are. Also, due to the addition of email and technologies such as Blackberry and Mobile Phones, we can be reached any time of the day or night. This means we can often unnecessarily burden ourselves with stress and anxieties.

Different parts of peoples lives often function better than others. Frequently our lives are out of balance we devote sufficient time or energy to some aspects, and not enough to others.

To determine how in balance your life is try completing the following ‘Life Satisfaction Check’. This will help you to determine what aspects of your life you are satisfied with and which you are not. Give them a rating between 1-10, 1-being dissatisfied and 10 completely satisfied, marking with a dot. Then join the dots on paper to show your satisfaction ‘peaks’ and ‘troughs’.


Take your time to consider what your life would look and feel like if you could address the areas that you are not satisfied with. Then you can be proactice in thinking of ways to push the troughs up a few levels.

Next you can identify your daily and weekly activities at work and at home, for example:

Answering emails and calls
Travelling to and from work
Daily Administrative Support
Meetings
Housework
Cooking family meals
Decorating

If you want to be really accurate then determine how much time you spend over a week carrying out your identified activities. Think about some of the following questions which can affect the satisfaction of such activities:

• How many of your identified activities are reactive or responding to others last minute demands?

• Have you identified any tasks to move your life in a direction you want?

• Are you eating healthily and exercising regularly to increase your energy levels?
• Have you put together a Personal Development Plan to ensure you are managing your career opportunities and direction?

Identify those tasks that place unnecessary pressure on you, especially those that are not helping you to achieve a balanced lifestyle.

Consider what pro-active actions you can take to ensure you can work and play smarter. The following are a few options available to you:

• Get assistance with cleaning or ironing once a week
• Only answer emails between 1-3pm
• Effective diary management
• Share taxi duty with another parent
• Always keep a stock of home cooked meals in the freezer for nights when you need a hassle free evening.
• Employ a virtual PA to help organise key events such as parties, meals out, hair dresser appointments, house moves.

Related Articles
  The Myth of Balance
  Boredom: The Gateway to Creativity
  Getting Into the Mindset For Creative Writing
  Stillness for mastering modern day living
  How To Optimise Your Time

Article Tags: administrative support, advertising campaigns, anxieties, blackberry, dots, email, family meals, global society, housework, latest trends, life satisfaction, mobile phones, stress, subliminal advertising, support meetings, time of the day, troughs



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