I have heard a lot of people talking about their highs and lows lately. They mention that when their work-life is going well other parts of their life is not. A notion I struggled with a lot a few years back and even presently sometimes.

Why

This high and low occurs when we invest too much time into one part of life and neglect the others. Busy season at work, birthday weeks, holiday season amongst others contribute to this system.

There is always a story that we have to justify it, but in reality, we are not doing anything to prevent its reoccurrence.

Priorities

I attribute this to a lack of priorities and time management. Our main priority should be to ourself in conjunction with creating balance.

The first step to achieving this is prioritizing our needs, which is comprised of personal, social and business. Every day should have a little of each of these in it, which means putting in the effort to allocate time for personal growth, social responsibilities and work.

An example of this is seeing a day as sixteen hours since we need a minimum of eight hours of sleep. Within the sixteen hours, eight of them are spent working, for those who work a nine to five job. Thus, there are another eight or so hours left over to attend to personal and social priorities. Detach from work life and enter the other two areas, make this a priority daily. I promise life will be much better.

After slowly incorporating this type of time management and priority scheduling, this skill will trickle into each of the three sections. From my experience, once I divide my daily time up to incorporate a bit of everything. Not only do I work more efficiently, but my weekly goals have evolved as well. Furthermore, my personal and social life does not suffer during the busy season, rather it flourishes because I prioritize social and personal activity.

It’s a system

Think of this as a system of success, pushing forward in one area leads to forwarding movement in others, instead of decline.

It’s easy to get high on business success, social popularity and personal growth. However, this high can cause a reinforcing loop in that one area of life while others suffer.

This happens when we allow the emotional brain to be in control, which handles risk and reward on an emotional level, rather than a rational one.

I can’t tell you how to switch between the two but will say that preventing the creation of one reinforcing loop is the beginning. Once this happens, ask yourself how to build this loop in the other two areas, which can happen with minimal changes.

For me, time management and putting my foot forward changed everything.

Important

Prioritizing your needs and life goals shouldn’t feel like a selfish endeavour. At times people will not understand this new way of life and want more of your time. Giving in to this behaviour will only set you back. Not to mention, will give you insight into how much you mean to them.

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