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For many of us, each work day is a carbon copy of the day before – and not very inspiring either! This week, I’m reviewing some of the best resources and tips you can use to start making your ideal day a reality.
Your Ideal Day is All About Work-Life Balance
In her article for the Huffington Post, Business Consultant and Leadership Coach Jennifer Maynard argues against the concept of work-life balance. “I don’t believe in work-life balance,” she says. “There is no secret, pill or magic wand that can be waved to create balance.”
Instead, Jennifer suggests we put work into creating a balance that makes us more satisfied. She provides steps we should all do if we want to eventually find a balance in our own lives. Here are four steps to create work-life balance:
1. Know Your Values
If you don’t know what you value, and how important your values are, how can you create a life that balances these things? Start by identifying your values and what matters to you, both personally and professionally.
2. Document Your Goals and To-Dos
Similar to your values, how can you assess your success in finding balance if you don’t know what you need to do, or your long-term goals for life? “Document” means actually writing it down – it doesn’t matter whether you prefer a pen and paper or a computer to-do list, as long as it’s written somewhere!
3. Prioritize
Jennifer correctly identifies that it’s not just about identifying our values, goals, and to-dos – we must also prioritize them in order to spend our energy in the best way possible. If it helps, write down your values and rank them. Do the same for your goals. When writing your daily, weekly, or monthly to-do, be sure to put items in the order from most to least important, and work on them in that order.
4. Celebrate Wins!
You also need to be able to celebrate small wins and successes as they happen – if you’re not tracking your goals and daily accomplishments, you miss an ideal opportunity to reinforce your own good behavior. As you get better at prioritizing and balancing your values and goals, make sure to reward yourself.
Your Ideal Day is Unique to You
It should come as no surprise that your ideal day is unique to you, as evidenced by our focus on personal values, goals, and to-dos. In his TED Talk “How to Make Work Life Balance Work,” author and marketer Nigel Marsh says it plainly: “Work-life balance is too important to be left in the hands of your employer.” Only you can design a work-life balance – an ideal day – that works best for you.
When it comes time to plan your ideal day, think about what you’d most enjoy each day. Consider how your daily to-dos fit in, as well as the goals you’ve set. As you map your day, don’t forget to check in on how each task fits with your values. There’s no point adding things to your ideal day that you don’t actually want to do!
To help you get started creating your ideal day, I’ve created a one-page worksheet. I’ve also included my ideal day as an example. This is the day I created as part of this week’s Self-Help Crash Test Dummy Experiment.
Click Here to Get Your
Free Ideal Day Planning Worksheet
I’d love to hear more about your ideal day. Share in the comments below, or over on The Art of Personal Growth Podcast Facebook page.
