How to Balance Your Career Life With Your Personal Life

-By Favour C. Nrabulu

First of all, it’s important to commend yourself for how you are handling things now. Nobody is perfect and there’s no manual that comes with life explaining exactly how to balance your life or run things smoothly. We can only learn from our experiences, from books, from the experiences of others etc, so do not castigate yourself for not being able to perfectly handle everything; after all, no one is perfect. We can strive for perfection but the truth is, it is unattainable.

However, since we try to be better and do better every day that is the essence of this topic today.

These tips are the few things that can help us do better as career women who also have families.

1. Try to make your work enjoyable for yourself. Truth be told, the best way to achieve this is to do turn what you love into your career. However, because of the society we find ourselves in, we have to go with the flow and do the convenient thing which is to find a job, grow in it and with it and make it work for yourself as career. It might not necessarily be what you love but it was what you could find.
The trick is to fall in love with your job so it doesn’t end up feeling like a chore or like some people would say, like you are simply enriching someone else’s pocket.

2. Wake up early. It’s a great way to start the day so you can get a lot of things done before the craziness of the day begins and things become hectic.

3. Make sure you plan. Try to plan for the week; it helps you achieve lots of things you ordinarily wouldn’t achieve. Plan everything, even the littlest things like what to wear to work for the week, what the family would eat for the week (a food timetable for the family), try to allocate time with everything because even if it doesn’t go exactly according to schedule, it gives you an idea on what is supposed to come after a particular item has been accomplished and to score yourself on how much you achieved.

4. Try your best to leave work issues at work and personal issues at home. When you close from work, try to clear the tasks on your table as much as you can and if it isn’t possible, make a plan to have it done first thing in the morning once you get to work so you can enjoy family time when you get home and help your partner and children in the best way you can. In the same vein, try not to let your personal issues get in the way of your work. Try to be as professional as you can.

5. Enjoy your weekends. As much as possible, try not to bring work into the weekends; this is easier said than done but it is still doable. It is only two days in a week when you can spend quality time with the family and catch up on what you missed in their lives during the week so try your best to dedicate it to the family and not let work spill over into it.

6. When doing intense work that doesn’t need so much interaction with your colleagues, you can listen to soothing music or a passive podcast so it puts you in a relaxing mood for you to put in your best.
At the end of the day, there is only so much we can do so take it a step at a time, one day at a time and you will find yourself doing better.
See you next month!