Striking a Work-life balance: Follow these tips to get all your work done by 5

Let me tell you a story, one you might have heard before.

A King told his horseman that if he could ride on his horse and cover as much land area as he likes, then he would give him the area of land he has covered.

Excited and enthusiastic, the horseman jumped onto his horse and rode as fast as possible to cover as much land area as he could. He kept on riding and riding, whipping the horse to go as fast as possible. He didn’t stop when he was hungry or tired, until he was exhausted and dying. He then asked himself “Why did I push myself so hard to cover so much land area? Now I am dying and I only need a very small area to bury myself”.

This story is similar with the journey of our life. We push very hard every day to make more money, to gain recognition. We neglect our health and time with our family.

Ask yourself, are you working to live or you’re living to work? Do you spend more time with co-workers instead of family? Is your health suffering because you work long hours? Are you even happy? What’s the use of those professional achievements which doesn’t give any importance to personal enjoyment?

If you can learn to set limits and look after yourself, you can achieve the work-life balance that’s best for you which is very important. Follow these tips to get all your work done by 5pm and reclaim control.

Prioritize your time

Separate your list of tasks into four categories.

Urgent and important
Important but not urgent
Urgent but not important
Neither urgent nor important.

This method of prioritization allows you plan accordingly. If it’s neither urgent nor important, you don’t need to take it home, right?

Say No

Learn to say no when it’s warranted. Don’t take on more tasks than you can manage. It would stress you out and it’s totally not worth it? Say no. It doesn’t align to your priorities? Say no. You can’t do it all by yourself? Say no, or delegate.

Eliminate distractions

What part of your day was the most and least productive? Are there activities or people in your day that don’t seem to add anything? If so, cut them out. Distractions at your workplace can cost you more than four hours a day. Set limits to casual internet surfing, smartphones, chatty colleagues and other distractions.

Plan your time

Draw out a daily plan of your schedule and stick to it closely. Are you a morning or an evening person? If you are a morning person, assign important and high concentration tasks in the morning and vice versa. Know your peaks and troughs. Also, plan your day before hand. Jot down your tasks for the next day in your daily to-do planner. Remember, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”