“Something needs to change. I never see you anymore,” my husband of two months said. At the time, I was teaching Year 2, and honestly, my career was my life. I worked constantly, hopelessly striving to complete the never-ending to-do list of research, planning, marking, assessment creation, incident reports and responding to parents. In hindsight, I realise I had a problem.

You’d think I’d have realised I was neglecting my man, but ladies, sometimes when we’re this focused, we don’t realise there’s a problem until someone else points it out. When I thought about it, I probably only spent a maximum of 20 hours a week with him, even though we were living in the same house! It was at this point that I realised I needed to find a balance between my work and the other aspects of my life.

STEP 1: ASK YOURSELF WHAT YOU NEED

The first step in achieving work-life balance is to have a long, hard look at your life. Work-life balance means equally dividing your time and focus between work, family and leisure activities. As you’ve been racing towards your career goals and deadlines, what have you discarded back there in the dust? Do you need to spend more time with your parents, get more sleep, or make exercise a regular part of your routine?

Identify what you’re missing right now. Next, write down how you can make time for activities other than work in your life, including the boundaries you’ll need to put in place so you don’t fall back into bad habits. Boundaries could include leaving your laptop at work, not checking your emails after 7pm, or having a technology-free Sunday. Having a work-life balance requires you to commit to spending your time as equally as you can across the board.

STEP 2: MANAGE YOUR TIME BETTER

The second step in the process is to master your time management. A few years ago, I made a detailed record of how I spent my time each week in order to trim the fat from my life and be more productive. It all seemed relatively normal, until I realised there were eight hours I couldn’t account for! Whoops.

While you may think wasting a few minutes on Instagram isn’t a big deal, these minutes add up. If your phone is your biggest distraction, try blocking your notifications or using an app like Stay Focused to be more productive during work hours. If you want to know where you’re losing unnecessary time, make daily written records (like I did) of how long you spend on each activity. When you manage your time well, you should be able to balance all of your commitments.

STEP 3: PACE YOURSELF

The third step in achieving work-life balance is to pace yourself. When I was a teacher, I worked over 60 hours a week and 95% of my holidays were spent marking, writing reports, or simply recovering from the burnout I acquired every single term. Here’s a shocking fact: burnout isn’t actually inevitable in your career!

There are people in every industry that seem to master finding a balance, but how do they do it? The answer: they know when it’s time to put the pedal to the metal and when to switch back into first gear. If you work crazy hours at full throttle and neglect everything in your life, including yourself, of course you’re going to crash and burn! Rest is just as important as work and play, so if you want have more balance, pace yourself.

STEP 4: PRIORITISE AND FOCUS

The fourth step is to consider your priorities. You don’t necessarily have to do less to have more balance in your life, but you do have to prioritise your most important tasks, plan your time accordingly, and work with focus. On an average day, I use the Eisenhower Matrix to split up my tasks and prioritise them based on how urgent and/or important they are. I then work out how long it approximately takes to do each task, moving the tasks that I don’t have time to do today into tomorrow’s schedule.

When we know what our priorities are, it can help us work with laser focus. While multitasking can have its benefits, focusing on one task at a time will improve your productivity, accuracy, memory and mindfulness. Focusing on your priorities also sometimes means saying “no” to the things that you don’t have the capacity to do. Initially it will feel uncomfortable, but when you accept that you can’t do everything and be everywhere, you will feel more in control and more balanced.

STEP 5: MAKE IT HAPPEN

The final step in achieving work-life balance is to take action! All the planning the world won’t change your current work-life balance (or lack of it) unless you carry out your plans. (See #1.) If, for example, you need to work from home more often or want to move to a part-time role due to personal circumstances, communicate this with your boss and let your colleagues know. Contrary to popular belief, asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness – you may even find more sympathy than you expected from colleagues going through a similar situation! Things always run more smoothly when you seek support and when everyone is fully informed about your needs and boundaries.

But… what if you try all this and you still can’t get the balance you require? For me, attaining a work-life balance in Teaching was an impossible task, so I made the choice to leave and pursue a different career. While I don’t encourage you to give up on your current career path, if you realise there’s no way of cutting down your work hours, you may need to consider making a career change to gain some balance in your life. Before taking any drastic action though, consider these questions.

Work-life balance shouldn’t be impossible, but it will require changing the way you currently do things. By first identifying what’s lacking and making a plan of action, managing your time wisely, pacing yourself at work, prioritising and focusing on what’s important, and finally taking action on your plans, work-life balance should be within your reach. There’s more to life than work, so make time for the things that make life worth living!

Are you a workaholic? If so, let me know what you want to make more time for in your life. I reply to every comment. Seeking some daily inspo? Follow @empoweredmillennialgirl on Instagram or Pinterest. You’ll find me there every day!

Have a great week!

Grace x