Balance vs Prioritizing: How to Improve Work-Life Integration

It’s impossible to find or achieve a perfect balance. The different aspects of our life either work or personal will always take more time than the other. Whats more, living in a fast paced world where technology is at our fingertips makes it harder to achieve a work life balance.

Having a balanced life means creating time for the things you have to do, as well as the things you like to do. Be it work, family, eating healthy and being fit or taking care of your spirituality. It takes commitment and responsibility to find time daily, or weekly, to participate in each activity.

Nonetheless, life is not a straight line whereby you can do 50/50 its a continuous curve that we allow the benefit of doubt with no knowledge of what lies ahead. In reality, life is one thing after another. Which means from moment to moment the focus of balance is always going to be different. In the end, finding a sense of balance at some point in any aspect of life will soon turn to disharmony and loss of balance because of the constant changes.

That being so, you cannot do or be everything. Whether you like it or not you cannot do it all and if you think you can, you cannot do it all WELL. You have to decide what it is that matters most to you and what is deserving of your time, energy, and even money, and then arrange your life accordingly.

This means prioritizing rather than balancing. Prioritizing is the process of determining what is most important. Identifying them, however, isn’t as easy as it sounds. Urgent issues and misdirected intentions can get in the way of what matters, and in no time at all, you might wonder why you’re derailed or unfulfilled. However, to identify your priorities, you need to know the difference between what is necessary and what is expendable.

Your priorities are the areas of your life that are meaningful and important to you. They’re usually activities, practices, or relationships that you want to put genuine effort and time into like Health, Family, Career and Business. If the priorities are not clear you’ll struggle managing time and making any meaningful progress.

Having the discipline to prioritize is a skill that takes practice. Your values and your goals will influence your priorities and may be different at work or at home or in another context. There are times in life when you need to say ‘yes’ but I also believe there are things we can say ‘no’ to as well with or without a consequence all depending on what most important to you.

I believe the secret to work-life integration is to be really clear on your priorities.

There are no dress rehearsals in life.

Focus on your priorities, and be more in control of the direction you are heading.