Many of you asked us for this one so here it is: The 15 Habits That Help You Balance Life!
Have you ever in your life, in this year, or even this week truly felt “balanced”?
Have you ever felt that you did everything you wanted to do, hit your goals, were present with the people in your life, and nailed your work?
It’s a great feeling. But it usually only lasts for one day.
There are just too many things that we need to focus on to achieve “true” balance.
In the popular coaching tool The Wheel of Life, there are eight aspects of life that people look at to find out what they need to work on: career, finance, health, family and friends, romance and partnership, personal growth, fun and recreation, and physical environment.
It’s too much to remember and constantly look at, so the only way you can get close to that balance is to form habits.
You have to repeat daily activities that get you close to this balance without always needing to think about doing it.
When you make these habits a part of your life, you can hold on to that calm, peaceful state for a little longer.
Even when something throws you off, you have the tools to get back to things the next day. So we’ve got 15 practical habits that will help you balance your life better. Let’s go!
Don’t worry if you don’t feel like reading; you can enjoy the video below or watch it on YouTube:
1
Write any ideas and persistent thoughts down
Write everything down.
All those ideas and thoughts that keep coming up, put them on your phone notes app or go old school and keep a pocket notebook and pen with you. There are a few reasons for this.
Firstly, when you write things down, they take up less space in your head, freeing up your cognitive bandwidth for other important things.
Secondly, you won’t forget them. It’s so frustrating to have a great idea or a thought about something important you need to do, repeat this to yourself so that you don’t forget, and then forget it a few minutes later.
It adds stress you don’t need. So get into the habit of writing everything down.
Don’t write a novel about it; whatever it is that pops into your head, add that in.
Side Note: We know many of you don’t really vibe with journaling. Believe it or not, we didn’t really feel the whole journaling thing ourselves until recently.
That’s why we created the perfect journal for people who don’t like journaling! To further sweeten the pot, the journaling feature is available in the free version of our app.
Download the Alux app, try it out for a few days, and see how you feel about it.
2
Spend five minutes planning your week
Spend five minutes planning your week. Not 10 minutes, not half an hour, just five minutes.
You only need to plan the most important things. The longer you spend on it, the more unnecessary tasks you write down.
And then planning your week becomes a chore instead of something you do to lighten a load.
All you need to do is write down the day of the week and three to five important things you should remember for that day. It can be anything from a friend’s birthday, a dinner with your parents, or maybe a work presentation.
Keep this as light as possible so that you don’t overwhelm yourself with everything you need to do.
Check your list the night before so that whatever you need to do is in your head when you wake up in the morning, and you won’t have that niggling feeling of forgetting something.
3
Spending more as the month goes on
Get into the habit of spending more as the month goes on.
Before you brush this off as unhinged, hear us out.
Typically, our spending around payday skyrockets, and for the next two weeks, we drop cash everywhere.
Some of this is paying bills but often it’s a frenzied need to spend because we have money again.
When a week or two goes by and the cash dwindles, worry and anxiety set in because now you’ve got two or three weeks and almost no expendable cash.
If you can get into the habit of switching this time around, you’ll end up saving some money and bypassing that worry.
Pay your bills when you get paid but plan activities and outings for the end of the month so that you’re not blowing everything in the first few weeks.
Hold off on buying new things until later in the month; if you can help it, don’t even walk into a store in those first two weeks because even window shopping leads to spending money when it’s in your bank account.
Tell yourself that as the month goes on, you can spend more but at the beginning, pretend you’re still broke. The stress and relief are worth it
4
Don’t have a “Should” mentality for your social life
Not everyone has the same social battery.
In fact, you don’t even have the same social battery every month. You’ll go through phases when you have loads of energy and phases when you don’t want to do anything.
Instead of guilt-tripping yourself for being in either phase, lean into it.
When you feel more energetic and up for it, make more plans. When you don’t want to do anything, scale back.
We tend to be all or nothing with our social limits, which is kind of how the human psyche works.
The problem is that we come down on ourselves about it.
You either say, “I should get out more” or “I should stay in more.” Whatever you’re doing now is what you can handle so just go with it without feeling guilty.
5
Cut back on things you need to do right now
The Wheel of Life has eight points—that’s a LOT.
There’s no way we can healthily nail each point all the time.
Instead of adding on things that you need to do to achieve balance, take some things away.
Limit your to-do list and spend more time on each activity. It’s way more enjoyable and less stressful that way.
As you get bored of it and you seem to be doing better with it, you can swap it out for something else.
6
Structured morning focus
Habit number six to balance life is to engage in a structured morning focus.
This is mostly about work, but it can be applied to anything in your life.
Your brain is most active, awake, and alive in the morning. But because we have to work for eight hours, we tend to spend most of that time messing around, doing a little bit of work, and then messing around again.
We just want to kill time. This stresses your brain way more. Studies show that it’s much better for you to knock out as many things as possible in the morning and then take a break in the afternoon.
If you can help it, don’t tell anyone else at your company. They’ll just end up giving you more work.
Sit down at your desk, do your most important work in the morning without distractions, finish up, go for a quick walk, and then come back and listen to a podcast or write some ideas and notes down.
Spend your afternoon giving your brain a break.
7
Lighten your load as the day goes on
Lighten your load as the day goes on.
This relates to structured morning focus. As the day goes on, decision fatigue will hit.
You’ll get tired of deciding what to do, what to eat, or thinking about your next task, so instead of filling your evening with tasks that you’ll dread, try to do less and less as your day goes on.
Your nightly routine shouldn’t be anywhere near as detailed as your morning routine.
8
Avoid the sofa at first
Having said that, the next habit to balance life is to avoid the sofa when you first get home.
The usual routine is to walk in the door, throw down your bags, and crash on the couch. From there, it’s really hard to get up and do anything.
So don’t sit on the sofa; don’t even look at it.
Your break will feel so much better an hour from now once you’ve done a little cleanup, prepared for the next day, and started on dinner.
You’ll get a proper rest. The moment you hit that couch, you’re telling your brain that you’re not doing anything else for the rest of the evening and it’s going to listen to you.
9
Do a 10-minute evening stretch
Do a 10-minute evening stretch.
Oh man, a 10-minute evening stretch is so much more valuable than you could ever imagine.
It’s on par with the benefits of daily meditation, a cold dip, and a morning yoga class. And you can do it while you’re watching your favorite show.
You see, as your day goes on, all the stress and fatigue get stored in your body.
Meditation, journaling, and exercise can help you release tension, but the fastest and most effective way to do it is to stretch it out.
All the tension in your muscles subsides and it helps your blood flow better, which also helps you sleep and think better.
Even if you don’t have time for a workout on that day, a 10-minute evening stretch will be a game changer.
10
Preparing for the next day the night before
This one is mentioned in many of the habit-building advice pieces and it will stand the test of time forever.
Even if you do one thing—ONE thing—the night before that you usually do in the morning, you’ll be saving yourself a vast amount of time and stretching.
You’re slower in the morning, you’re more likely to forget things since you’re still waking up, and you’re already thinking about your day ahead.
The night before, though, you’re a bit on autopilot, so packing your bag, your lunch, and your clothes for the next day just requires you to go through the motions.
You don’t even need to do everything if it’s too much for you.
11
Have at least one weekly very early morning
The 4:30 a.m. mornings don’t work for everybody.
Often, it’s just not sustainable and it’s better to get your sleep than it is to wake up super early.
But your brain loves the peace of an early morning. It craves it. If you can set aside time for a really early morning just once a week, you’ll be setting yourself up for success.
In an ideal world, you’d be able to take an early morning walk and clear your head, think a lot, or think about nothing at all.
Just breathing in the early morning air and waking up before the rest of the world can help you with a sense of peace and achievement; that’s enough motivation to carry you for the rest of the week.
It doesn’t have to be every day, and if you can’t do it every week, try every two weeks.
But add a super early morning to your routine and you’ll notice the benefits the very next day. That’s how powerful this habit is for balancing your life.
12
Create hourly blocks for responding to messages
Some people are great at responding to messages immediately. Many are not.
They end up piling up and then adding mental strain because you know you have to respond, don’t have time or energy to respond properly, and then feel guilty.
Studies have shown that it’s much better for us to give a succinct response to everyone at certain times of the day—in the afternoon or evening—than multiple responses throughout the day.
If the other person keeps messaging, ignore them. If it’s urgent, call.
Constantly responding to messages is the most exhausting, pointless thing, and it’s a bad habit.
13
Have one exciting thing for yourself every day
Have one exciting thing for yourself every day.
Your days are more memorable when you do something that excites you—something you love.
But if you do it every day, it loses its appeal. Space your excitement out.
On some days, you can get your favorite takeout; on other days, you watch your favorite guilty pleasure. Some days you cook your favorite meal; other days you go to your favourite place right after work.
Think of 14 things that you love doing. Things that make you feel fulfilled and happy after you do them
Then create theme days where you get to do one of these 14 things over the next two weeks. Sushi Sundays, music Mondays, whatever you like. Make sure you get to do one of them every day.
The importance of this habit for balancing life cannot be overestimated.
14
Rest as soon as you feel sick or tired
Get into the habit of resting as soon as you feel sick or tired.
This idea that we have to push through for everything is insane. We just end up getting sicker, taking more time off, and doing life at a mediocre level.
Put aside your pride and chill as soon as you start feeling rundown.
You’ll recover much faster and your routine won’t be thrown off as much.
15
Use the things and people that motivate you
A dip in motivation is normal. It can happen as the week, day, or month goes on.
Having an arsenal of the things that motivate you the most, which you can use when this dip happens, is essential.
When you feel that happening, use that stockpile. Save podcasts, books, quotes, movies, or anything that gets you fired up and inspired.
Keep a list of your close friends and family who often inspire you and give them a call when you’re feeling down.
The trick to making progress toward balance is to not feel guilty as you try to get things running smoothly again.
As long as you follow these 15 habits, you’ll eventually balance your life out. We hope you’ve learned something important today and we’ll see you next time!
