Finding Balance in a Busy (At-Home) Life: How to Stay Calm in the Eye of the Storm

We live in a time where the boundaries between the varying roles we take on in life are blurred and it becomes easy to get caught up in the storm of life.

Between trying to keep up with the latest in the news, coordinating spaces to work in your house as the whole family continues to stay home doing work and school remotely, and adjusting to this new, strange reality, it is understandable how it can feel nearly impossible sometimes to find the time and space for yourself. In my last blog, I gave some tips on how to manage a family while traveling for work. But it is also important to focus on grounding yourself while managing the many demands of life. 

 If you feel like you have no idea how to balance everything, you’re not alone. Many people, especially those in white collar professions, feel the need to overwork in order to compete at their jobs. In addition to being overworked, others struggle with finding a work-life balance because of children or additional responsibilities both at home and on the job. Considering that all of these responsibilities are now happening in the same setting (home), it is harder than ever to achieve the sense of balance you deserve.

 Most of us are familiar with the dangers of pushing on without at least a soft foundation of balance. It puts strains on your mental, physical, and emotional health and can cause problems with your relationships as well. Finding balance to do the things you love, things that are important to you, equally apply and hold the same value. The problem here is clear. The question is what are the ways to solve it?

 During a full-time work from home schedule, it is crucial that you schedule your day. A way to approach this is through “episodic balance,” where you prioritize “quality over quantity” and simply “widen the aperture of time”. It gives a view of life over a longer period of time instead of over smaller increments. This will give you the leeway to prioritize quality time with what matters most to you, without feeling the failure of not getting to everything or everyone, in one day. I find that more often than not, multitasking harms rather than helps. Along with this, take the view of life as a whole, rather than work-life balance, so you don’t feel that one is always encroaching on the other. Don’t be afraid to schedule time with friends or workouts like you do with meetings. Having this important decompressing time built into your schedule is critical for your wellbeing, and will set you up to you an even better employee and human being.

 For me, working out is key for being my most successful self– both personally and professionally. Lunch breaks, before work, or after the kids go to sleep are great times to squeeze in a workout. In parallel with my fitness goals, I have also been attempting to meditate more often as this can do wonders for finding clarity and inner peace… something we all could use today.

 Ultimately, finding this sense of calm in the eye of the storm will take efforts from both employees and employers. Managers should ask their people to understand what a balance means to them and try to set a good example and meet their team’s expectations. One way to lead by example is to share your personal efforts to balance and explicitly give the OK for others to do so. Now more than ever, leaders need to encourage their team to over-communicate.

 Finding this balance is an ever-evolving task, and isn’t exclusive to the times we’re living in. Even just walking outside, blocking out time for deep breaths, and being grateful for the simple things in life can go a long way in helping to balance everything happening in life. I know it does for me. Namaste.