Have you ever asked yourself “How can I balance my life when I’m so busy living it?”

Experts on the subject of ‘Time Management’ and ‘Putting First Things First’, Dr. Stephen Covey and Roger Merrill share some valuable information about managing your time by learning how to balance your life, in their best seller First Things First.

Perhaps this article will inspire you to take an active interest in defining what is truly important for you to accomplish in your life.

Traditional time management theories suggest that if you work harder, smarter, and faster, you will gain control over your life. People who approach time management from this perspective claim to remain just as stressed as they were before, burned out and/or not satisfied with their accomplishments.

Does effective use of your time mean running fast enough everyday to touch all of the bases that you have determined ‘important’ or ‘urgent’? If you answered yes, you may notice that after a frantic day of running, you still aren’t feeling personal satisfaction or happy. Something is definitely wrong with this approach.

Here is another interesting question: Can success in only one area of your life compensate for failure in another? For example, can one’s accelerated professional career focus and success compensate for their failing marriage, lack of time spent with family, or their diminishing health? Maybe in the short term it may seem like things are working fine, but over the long haul, problems at home can wreak havoc on one’s career. My point is that true effectiveness requires balance!

Let’s examine a symbolic balance wheel as we assign our roles in life to each spoke.

On the balance wheel, we have spokes with a scale of 1 to 12 to rate how you feel you are investing your time/energy in each role. 1 being very little and 12 being a lot.

How smooth is your ride? The example above relates to emphasis on accelerating one’s professional career, but neglects balance in other areas, this sets the wheel off balance.

If you are putting your attention to the roles of your profession and finances, while forgetting about the roles of your family and physical health, your ride is still bound to be choppy. This is only one example of imbalance. Another example could be someone who is investing energy in family roles and their physical roles, but neglecting their spiritual and mental well being. Their ride might seem bumpy too – perhaps empty, or non-satisfying.

So how do we find good balance for ourselves? Try these three steps:

First, Identify Your Roles – Consider what areas you would like to spend time in each week. For example, you may have a spiritual role such as your church that is important to you. You may have family roles like mother, wife, daughter, etc. You may have work related roles such as where you need to be investing time on a regular basis. In the diagram I provided seven examples of the roles I like to balance.

Then, Set Goals – Establish one or two simple goals that you would like to accomplish within the next week, for each role. (One goal for each role is a great start!)

Next, Schedule – You can schedule your goals into your upcoming week, including setting aside time to achieve them. Weekly scheduling versus daily planning helps us gain a bigger picture of our time, and how we can balance it.

Remember, goals should be attainable. Keep things very simple. Taking baby steps to move ahead is far better than planning on giant steps that never get accomplished.

The key here is to not prioritize your schedule, rather to schedule your priorities. There is a big difference. Some items that are not in line with your roles and goals will no longer land on your weekly schedule – and that is how we make a shift. We change how we see value in what we do with our time; we decide what is not important to us, and no longer waste time doing these things, until we set goals and make time for the things that matter most.

Do you think that scoring a 4 on every role in a balance wheel is better than a 12 in one role and a 2 in another? I do. By investing time in finding your balance you will be more effective with your time. Not only will you be doing things right, but you will be doing ‘The Right Things’.

“The Main Thing Is To Keep The Main Thing The Main Thing”