Here is some time management help for internet marketers and network marketers whose lives seem out of control and who feel like they just can’t get anything done. Seek to re-balance the key elements of your life. We all need balance between the areas of your personal health, family, finance, intellectual development, our social lives, our professional or career endeavors, and our spiritual development. The fact is that if we ignore one or more of these areas we become stressed. Stress reduces your creativity and productivity. And loss of productivity and creativity carries over into each area of your life. That’s why it is important to re-balance and stay balanced. Let’s deal with these key areas of life one at a time.
Some people may argue that your health is everything. They’re not that far off. Without your health you will suffer from stress, you will feel bad, and your performance will also be diminished. In fact in extreme instances you may not be able to function in any of the areas of your life. The best health advice I’ve ever received is four-fold. First, eat like you want to live to be 120 years old. Drink at least 8 glasses of pure water a day (that’s about a half gallon using my big iced tea glass). Get an hour of good exercise every day. And finally, get at least 8 hours of restful sleep. There are no surprises here, or at least there shouldn’t be.
Family is a commitment which commands a lot of energy in all of our lives. First, if you have a family you have a responsibility to feed, clothe, shelter, and educate them. This means that you have financial and career obligations to meet. Of course there is the entire social and nurturing side of a family. You must teach them all to be healthy, balanced and productive human beings. So you can see that if you ignore your familial commitments you will quickly be spinning out of balance in multiple areas of your life.
The inability to meet financial obligations is a primary reason for the breakup of marriages, increased stress, and general misery in people’s lives. If you ignore your financial obligations it will quickly affect other areas of your life, causing even more stress, and even more misery.
We all have a need to feed our intellectual selves. It is our intellect that helps us deal with outside stimuli which affects our lives. If we are out of balance mentally, if we are not building knowledge and skill regularly, and if we are not holding ourselves to accountability for decision making, we will quickly become stressed and our personal productivity will suffer. A sharp mind is a critical tool for success.
Human beings are social creatures. We thrive in a social environment. After all, it is our social drive which ultimately allowed our ancestors to develop civilization. This is a core need for all of us. If you are too busy working or dealing with other aspects of your life and ignore your need for friends and community, you will suffer. This suffering will cause stress, and you guessed it, lower productivity. So don’t ignore your social life. And don’t overemphasize it either. Keep in balance.
Our career, our profession or business is how we feed our family, pay the bills, and keep our lives moving. If you are ignoring continual education and skill-building in your profession, if you are sagging in your work performance or decision skills, you will soon find yourself out of balance. And this is a critical area supporting all the other areas of your life. Keep in balance. And need I say, some people overemphasize their careers and work. This of course also can be detrimental. Isn’t that word “balance” a handy little thing?
Regardless of your belief system or faith tradition, very few will argue that developing and exercising our spiritual lives is critical for healthy and positive living. Our spiritual lives help guide the way we interpret and deal with relationships to other people, our relationships with ourselves, and how we see the meaning of life and your concept and relationship to God. If you’re out of balance here, you’re in some trouble.
I think you can see how a balanced approach to all seven key areas of your life can keep you at your maximum productivity. But how can you do it?
The fact is that until you assess your performance and the amount of emphasis you are currently placing on each area of your life, you cannot make a dispassionate judgment on whether and what is out of balance. By simply becoming aware of the importance of balance in the various areas of your life, and by being alert to your current emphasis and status in each area, you can begin effecting the necessary changes. Then by applying sound time management tools and techniques, you can begin increasing your productivity, improve your energy and proficiency, and start freeing up more time so you can emphasize other neglected areas of your life.
Try to assess where you stand on the balance scales of your own life. By re-balancing your life keeping it that way, you will succeed in more areas of your life.
