The Organize IT Habits: Create Balance In Your Life

There are a lot of great productivity tips and advice out there. Whether you want to do a weekly review, manage your time better, figure out your life’s purpose or get a grip of your to-do list, it’s all there in books and blogs, at seminars and on CD. It will improve your life in little ways. But I’ve found that there is one big piece of advice that overrides it all, advice that requires a little bit of common-sense to apply it  but is truly life changing. That advice is to find the balance in everything you do.

This isn’t yet another bit of productivity advice though. For a change, I’m breaking through those narrow boundaries and writing about something you can do that will change the entire way you live your life. Period. As Thomas Merton once said, “Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony.”

Balance isn’t easy to achieve. It’s so much easier to jump in at the deep end and work your ass off every day, or lounge  around in the sun not getting much done, than to try and find the balance between the two. It’s much easier to be reckless with your money and max out your credit cards all the time, or be a frugal tightwad than it is to find an healthy middle ground. It’s much easier to focus on everything in black and white terms rather than it is to view life in different shades of gray. It’s easier… but it’s not better.

Once you’ve got it, it’s also easy to lose it. You might find a new hobby and you indulge in it so much to the detriment of time spent elsewhere in your social life. You might even buy a new computer game and spend so much time on it you don’t bother to think about your diet or your college work. You may spend all your time at work to the detriment of your relationship. Of course, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep looking to steady the ship. Consider the following examples:

• Getting things doneOn one end of the spectrum you have out-and-out productivity, getting as much done  as possible. On the end other end you laze around and chill out all the time without getting much done. We all need regular breaks and time-outs to get things done, so why can’t we find the balance? Being able to do what’s important and have the time to relax in the evening is ultimately where you want to be.
• Health and fitnessWhen it comes to health, many people either simply don’t bother and sit around all day scoffing on fast food, or they treat their body like a temple, taking ten mile jogs every morning and feasting on fruit and veg everyday. With all the best intentions in the world it’s no wonder the average person fails at the first hurdle when trying to get healthy? But if you try and get the balance right, you can eat and exercise regularly without beating yourself up over the occasional fatty treat.
• Work/life balanceIt’s the most common example of balance in life. Few people want to spend all their time at work, but if you were to win the lottery and never have to work again, would you be truly content without a purpose in your life? Next time you take on yet more work in the hope of getting a pay rise, consider how it effects your work/life balance. As long as you’re making enough money to live in, wouldn’t it be great to be able to finish work early every day and pick your kids up from school?