Stress to Success Ep. 3 Work-Life balance that actually works-Transform your life time management

Hey there, hey, this is your girl, Monet. Welcome back to Stress to Success. Today, I'm discussing an issue that many of us face. If you ever felt like you're juggling responsibilities, burning out, or just neglecting your personal life, this episode is for you. Together, let's redefine what exactly does balance look like and be able to create a system that works for your life. Now, work-life balance is not about doing it all. It's about doing what matters most. I'm gonna show you how I reclaimed my time, set boundaries, and just started living intentionally. Now, there was a time when I felt like work just consumed my life. I would just wake up, get dressed, leave out, go straight to work, and then by the time I get to work, I left no time at all to even relax my mind. It was just time to clock straight in. Everything was just always in a rush. I had no time for myself. I was stressed. I was overwhelmed, and it became so bad to the point where I just was not happy. I wasn't satisfied because I was not leaving time for myself or balancing anything in between that with my personal life. I would even go as deep as constantly picking up overtime. I'm talking weekly, working seven days a week, leaving no time for any breaks. I was literally working seven days a week. Some days, I was working 12-hour shifts, just leaving no time at all for myself, and I was just constantly working, working, working, and it got to a point where my life was work. The only life I had was work. I didn't have a life outside of work. I didn't have time for family. I didn't have time for friends. Everything was just always work, work, work, and I didn't look at it as a negative thing because I thought that's what I was supposed to do. I was supposed to bring in money. I was supposed to make extra money, but I didn't realize to make more money, you don't have to overwork yourself, but that's what I was doing. Another reason I was doing this was because I was being asked by supervisors or managers, can you work overtime, and I would just say yes because I wanted the company to see that I was someone that they could depend on. I thought that's how you get promotions and that's how you get noticed and that's how you move up the ladder, by doing overtime, being dependable whenever they need you, but you can be dependable without being overworked, and the reason why I was doing so much overtime is because instead of my old supervisors or managers asking other people, they would ask me because I was so dependable, and it got to a point where they wouldn't even ask anybody else because they knew that I can ask her because I know I can depend on her. I know that she would be there. Even though I'm dependable and even though I could be there, that doesn't mean that it doesn't have an effect on your mental health when you're constantly working, working, working, and we all still need time to ourself, right? And honestly, it took me to a place where I just had to leave those type of companies and had to find a company that's willing to work around my schedule and not me work around their schedule. I was tired of feeling overwhelmed, tired of feeling stressed, and I needed a company that was more considerate of their employees, more able to understand and know that work isn't someone's life, even though it's a company, they're building the company, they're building the business, I get it. And I'm definitely a person that's all for building a company and being there, being dependable, but I also need personal time for myself. And I feel like most companies don't understand that when you are leaving your employees happy and you're making sure they're able to balance their personal life and their work life, they can actually be more productive at work. And a lot of companies don't think that and they overwork a lot of people. So once I realized that balance wasn't about splitting your time 50-50 between your work life and your personal life, it was about prioritizing what matters most to you. I had to get out of that survival mode mindset and step into a whole different mindset and reprogram my mind. Once I did that and started giving myself permission to rest, my whole world changed. So here are the steps that I took to be able to get out of this mindset, out of this mind frame and getting out of survival mode. The first thing first is to define what your priorities are. What is it that you prioritize the most? Is it your family? Is it self care? Is it your health? Maybe it's personal growth. Maybe you love to travel. Identify these things first. You wanna break down exactly what it is that you wanna prioritize because once you figure that out, then you can figure out what exactly is it that you're balancing. What personal life of yours are you balancing? What is the reason you're going to work every day? You shouldn't just be going to work just to pay bills. What is it that you prioritize? Are you spending more time with your family? Do you wanna take more trips with your family? Do you want to pursue a business? Like what is the reason that you're needing to balance? What exactly is it that you're balancing? Prioritize, reflect and figure that out first. And then two is to set boundaries at work. Please learn to say no. I know I mentioned before that I was trying to be dependable and trying to show, I guess, the company that I was dependable and that I can be there for the company. It was a time where I thought maybe I could grow within the company, thought maybe it would be a lifelong thing. It definitely wasn't because there wasn't enough pay. But in my mind, I was trying to show that I was dependable and just trying to be there and just maybe feel more important within the company too. There was a little part of that. So when my manager would constantly ask me, can you work overtime? I would say yes, I would pick up other people overtime. People needed to swap shifts. I would swap shifts because in my mind, at that time, my main life was work. Even though I had a family at home, even though I had other responsibilities, even though I was stressed out about certain things that I needed to fix. I probably, at the time, needed to make more money. But in my mind, my main priority was work. That was my main thing. So when I was being asked, that was my life. I was going to work without taking time for myself or telling my managers no because I wanted to be quote unquote dependable. So practice saying no, learn to say no because I got to a place where my managers was asking me to work overtime so much to the point I was working seven days a week. I had no days off because they started to make that my regular schedule because they were so used to depending on me to be there when they needed me. So set your boundaries. Learn to say no when you need time for yourself or it's a day that you don't want to work or it's time where you know you need to spend time with your family. Learn to say no. Also, choose your own work schedule. You cannot be forced to work a certain schedule. Maybe it is jobs or there's positions where there's a priority schedule that you need to work which is fine, which is cool. But if you set or sign up for a specific schedule, only work that schedule. Don't work past your work hours. Don't be answering calls after hours. Don't be answering emails after hours. When you're off, you're off. It's okay to prioritize you and take the breaks that you need. And also to follow up with that, take your breaks. Take your breaks when you need your breaks. You know, you have scheduled time. There's a reason why there's split time where you know, let's just say you work eight hours a week. Within that eight hours, you should have two small breaks and then you should have your lunch break. Prioritize and take those breaks at the time that you need to take them. This will leave time for you to boost your energy for the remainder of the day. And this way you're not overworking yourself either. Just prioritize yourself and set clear boundaries. Three is create a daily schedule. Dictate the time that you are going to work. What hours are you going to work? Are you going to only work from nine to five? Are you going to do part-time? Are you going to do split shifts? How are you going to prioritize your time? Set your schedule on your own terms. And if it's a job that don't want to prioritize the schedule that you need, then find another job that will prioritize that schedule. And don't just schedule the hours that you're going to be working. Schedule your family time. Schedule your self-care. Prioritize and set a schedule for days maybe you're going to go out throughout the month. Maybe go out to eat once a month. Prioritize your schedule the way you see fit. And then four is to incorporate mini breaks. Again, mini breaks will help to boost your energy and your focus. Take this time to do things such as stretching. Maybe you want to take a walk. Maybe you just need to step outside. That's fine. Maybe you need to take a few breaths. Listen to the music. Maybe that calms you down. Use those breaks wisely to be able to calm yourself down and relax and be able to boost your focus before you head back into work. And then five is to make time for joy. Violence is not just about responsibilities. It's also about your joy. Whether that's reading, dancing, spending time with your loved ones. Carve out time for what makes you happy. For your action step today, I want you to write down one area that you feel as though violence can be adjusted. And then write down one action step you can take to improve it. Remember that it's small steps that lead to big changes. So just you writing down that little thing can help you reflect and come up with a solution to have a better work-life balance. Work-life balance is possible, but it starts with intentions. You don't have to do it all. Just focus on what truly matters. Let me know down in the comments how you plan on creating balance in your life and your workplace. This way you can go from overworked to balanced. If you did find this video helpful, go ahead and like and subscribe to my channel for more inspiring content. In the next video, we're diving into productivity hacks that will save you time and energy. So you don't want to miss it. Make sure you like and subscribe for more inspiring content. Until next time, bye.