15 Habits That Help You Balance Life Better

Alexer, have you ever in your life, in this year or even in this week, felt truly balanced? Have you ever felt like you did everything you wanted to do, hit your goals, were present with people in your life, and nailed your work? It's a great feeling, but it usually only lasts for like a single day. There are just too many things that we need to focus on to achieve true balance.

In the popular coaching tool, The Wheel of Life, there are eight aspects of life that people look to to find what they need to work on: career, finance, health, family and friends, romance and partnership, personal growth, fun and recreation, and physical environment. It's just too much to constantly be looking at. So, the only way to get close to that balance is to form habits.

You have to repeat daily activities that get you close to this balance without always needing to think about it. When you make these habits a part of your daily life, you can hold on to that calm, peaceful state for just a bit longer. Because hey, even when something throws you off, you've got the tools to get things back on track the very next day.

So here are 15 practical habits that will help you to balance your life better, let's go.

First up: write any ideas and persistent thoughts down. All of those ideas and thoughts that keep coming up, put them into your phone notes app or go old school and keep a pocket notebook and pen with you. Now, there are a few reasons for this. Firstly, when we write things down, they take up less space in our head, freeing up your cognitive bandwidth for other important things. Secondly, you won't forget them.

It's so frustrating having a great idea or a thought about something important you need to do, repeating this to yourself so you don't forget it, and then forgetting it a few minutes later. It adds to stress that you don't need. So, get into the habit of noting everything down, no matter how mundane it might seem. Just call them your daily thoughts. Don't write a novel about it; whatever it is that pops into your head, add it in there.

Spend 5 minutes planning your week—not 10 minutes, not half an hour, just 5 minutes. You only need to plan the most important things. The longer you spend on it, the more unnecessary tasks you'll write down and then planning your week becomes a chore instead of something you do to lighten the load. All you need to do is to write down the day of the week and three to five important things you should remember for that day. A friend's birthday, a dinner with your parents, a work presentation—keep this as light as possible so you don't overwhelm yourself with everything you need to do.

Check your list the night before so that whatever you need to do is in your head when you wake up in the morning, and you don't have that nagging feeling of forgetting something.

Spending more as the month goes on—now before you brush this off as unhinged, hear us out. Typically, spending around payday skyrockets, and for the next two weeks, we drop cash everywhere. Sure, some of this is on paying bills, but it's often a frenzy need to spend just because we have money again. Then when a week or two goes by, the cash dwindles, and the worry and anxiety sets in because now you've got two or three weeks and almost no expendable cash coming up.

If you can get into the habit of switching this time around, you'll end up saving some money and bypassing that worry. Pay your bills when you get paid, but plan activities and outings for the end of the month so you're not blowing everything in the first few weeks. Hold off on buying new things until later in the month if you can help it, and don't even walk into the shops in those first two weeks. Because even window shopping leads to spending money when it’s in your bank account.

Tell yourself that as the month goes on, you can spend more, but at the beginning, pretend like you're still broke. The stress and relief is worth it.

Don't have a should mentality for your social life. Because look, not everybody has the same social battery. In fact, you don't even have the same social battery every month. You'll go through phases where you have loads of energy and phases where you don't want to do anything. Instead of guilt tripping yourself for being in either phase, lean into it. When you feel more energetic and up for it, make those plans. Make more plans.

When you don't want to do anything, then scale back. We tend to be all or nothing with our social limits, which is kind of how the human psyche works. The problem is that we come down on ourselves about it. You either say, "I should get out more," or "I should stay in more." Whatever you're doing now is what you can handle, so just go with it without feeling guilty.

Cut back on things you need to do right now. The Wheel of Life has eight points—that's a lot. There's no way we can healthily nail each point all the time. Instead of adding on things that you need to do to achieve balance, how about taking some things away? Try limiting your to-do list and spending more time on each activity. It's way more enjoyable and a lot less stressful that way. As you get bored of it or seem like you're doing better with it, then you can swap out some stuff for something new.

Structured morning focus—now, this is mostly about work, but it could be applied to anything in your life. Your brain is most active, awake, and alive in the morning. But because we have to work for 8 hours, we tend to spend most of that time messing around, doing a little bit of work, and then messing around some more. We just want to kill some time, but this exhausts your brain way more. Studies show it's much better for you to knock out as many things as possible in the morning and then take a break in the afternoon if you can help it.

Don't tell anybody at your company—they'll just end up giving you more work. Sit down at your desk, do your most important work in the morning without distractions, finish up, go for a quick walk, and then come back to listen to a podcast or write some ideas and notes down. Spend your afternoons giving your brain a break, and that creativity will flow more freely than ever before.

And on a similar note, lighten your load as the day goes on. This relates to structured morning focus. As the day goes on, decision fatigue will set in. You'll become tired of deciding what to do, what to eat, or thinking about your next task. So instead of filling your evening with tasks that you'll dread, try to do less and less as your day goes on. Your nightly routine shouldn't be anywhere near as detailed as your morning routine.

But having said that, avoid the sofa at first, because the usual routine is to walk in the door, throw down your bags, and crash on the couch, right? But from there, it's really hard to get up and do anything. So don't sit on the sofa—don't even look at it. Your break will feel so much better an hour from now after you've done a little bit of cleaning up, prepared for your next day, and started on dinner.

You'll get your proper rest. The moment you hit your couch, you're telling your brain you're not doing anything else for the rest of the evening, and your brain is going to listen to you.

Do a 10-minute evening stretch. Oh man, a 10-minute evening stretch is so much more valuable than you could ever imagine. It's on par with the benefits of daily meditation, a cold dip, or a morning yoga class, and you can do it while you're watching your favorite show. You see, as your day goes on, all the stress and fatigue gets stored in your body. Meditation, journaling, and exercise can help you to release this, but the fastest, most effective way to do it is to stretch it out.

All the tension in your muscles subsides, and it helps your blood to flow better, which also helps you to sleep and think better. Even if you don't have time for a workout on that day, a 10-minute evening stretch will still be a game changer.

Preparing for the next day the night before—this one's mentioned in many of the habit-building advice pieces and it'll stand the test of time forever. Even if you only do one thing, one thing the night before that you usually do in the morning, you'll be saving yourself a vast amount of time. You're slower in the morning; you're more prone to forgetting things since you're still waking up and you're already thinking about your day ahead.

The night before, though, you're a bit on autopilot, so packing your bag, packing your lunch, your clothes for the next day basically just needs you to go through the motions. You don't need to do everything if that's too much for you, but just doing a little bit is setting yourself up for success.

Have at least one weekly very early morning. The 4:30 a.m. mornings don't work for everybody; often it's just not sustainable and it's better to get your sleep than it is to wake up super early. But your brain does love the peace of an early morning; it craves it. If you can set aside a time for a really early morning just once a week, you'll be setting yourself up for success.

In an ideal world, you'll be able to take an early morning walk, clear your head, think a lot, or think about nothing at all. Just breathe in the early morning air, and waking up before the rest of the world can help you with a sense of peace and achievement. That's enough motivation to carry you for the rest of the week.

It doesn’t have to be every day, and if you can't do it every week, try every two weeks. But add in a super early morning into your routine, and you'll notice the benefits honestly the very next day.

Create hourly blocks for responding to messages. Some people are great at responding to messages immediately and many are not. They end up piling up and then adding mental strain because you know you have to respond. You don't have the time or energy to respond properly, and then you feel guilty.

Studies have shown it's much better for us to give a succinct response for everyone at certain times of the day, in the afternoon or evening, rather than multiple responses all throughout the day. If the other person keeps messaging, ignore them. If it's urgent, call. Constantly responding to messages is the most exhausting, pointless thing and it's a bad habit.

Have one exciting thing for yourself every day. Your days are more memorable when you do something that excites you, something you love. But if you do it every day, it kind of loses its appeal, right? So space your excitement out. On some days, you can get your favorite takeout; on other days, you watch your favorite guilty pleasure TV show. Some days you cook your favorite meal; other days you go to your favorite place right after work.

Think of 14 things that you love doing, things that make you feel fulfilled and happy after you do them. Then create theme days where you get to do one of these 14 things over the next two weeks. Sushi Sundays, Music Mondays—whatever you like! But make sure you get to do at least one of them every day.

Rest as soon as you feel sick or tired. This idea that we have to push through everything is insane. We just end up getting more sick, taking more time off work, and just doing life at a mediocre level. Put aside your pride and chill out. As soon as you start feeling run down, you'll recover much faster, and your routine won't be thrown off quite as much.

And finally, use the things and people that motivate you. A dip in your motivation is totally normal. It can happen as the day, week, or month goes on. Having an arsenal of the things that motivate you the most, which you can use when this dip hits, is essential. When you feel this happening, use that stockpile to your advantage.

Save all of the relevant podcasts, books, quotes, movies—anything that gets you fired up and inspired. Keep a list of your close friends and family who often inspire you and give them a call when you're feeling down.

Balance isn't a permanent state; it'll ebb and flow. The trick is to not feel guilty as you try to get things running smoothly again. As long as you follow these 15 habits, you will reach equilibrium again eventually. Good luck, my friend, we'll see you back here next time. Take care!