Achieving Life/Work Balance in Five Minutes or Less

In an ideal world, we would spend eight hours of our day at work, another eight in recreational activities and the last eight hours asleep. The true question is how many of us live in the ideal world?

Instead, in the real world, most corporate warriors, executives and entrepreneurs work twelve to sixteen hours every day with little recreational time and less sleep. Forget about taking any vacation during the financial crisis: it is not only unthinkable in your own mind but a serious offense in the eyes of others. People worry about keeping their companies afloat, with the emotional toll of lay-offs, foreclosures and downsizing.

While many are trying their best to hold on to their wealth by doing the work of two or three people these days, working 24/7 is counterproductive to high performance. Even athletes know that their performance will be hurt if they train too hard or work out too long. Many people are working so intensely and with so much pressure that stress is taking a toll on their health – leading to anxiety attacks, depression, headaches, increased blood pressure or gastrointestinal problems.

When our Life/Work Balance gets out of whack, we exhaust our bodies and our minds. Instead of coming up with creative ideas and the energy to bring those ideas into action, we instead deflate, unable to think of positive ways to resolve our challenges.

My friend Gabriela Cora, a Life-Work Balance expert, provided five great tips for how to bring back the balance in your life, letting you maximize your health while building your wealth.

I’d like to share them with you now.

Tip 1) Think of effective hours of work rather than the number of hours of work. You may believe that you are the only one who can do everything that you do, but keep track of your activities. You will be surprised when you realize how you distribute - or waste - your time. Common traps include the constant use of email, Blackberries, PDAs or phones to answer unnecessary messages. Take notice of the time you spend doing these activities. Overdoing this will take you away from spending productive time at work or meaningful time at home.

Tip 2) Set up clear priorities: Make sure that you achieve what is high on your to-do list and that you discard anything with low priority. It’s time to let go. If you claim that everything is an emergency you will fall in the trap of responding to fires all the time rather than creating focused ways to increase your wealth. Although it may be tempting to do other things, allow yourself to work on what is truly necessary, and once this work has been completed work on the less important tasks.

Tip 3) Have a Plan: Most people don’t have a plan and many who do leave it in the drawer without checking their progress. By having a plan, you can follow your progress and decide whether you are achieving your desired goals. Without a plan, you will end up busy and exhausted. Some things to consider: create deadlines for projects, focus on tasks that follow your plan and help you get closer to your ultimate destination, and check your plan often to make sure you are working smart, not working for the sake of being busy.

Tip 4) Cut down your working hours from 16 to 12 or from 12 to 10. What would you do if you were forced to work fewer hours and be more efficient with your time? Unfortunately, many feel pressured to do this after they have become too sick to work because of a heart attack scare or challenging life event or when their spouse leaves them for good. By creating a sense of urgency before these things happen, you can force yourself to become more focused, more effective, more efficient, and more productive.

Tip 5) Find effective ways to maximize The Four Pillars of Health: nutrition, exercise, sleep and relaxation. You will need to find and integrate times to eat, exercise, sleep and relax. Avoid too much caffeine during the day and keep yourself from entering the negative cycle of daily caffeine and alcohol or hypnotics at night. Learn relaxation techniques, including guided imagery or meditation. Listen to music or find a hobby. In addition to these strategies, exercising is a must. Repetitive exercises tend to be the best to help de-stress, such as using a treadmill or elliptical machine. Others prefer yoga and tai chi to stay fit. Last but not least, nothing beats sleeping well at night.