How do you juggle it all?

It’s a question that I’ve been asked multiple times this past year, especially as I opened up more about my daily life on Instagram stories.

And I’m finally ready to share how I balance being a mom, wife, full-time professional and digital creative.

What You Already Know About My Work-Life Balance

Up to this point, I’ve shared little snippets of what keeps me on track.

For example, if you’ve been following my journey you know that I:

1. Plan my family’s meals and meal prep our lunches every week
2. Consistently purge and color code my closet, and
3. Organize my outfits for the week every Sunday (separate post coming soon).

You also know that I do my own hair at times, especially when it’s in a protective style.

It looks and sounds like a lot right?

Like, where do I find the time?

Let me show you 🙂

How I Achieve Work-Life Balance From Day to Day

I use this self-made planning sheet!

I print this sheet on a monthly, and sometimes weekly basis.

In fact, to be clear, I print one sheet for each day. So each week, I have seven(7) sheets!

Then I take an hour or two on the weekends to budget my time and tasks into four(4) areas of my life:

1. Myself
2. Family
3. Career
4. Brand

As I do this, I spread everything I want to accomplish throughout the week! I know that I can’t do it all in one day, so I carefully decide what deadlines I have to meet versus what’s flexible.

Once all the tasks have been added to my sheet for the week, I set up to four(4) priorities for the day from within each segment.

And yes, up to four! This means that I don’t always have that many priorities. To be honest, some days I only have 1 or 2. However, no matter the number of priorities, knowing what my focus is, keeps me grounded and not panicked.

From there, it’s all about the follow-through! Plus setting appropriate boundaries.

P.S. Click here to download this Daily Planning Sheet!

Here’s A Recent Example

The week of January 6th, I had quite a few things on my to-do list. They included:

• A job interview
• A brand photoshoot
• My therapy appointment
• Brunch with a friend, and
• A social media consultation

It was definitely one of my most packed weeks!

The first step I took to manage these events, was that I made sure to schedule each of these activities on separate days on my daily planning sheet.

Just from experience, I’ve learned that I’m my best when I only have one(1) in-person activity per day to focus on outside of my daily routine.

Secondly, I sprinkled in the other tasks that I needed to complete for or with my family and my brand.

Once I had this all written down, I set my priorities for each day!

So for example, on Monday, January 6, when I had the interview, I made that my #1 priority and then I made priority #2 preparation for my brand photoshoot the next day.

I also made a point to complete meal prep for my family that day.

But after that, I didn’t force myself to do more.

I used the rest of the time to mentally rest, and spend time with my family plus do 5 small things for my self-care.

Does that make sense?

The Core Of My Work-Life Balance Practices

As you can see, at the core of my work-life balance practice with this daily planning sheet, is a keen self-awareness, emphasis on self-care and intentional strategy.

I’ve made a point to know what excites me, what motivates me, what relaxes me, what stresses me out, etc. For example, remember where I mentioned that I learned that more than one in-person activity per day doesn’t work for me? That’s self-awareness!

Secondly, self-care has become a huge mantra.

In fact, becoming a mom was the catalyst for this. I realized that in order to help others like I love to do, I had to invest in myself.

The most practical way I implement this is by doing 5 things a day for myself. They aren’t huge but impactful and can range from something as simple as turning my phone off for the evening to getting a quick massage.

Last but not least, I intentionally strategize some aspects of my personal life. I meal prep my family’s lunches so that we stick within a budget during the week. I plan our entire weekly menu so my husband can pitch in with dinner. Even with style, I plan my outfits for the week so I can shorten my morning routine and still look and feel great.

It truly is a balancing act!

And I believe with this intentional living strategy, you can have a work-life balance in your life too!

If you’d like to try this planning sheet, click here to download a copy!

Also, you can click the photo below to Pin this post for later!

Let me know in the comments if this was a helpful tip!