Balancing work and life by managing yourself

You spend the entire day working in the lab wondering if the hard work will paid off. You came home to a messy room with dirty laundary. Everyday work seems like a routine. Worst, you can’t recall what happened last week and you forgot your friend's birthday. You know something is missing in your life but you think to yourself: it’ll be all over when this project is finished. But, the project never end! As more questions came out, more problem to solve and more work to do. Before you know it, you’re stuck in a loop.

We are facing great challenges living in an fast-paced and adrenaline-crazed society. Our stress level in on red alert. We must always give quick answer, save time and get the job done faster. At times, we felt overwhelmed, frustrated and exhausted. We worried about a lot of things. We lost balance between work and life. If you think there's no way you can do this better, you're wrong. How do you think successful people manage their lives? You think they never sleep?! It all boils down to time management, evaluating importance and setting priority.

Here's a rule to setting your priority according to the importance and urgency of the matter. It's a time management grip taken from Stephen Covey's book on "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People".


List the task that you need to complete in the quadrants and execute around priorities. The suggestion is to do the tasks in Q1 first followed by Q2, Q3 and Q4. Q1 tasks should be dealt immediately. Q2 tasks are important but can be re-scheduled. Highly effective people always make time for Q2 activities. Note that postponing Q2 tasks will turn them into Q1 tasks. Q3 activities are usually distractions (e.g. an interrupt phone call). Q4 is neither urgent nor important. So, it's a waste of time. Ask yourself how many things you did today fall into this category.

Of course, the above rules don't have to be followed strictly. One thing I learn from my supervisor is that she never postpone any simple task like giving someone a call or sending emails. She would instantly call the person to get answers to the questions that came up during our discussion. So my advice is to do the task right away if it only requires a few minutes of your time. Procrastination is the thief of time!

Right, so now you have listed your priorities and is about to execute them. You sat down on your desk and started working on it. 3 hours later, you realized you make no progress at all. You were busy surfing the net for something else. Sounds familiar? Here's what you can do. When you realized other ideas are distracting you from your focus, tell yourself it’s very important to stick to your work and to complete it now. Turn off your phone or music to help you focus better.

It's also very important to identify and eliminate things that are draining your energy. It could be work or people. If it's work, don't take any project that you are unlikely to complete in time. Just say NO and give reasonable explanation. Also, delegate your work as much as possible. Beware of people who cause negative impacts and emotion torture on your life. It could be your colleague always asking for your help or a friend always complaining about her problems. Here's some tips on how to deal with them.

Lastly, live and eat healthy! When we neglect our health, we get sick easily and more work could piled up resulting more stress. So, eat more vegetables, reduce sugar, exercise regularly, drink more water and less caffeine. And people, walking up and down the stairs and moving about in the lab is not an exercise! Pick an exercise you enjoy, invite a friend and do it at least once a week. Besides having a good sweat, take this relaxing moment to spend time with a friend, periodically review your life and review your time-effectiveness.

This post was inspired by the book "Life makeovers: 52 practical and inspiring ways to improve your life one week at a time" by Cheryl Richardson. The book can be borrowed from PTSL library (after I return it). If you have other ways on how to improve our lifes, please leave a comment and share with us. :-)