[239] Tips For Balancing Work & Home While Having Time For YOUR Own Interests

In this episode, I dive into the art of balancing work, home, and personal interests. I'll share my personal struggles and triumphs, along with practical tips that have helped me find harmony in my busy life. From keeping devices separate to managing email and setting boundaries, these strategies can help you carve out time for what truly matters. Tune in to discover how you can achieve a more balanced and fulfilling life!

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Transcript

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Toni-Ann 0:00

So I know how you're feeling when you're coming home from work, you are tired and you probably just want a little bit of peace and quiet, but then again, you may be feeling like, how am I able to really balance working at home and still make time for my own interest? Well, that's what we're going to be talking about today. Hey there, my name is Toni Anne. And I'll see you next time. I am the podcast host of the Real Happy Mom podcast, the podcast for busy working moms who need help with gaining more time and achieving their big goals without pulling their hair out. And in this episode, we're talking all about balancing home and work and making time for our own interest. Now this is something that I have gotten really passionate about only because I'm a mom. It was a period of time that I struggled with this. I felt like it had to be all about work or all about home. I didn't understand that I could definitely find this harmony between work and home and with my own interests and still be able to show up well in all of these different areas. I really had a hard time with the whole all or nothing mentality, which is something that some of my friends have been helping point out to me. And I will definitely include some links to some podcast episodes to help you out with that if you're struggling with it too, as well. There are a couple of things that I have found that have been really, really helpful for me to have that harmony with work and home and with my own interest. I have seven things that I want to share with you that are really helpful for me with balancing out the work in home and making time for my own interests. So first things first is keeping devices separate. And when I say this, I mean that it's easy to want to get things done on one device. So let's just say you have a laptop and you want to use your laptop for work, for Your personal things that you want to do and also for your side hustle that you're starting It seems pretty easy to have just one device and just get everything done on that one thing but I have found that when you have Devices for different things it helps to kind of separate your mind from the different things that you have going on And you don't let everything kind of mesh together So for me I have a laptop that I use just for Real Happy Mom and for work in the Navy. I just use that one exclusively. Then I have another device where I just use strictly for personal interest. So my iPad, that is just for me to live my best life and not think about anything else. Work at all. So I keep those things separate so that I know okay when I'm picking up my iPad I'm going to just relax. I'm going to read a book. I'm gonna play some games Whatever it is that I want to do and I'm not getting sidetracked in Accidentally getting into my work email and start working. So having devices separate really helps to kind of help Draw that line so that you're not able to have things blurred together and things are Meshing with one another when it comes to work at home Next I would say has been really really helpful for me. It's managing how I respond to email I will tell you, I have talked many times about different time sucks. Again, I'll have a link in the show notes on an episode that I did about time sucks. I really do believe that there are some things that will suck your time and you will look up and be like, where did the day go? One of those big things is email. Email is one of those things I'm not gonna lie to you. I had a really bad addiction to, like I was constantly in my inbox looking and seeing who said what, did they respond? What do I have to do next? All of that good stuff. And it was really getting to the point where I could not pick up my phone without going inside of my email. So I would say so that you don't, again, have lines blurred, have work just meshing in with home, make sure that you have certain times when you're going to respond to emails right away. So you set the expectation with those that you're working with that you can't be reached all of the time. You're not always working because if you are constantly getting back to people right away, it seems like you're doing a great job and people love it. But then they. I have this expectation like, Oh, Tonya is working all the time. Let me just email her at 12 o'clock in the morning because I know she's going to get right back to me. No, no, no, no, no. We don't want to do that. Make sure that you have set times when you are going to check email. I know I've heard many people talk about, you know, checking it in the morning and In the afternoon and then right before they leave for work, do whatever works for you, but just have certain times when you are checking your email and then times when you are not checking your email so that you are not allowing work to mesh into your time at home and then taken away from the time that you want to spend on your own interests. So the third thing that I have is planning ahead. This is something that it has taken me quite a bit of practice, but I will tell you Before you even get the day started really look and see okay. What all do I have to get done today? What are the things that I have on the schedule? What meetings do I have to attend? What um People do I need to get in touch with before the end of the day, really looking and seeing and starting to plan ahead. Okay. Like I can get these things done at this time and then I can have this time just for myself. When you do that, it makes it easier for you to make that time for yourself so that you can Put the phone down you can put the laptop down and know okay I've done the work that I was supposed to get done for today Now I can move on to just relaxing at home Or I can read that book that i've been hearing everybody talk about and I want to see what it is that everyone's so excited About you can go ahead and pick that book up or if you wanted to start a new hobby like crocheting Or getting into gardening You can go ahead and do those things because you've already planned out your day and you've made time for different things throughout your day. So number four I have is ending work at a certain time. So for me I have my nine to five that I work. Then I also work in the Navy and then I have a real happy mom, which I absolutely love by the way. Thank you for joining me here. Now there are times where I will want to work. All day and I love what I do and I forget that sometimes I have little kids and a husband that needs me, which is not good. So I have to really remind myself, okay, Tony and at one o'clock, you are going to stop because you have to go pick up the kids or at 5 PM, you're going to stop. Because you have to go into making dinner and getting the kids ready for school the next day, whatever it is, just have a certain time when you are going to stop because it's easy to just keep going and going and going, Oh, just five more minutes. Oh, just 15 more minutes. And next thing you know, you've taken up a whole bunch of time. So really having a set in time so that, you know, when it's time to stop. Number four is having apps to block distracting websites throughout the day and I will tell you one of my favorite. It's a it's a Google Chrome extension called Facebook eradicator. I like that one because I do still get on Facebook every now and then, even though me and social media have a very interesting relationship right now. But when I do get on there, I don't want to be distracted with my newsfeed. So actually it's called newsfeed eradicator and it is on Google Chrome it blocks out the News feed so you can't see anything in your feed But it does put a beautiful quote there in the news feed so that you are not distracted On Facebook and it even does it for Instagram as well And this one is really helpful when I'm trying to get certain things done on social media for real happy mom But I don't want to get distracted and see You know what billy down the street is doing because they don't be nosy and I'll be on Facebook all day So that is a really helpful one. There's several others I will make sure to have the links in the show notes so that you can check those out. But if you could get into at least one or two that are going to help you to stay on track, stay on task and not get distracted when you get on your computer is going to save you so much time. So, Next up is getting help. I talk about this. I feel like all the time and if you haven't heard me talk about it, welcome Getting help is something that I think is one thing that we forget about a lot as moms I don't know where it came from, but Being able to be the mom that wears the cape and does everything herself has become the ultimate goal for a lot of moms. And it is totally unrealistic and you will burn yourself out if you try to do that. So definitely ask for help and get help whenever you can. Whether it be at work, at home, or at school. where ever it is, ask for help. And I will tell you, it's so funny because I do these, um, general prompts, um, that I absolutely love. It's Brenda Bruchard's Growth Day app. Again, I'll include that link in the show notes, but in Growth Day, there is, um, These morning journal prompts, and one of the questions on there that I promise I put the same answer every single day is, What is one thing that you will do to step outside of your comfort zone? And every day I put, ask for help. Because I don't. I want to get it done. I want to not be a nuisance to someone. I don't want to like take up anyone's time. I don't want to bother anybody. I just want to get it done myself really quick. Ask for help. So please, please, please ask for help. So you're not doing everything yourself and you can have time to do the things that you enjoy and have time for those interests that you want to dive into. So last thing that I have for you today is be grateful. This is something that I am definitely practicing on a regular basis. And I truly, truly, truly believe that when you start to be grateful and really spend time to think about what you are grateful for, those things will amplify in your life. It is so true. What you focus on magnifies. So if you have some good things going on, listen to me, honey. You want to make sure that you are just saying how grateful you are for those things. So you can get even more of those awesome things in your life, whether it be having healthy kids, whether it's having a home that you've been wanting to have, whether it's the car in the driveway, food in the pantry, whatever it is, find something and be grateful for it. I know for me and my house, we make the kids say something that they're grateful for. Every single night before they go to sleep because I really want to cultivate that gratefulness in my kids so that they know that they have so many great things going on in their lives and they can really Draw their attention to those good things instead of being focused on all the negative things that will get you distracted And take away from that time from working home and also your own interest So those are the things that I wanted to talk to you about today in this episode just to recap I was talking to you about keeping your devices separate Managing when you're going to read your email planning ahead Ending work at a certain time using apps to help block out distracting websites throughout the day getting help and And then lastly, being grateful. Those are the things that I have found that have been extremely helpful for me in balancing work and home while still making time for my own interests. Now, if you want to get any of the links that were mentioned in this episode, make sure you head on over to real happy mom. com slash two, three, nine. And there you'll find the links as well as information about Grow Your Business Without Social Summit. This is a summit that I am excited to be a part of and I would love for you to join me in it, especially if you are a an entrepreneur who is trying to get their online business out there and get it marketed, but you just don't really love social media at all. or are wanting to change things up. So you don't have to rely on social media. This summit is for you. So make sure you go to real happy mom. com slash two, three, nine. And again, all the links that were mentioned in this episode, as well as the grow your business without social summit will be there and make sure to stay tuned next week for another full episode. I'll be back again. Take care. And with lots of love.