How to Use Your Planner to Cultivate Work Life Balance

Work life balance.

I used to roll my eyes when I would hear that word back in my early days of corporate America. I didn’t think work life balance was achievable. In fact, I thought it was just a buzzword or phrase that corporations used to make employees think they actually cared about their employees (when they actually did NOT care).

I’m still newer to the corporate world (6 years in!) and I’ve finally realized in Years 4 and 5 that work life balance is my sole responsibility to cultivate. No one will care about my self-care and mental health the way that I will personally care. Therefore, it’s up to me to ensure that I am using my tools and doing my best to seek that balance in life.

In this post, we’ll talk about how you can use your planner to cultivate work life balance. Let’s jump in!

Roadblock 1: Separation

Roadblock 1 is all about a practical problem that many of us likely have. Work life balance is difficult if you have to keep your work plans separate from your non-work or personal plans! This need to separate your plans may be mandatory but it’s still annoying. I’m speaking from experience because it’s something I deal with as well. I have to keep my work plans not only separate but confidential due to legal reasons! However, there are ways you can use your planner to have a level of awareness of your work schedule to help pursue work life balance.

Tip 1: Dual Scheduling

Whether work forces you to use Google, Outlook, or some other form of calendar maintenance, try putting your personal plans into your work calendar. (Just make sure that the substance is private! Another option is to put code words that only make sense to you.) For example, I note the evenings in my work calendar that I know I am busy and will not be able to work late or handle issues. This awareness of my personal schedule in relation to my work schedule helps me make adjustments to my work tasks so that I do not have to sacrifice my personal life.

Tip 2: Awareness

In your personal planner, note the busy work days so that you are aware. To be fair, you may not catch everything because fire drills happen, but you’ll know ahead of time when you have important meetings, a big project due, etc. so that you can adjust your personal schedule (and your self-care habits) accordingly.

Roadblock 2: Everything is Important

Surprise, surprise. I struggle with this roadblock too!

Unfortunately, I work in a space where other people (not me, I promise) believe everything is important. I have to admit that sometimes, as an attorney, a lot of my work is important and tends to be high priority. But if everything is important, than nothing becomes important. If you work in other high-stress environments, you can relate.

Tip 1: Identify Priorities

Use your planner as a way to identify priorities and establish boundaries. For example, once you lay out your week, what week are you busy? When do you need more me time? Do you have an upcoming project that requires more time?

Once you identify priorities, you can adjust your time and energy as needed to achieve balance.

Tips 2: Communication

We cannot let life stress us out. Communication is key! If life is busy and everything at work is starting to feel important, COMMUNICATE. Communicate with your co-workers, your family, your friends. Can someone help and step-up to help alleviate stress and responsibilities in another way?

Roadblock 3: Recovery from Perfectionism

Whew! This one hits close to home. If you’re like me (to be fair, most of us in the planner community can relate), perfectionism is almost rarely a good thing. The idea of perfectionism creates a false narrative that we will never make mistakes, we are always perfect, and perfection is the only acceptable being.

The only tip for this roadblock is self-care. Whether it’s journaling, therapy, or affirmations, you’ll need to do the work to help combat the negative effects of perfectionism and its impact on work life balance. For example, try using your planner or another journal to write about your experience with perfectionism. What can you do to fight against perfectionism? Personally, I love using affirmations. I know that I need to release perfectionism. So having affirmations written throughout my work and personal planners help to remind me that I’m not perfect and sometimes, it’s important to choose myself to ensure that I can be the best version of myself.

Journey, not a Destination

The Harvard Business Review published an article titled, Work Life Balance is a Cycle, Not an Achievement. (It’s a good read, highly recommend. Read the article here!)

Whew! So very true!!

You’ll never feel like you’ve practiced enough self-care and work life balancing to feel like you’re good to go forever. There will always be busier days and days you feel like you failed (because you feel overworked). The opposite is also true. There may be days were you feel like you relaxed too much and haven’t focused on any professional goals you made for yourself. Regardless of how the balance is going at the moment, you won’t know when you need to relax more or spend a little more time on your professional goals if everything is a mess. Be prepared. Use your planner to help!

How do you cultivate work life balance? Add some tips below!