Its very common to hear from people that your twenties are the time when you should work the hardest. It’s the time to grind and make money, and that ‘work’ should be your sole focus in this period, you’ll have time to ‘play’ later.
I’m sure some of you guys may have thought about it (judging by the fact that you’re reading this post right now), but this whole mentality of working like a machine while you’re in your twenties, so that you can relax later on may not be something you want.
Now, of course I’m not saying that you should be a bum and sit around and not work while in your twenties. What I’m saying is that you should learn to have a work life balance.
‘The Ultimate Mind Glow-up Series,’ is the the perfect accompaniment to this post. In the first part, I delve into some self-love ideas and in the second part I focus on self-development and reaching business/ work goals. Have a read now:
The Ultimate ‘Mind Glow-up’ Series (Part 1) – SELF LOVE
The Ultimate ‘Mind Glow-Up’ Series Part 2 – SELF DEVELOPMENT
What’s work like balance?
Having work life balance means you have time to work hard on your job/ passions/ goals and also, have time to enjoy yourself, see your loved ones, and work on your hobbies and interests.
I’ll put emphasis on the word ‘balance,’ though. Having a work life balance is a continual process where you’re juggling between both your work life and social life so that one doesn’t outweigh the other.
Some work life benefits include less stress, higher productivity levels and better mental health.
And on top of that, who wants to look back at their twenties and only have memories of doing late hours in the office or being completely focussed on money and not enjoying everyday life?
Yes, your twenties are a time where you should work extremely hard, but they should also be a time that you look back to fondly and remember all the amazing adventures you had.
So, hopefully I have successfully persuaded you that having a work life balance is important, let’s now get into some tips for work life balance!
We’ll be focussing on three different areas of your life:
Financial
Personal
Time management
Related: Self confidence & Independence: the foundations of success PART 3
Financial
Have savings on top of your emergency funds
Having a 3 month or 6 month emergency fund in your savings shouldn’t be enough. That emergency fund is there for what it is named after – an emergency!
On top of your emergency funds, start putting away a certain amount of money into your savings every month.
Though this isn’t directly affecting your work life balance right now, it will later on!
As you grow older, you’ll have that comfort and security that you have savings in the bank, and with those savings you may choose to do other things like invest, start a business or create products to sell.
Being smart with your money will in turn give you work life balance later on as you will have the freedom to actually use your money on something you are passionate about.
Spend less on your days out, look for low budget alternatives
Instead of going out for a fancy, expensive meal every night/ weekend, look for low budget activities to do with your friends/ family.
Having a fancy meal is nice, but actually trying to be creative and finding different activities to do is so much more fun.
On the days you do decide to spend more, don’t always just use it on a meal, be adventurous and try different things.
Here are some examples of fun, low budget activities:
Picnic
Movie night in with friends
Go on a hike
Create a cheese board and have an evening painting session with your friends
Passive income
What is passive income? Passive income is income that continues to come in even after the work you have done is completed.
Sounds amazing, doesn’t it?
Some passive income ideas include having a blog, creating a course, and buying and renting out a property.
If you want some more ideas on how to generate income and increase your wealth read What Successful People Do To Get Rich and Stay Rich.
Even after you have written that blog post, there is the potential that readers will come in the future and click on the ad links in your post, or someone may buy your course in the future.
With renting, you know you will get a monthly income from the people you have rented your property to.
This passive income will allow you to maintain your work life balance. You don’t need to actively work for the money to come in, and can enjoy yourself as the money rolls in!
Personal
Set personal time for yourself and honour that time
These tips for having work life balance also include having a balance of personal time and socialising with others.
What I mean when I say honour your personal time is that don’t let anything take you away from that time you have kept aside.
Once a week, set an evening, afternoon, or even a few hours where you do things solely for yourself.
Engage in self-care activities or self-love activities and use that time to relax, unwind and forget about everything.
How about getting into a good book? Here’s a list of very entertaining and thought-provoking books from all around the world.
And honour that time, just like you wouldn’t allow yourself to be distracted when you’ve got a deadline coming up, don’t make excuses and get yourself out of that personal time.
Schedule in days to relax
If you find it extremely hard to maintain a work life balance, start scheduling in your off days.
In most cases, the work life tends to take over your social life.
So, the best way to start with creating a work life balance is to create a schedule.
Schedule in your work on a monthly planner, and each week plan at least one thing to do in your social life.
The better you get with your organisation and scheduling, the easier it will get to find work life balance.
Be present
On the days that you have the luxury of relaxing and spending time by yourself/ with others, focus on being present.
Turn off your notifications, put away your phone and don’t check your emails for that day, and most of all, DON’T think about work.
Be mindful and enjoy every minute of the time you’re spending. As I said before, these are the moments that you will look back to later on.
Time management
Learn to time block
There are many great time management tips for work life balance and one of them includes time blocking.
Time blocking is a great way to ensure you get your tasks done and basically have time for everything!
Time blocking is a little more focussed than just scheduling in one activity in your week. Instead, time blocking focusses on the day itself and breaks it up into blocks.
Some key tips when it comes to time blocking is making sure to give yourself a good amount of time to complete a task (for example, if you have a rough idea that writing your essay will take 2 hours, don’t block in just 1 hour to get it done), and having plenty of breaks.
If you are able to successfully time block, you’ll find that you get a lot more done in less time, and so will have more time to spend on your social life.
Understand that you control time
You really do.
Every time you say ‘I’m too busy, I’ll do it later,’ you’re controlling time. When you say ‘I’ll do that application later but I don’t have time right now,’ you’re controlling time.
You control time based on your priorities.
Understand that at the end of the day you do have time but the reason why it may seem like you have no time to do anything is because you aren’t able to prioritise what is important.
If you really wanted to do that application, you would make the time to do it now.
With this mindset, the next time you try to put something off think about your priorities. If you are able to get your urgent priorities out of the way, you’ll find that you have plenty of time to do other things.
Wow how many times did I say time up there?
Related:
Productivity Hack: The 5-Minute Rule
5 Steps To Control Stress When You’re About To Have A Meltdown
Organise/ schedule out your day/ week/ month
Scheduling and being organised is a crucial work life balance tip.
If you are a go-with-the-flow type of person that’s great, but it’s not so great when you have things to get done.
As much as you want to relax and have fun, you should use your twenties to work on your passion projects as it is the best time to do so.
Schedule out your work times, and go with the flow when you’re having fun – create a balance here too.
It’s become so common to be scrolling on social media now, and seeing influencers on your explore page posing in front of their brand new car or house.
In many cases as well, these influencers are young people in their 20’s.
While that is fantastic for them, it isn’t a realistic expectation to have.
Not everyone will become millionaires in their twenties, and that’s not a bad thing. Because even those millionaires that you look at on social media have their own personal problems that they are dealing with.
These tips for having work life balance is unique to you – you know what your passions are and what makes you happy, so don’t look at others to find happiness.
Everyone has problems that they are trying to overcome no matter who they are, so from that hopefully you can see that you should enjoy every moment you can no matter how rich you are.
And even if you aren’t where you want to be financially right now, hard work and perseverance will get you there. It doesn’t hurt to have a little fun on the journey there though.
