In today’s crazy, fast-paced world, it is a challenge for everyone to establish balanced living. It is an even bigger challenge for the freelancer, because we are completely in charge of how we structure our days, weeks, months, and years. In this article, I share five ways I have used to help me achieve a feeling of balance in my life.

Even though achieving balance can be a daunting goal, the closer we come to succeeding, the more enjoyable our existence will become. My definition for a balanced life includes a good balance between the roles we have in work, in the family, in the community, and in all other areas of our life. I want to recommend Stephen Covey’s book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Using Covey’s delineation of these roles, I have gained perspective and balance by defining my own.

Find a time management plan that works for you and your personality. For years I worked diligently on trying to implement the standard time management plan of making a “to do list,” prioritizing tasks, working on them in the order of importance, and checking them off upon completion. This works well for the majority of left-brained people. If, however, you are a right-brained creative as I am, it just doesn’t work as we do. I recommend another time management book that combined with Covey’s has changed my life and attitude toward time. In her book,Time Management for Unmanageable People, Ann McGee Cooper shows creative people how to break the old time management rules that don’t work for them and create their own “fun” non-system that works.

Get into Quadrant II as often as possible! What do I mean by Quadrant II? Covey’s theory of time includes quadrants for your activities. Quadrant I includes activities that are urgent and important. Quadrant III includes activities that are urgent and not important. Quadrant IV includes activities that are not urgent and not important. Quadrant II includes activities that are important, yet not urgent -- examples include preparation, crisis prevention, values clarification, planning (goal setting), relationship building, and true re-creation (lifelong learning, exercise, etc.). The more time we spend in Quadrant II, the more balanced and less stressful our lives become.

Create a Balanced Life Plan, Chart, or Wheel. I find that creating a plan, some sort of chart or visual helps make the outcome a reality. Choose a method that works for you. Putting something on paper is a start. It can be a list of your life roles with the goals you want to achieve in those areas. It can be a chart or a journal keeping track of how you are doing with your balancing of those roles, and/or it can be a circle with wheel spokes separating your roles equally into pie shapes to remind you to keep working on balancing. Post it near the phone or work area, so that you remember daily your direction.

Worry less about what others think and say you “should” or “shouldn’t” be doing. Often well meaning friends and/or relatives feel that they are giving us good advice. Remember that it is our life, and if we let others control us with their advice and their demands, we will lead a far from balanced life -- we may even resent it. We must have the gumption to say “no” (in a nice and polite way) when the request interferes with our plan or direction. This may be the hardest step of all to take, because from childhood on, everyone is affected by peer pressure and worrying about what others are thinking.

Chris King is a free agent, professional speaker, storyteller, writer, website creator / designer, and fitness instructor. You will find her freelance living website at http://www.freelanceliving.com and her business website at http://www.creativekeys.biz

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