If work leaves you no time for life, try this calendar trick

When people complain about a lack of work-life balance, they’re typically feeling that they are spending too much time working. They may be spending a lot of combined time at the office and commuting, or just putting in a lot of hours both at work and at home.

Fixing that problem can’t be done abstractly, though. If you’re going to address the balance of work and life activities, you have to start getting specific about where your time is going and where you really want it to go.

Think about how you’re spending your time. At work, you’re spending time in meetings, writing documents, engaging with clients, or doing particular technical tasks like coding. Similarly, your non-work life consists of other activities like going to the gym, spending time with family, going to concerts, or reading a novel for pleasure.

Start by taking a look at where your time is going right now. If you keep a good work calendar, then flip through a few weeks and track the hours you’re spending on different tasks. If you don’t have a good record of the time you’re spending at work, then start logging the time spent on different work tasks.

How much of the time you’re spending on work tasks is really necessary? Are there activities that are discretionary that you could replace with something else (potentially a non-work something else)? Are you wasting time shifting among tasks or doing other things inefficiently?

Perhaps more importantly, you also need to think more clearly about what activities should go in your “life” bin. What are the activities or hobbies you wish you had more time for? Who are the people you want to spend more time with? You spend time on specific work tasks, because those end up on your calendar. You have to define life specifically enough that it ends up on your calendar as well.

Then, create a calendar that includes both work events and life events. Don’t just log your meetings, tasks (and commute time), but also time for working with your kids on their homework, going on a date with your partner, hanging out with friends, going to the gym, or reading a book. It may seem like micromanaging your life to start scheduling these personal events, but if you don’t start doing things differently, the balance of the way you spend your time is not going to change.

This approach also helps you to recognize when your work responsibilities have become overwhelming. If you truly don’t have the time to do any of your life activities, then your job may be asking too much of you. Sit down with your supervisor or a mentor and talk through what you’re currently doing at work. Ask for help prioritizing tasks so that you have more opportunities to do other things that are important to you. Your supervisor might even change some of your responsibilities to make the load more manageable in a reasonable amount of time.

Ultimately, by scheduling the time for these life activities (and actually doing them), you are shifting your habits to include more regular life activities. You won’t necessarily have to create a specific calendar for your life forever. As you start engaging in more non-work activities, that will shift the nature of your daily and weekly routine in ways that are likely to become self-sustaining.

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