How do you keep balance?

I've been restarting a daily routine of getting up in the morning and reading my Word through devotionals on YouVersion. I'm just wondering how do you ladies keep everything in life balanced? Reading the Word and spending time with God, relationships, finances, work, personal and home upkeep, dreams and goals... etc. Clearly I need a little more time being single because it's just me and I can't seem to find that balance. I am ALWAYS tired. I know God needs to be my top priority and everything will come together. So far I'm eliminating my time online and not taking non-urgent text messages and calls after 9 pm. Any other suggestions? Thanks. I'm asking for God for wisdom on this matter because I'm really struggling.

 

I do praise and worship before I shower every morning. It has become so ingrained that it's something that must be done. I have been doing this for a couple of years. This includes pslams, song, reading my Bible, prayer etc. I also read Psalm 23 every morning as I reach to work.

The rest of my life though is a ball of stress lol. I'm to the point where I may timetable my days.

I do all domestic work on a weekend, I'm thinking about doing a little everyday so that my weekend is mostly free to study.

Personal upkeep, I try to do this Sunday (everything) and Thursday nights (refreshing my nails or just removing my polish all together).

I also restarted ironing all my work outfits for the week and arranging them every Sunday night. So that every morning it's just to move them to my bed and lay it out.

I'm so exhausted on evenings so my schoolwork has been suffering. I need to catch up! I'm also a very social person so I'm the planning person regarding my friends and I'm also the planning person regarding other activities (e.g. church).

My goals are mostly linked to education and work promotion so once I keep progressing education wise I feel as though I am progressing/

I do most of my communicating via text & messages to free up my time and help me with multitasking.

Finances - I'm single so I do a direct deposit from my paycheck to the bank for savings. The rest, I budget as I see fit for the month.

My spiritual and emotional well being as well as outer appearance is utmost to me. Once I feel spiritually fulfilled and wake up looking like I have it together I feel like I can "deal" with everything else.

I'm open to suggestions as well.

 

Yeah I think things are so off with me because my work schedule constantly changes. The hours, shifts, everything. Sometimes I have tons of time and weekends off and everything is in order. Then I'll have a bad few weeks or months and everything is out of order and I'm just trying to catch up on sleep. I think I just need a skeleton routine regardless. Get up read my bible no matter what. A big part of my problem is procrastination, having insomnia and therefore not getting enough sleep. I'll just have to pray for some wisdom because I can't change my work circumstances.

 

So I guess for me

Spiritual - I'm doing my daily devotionals now, I started doing daily praise and worship every morning while getting dressed a few months ago
Work - I just go lol
Home stuff - I do FlyLady stuff
Finances - I do a monthly budget at the beginning of the month and now working on Dave Ramsey stuff, direct deposit and online billing to save time
Relationships - I mostly text even though I hate texting unless I have time to talk on the weekends
Personal upkeep - hair and nails every two weeks, 30 minute workout 4-5x a week

I think the more I get in the Word, the more I'll be able to allot my time wisely. Over the past year I've wasted a lot of time on unnecessary relationships and trying to make things happen but I'm shifting my focus. Where is everyone? Lol...am I the only one that has problems with balance and priorities?

 

I need to find more time to read my bible.

 

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DreamLife: No, you're not. It got so bad at one point for me that I had to quit my part-time job and speak to my pastor about it. I just got exhausted from years of combining school and work and not advancing on neither front. Right now my top priority is obtaining my MA degree, that's caused a lot of stress in my life and doesn't leave any room for my other endeavours.

I have a few good friends and luckily they both live very close to me, so whenever I feel like talking to them I just send them a text to hang out. They're both also around my age so we're all working on career and have busy lives, they understand when I don't have time. Lately we've come to the conclusion that what exhausts us is trying to do everything on our own so we help each other as much as possible, both of them have a driver's licence and I don't. Whenever I have to go somewhere distant and they're available, they drive me there. My sister also lives nearby and helps me tremendously.

I've come up with a schedule that needs some tune up but has been working OK for me since last year:

MONDAY - Financial day of the week, I read articles about finances, go through my budget, see where I could spend less, how I could earn some more money through side hustles,...etc.

TUESDAY - This is the shopping day of the week. I used to go very very far for my groceries, but no more. It was making me tired so now I shop around my neighbourhood, depending on what's lacking I might opt to shop for food, clothing or home accessories.

WEDNESDAY - This is cleaning day. I live in a small studio apartment but my procrastination coupled with laziness was making me dread getting it on with this. But now I either tackle my bathroom, my work area or my kitchen.

THURSDAY - This is the day I take care of all my administration, I take out all the letters that were sent to me from their envelope and file them accordingly. I still need to tackle all of last year's administration.

FRIDAY - Normally this is my spiritual day, because most people go out on this day I figured this would be my way of having fun lol. I pray and fast from 6am till 6pm on this day. This whole month of january I'm focusing on finances, so I'll pray about my debt, professional advancement,...etc. When I'm unable to fast on this day due to work, I reschedule it for saturday.

SATURDAY - This is my FUN day! Yay! I read blogs, books, go shopping, go visit another city nearby, go sit in the park,...anything I enjoy really.

SUNDAY - Church and family day, I really try to honor the sabbat now and not do anything unnecessary on this day. I just go to church then go hang out with my family afterwards.

 

Yeah my issue is that for the past 5 years I've either been doing school or work related stuff just about 6 days a week, up to 80 hours a week. I still try to have somewhat of a life and end up burning myself out. I just have to really plan my weeks out carefully or they end up being disastrous (hence me getting in the bed in about 30 minutes bc I'm completely exhausted). I've got to plan. That's a good plan to make everyday have a theme. I should be better at this by now but I'm still struggling.

Thank God I will have most of my weekends off starting in April. That extra day is everything.

 

Maracujá .. I enjoyed your post. All the best with your educational goals!

I agree the idea of a theme for each day as well. For me, there are certain days dedicated to certain activities. It helps, because it keeps me focused on tasks, and helps to avoid distractions (for example, providing good reason to decline invitations that would set me back)

 

You know I've been thinking about this for a while now. These are the things that I need to do everyday.

1. read by Bible/devotional
2. exercise
3. clean for 30 mins/tidy up
4. read other material
5. career development stuff

I have to admit my time management is bad and I need to limit my time on the net. I am planning to get baptized and really want to know the Bible better. If I can get out of bed earlier I would like to do Bible reading and praying first thing in the morning. I might even be able to do it on the train.

Good thread!

 

I had already adressed this issue with my pastor but the other day I brought it up during our women's Bible study class and again I was advised to get organized. Mama G told me that being an unisome does not make things easier. So I thought we could continue to share tips with each other. I believe we were born in the right era: the digital one. I waste a lot of time just running errands sometimes to handle my business. So if there's a possibility of me doing something online instead of actually going somewhere to get something done, I take it. My sisters even tease me about it but it really helps me. For years I did my taxes online, and as soon as I get my card reader in order I'm gonna start doing it again. I run my bank accounts online aswell. I see some people standing in line sometimes for these things because they don't trust the internet and I feel like it's a waste of time.

 

@Maracujá

As soon as I got mint and mint bills there free app for iPad and for computer you go online it drastically help me stay on track. This app is genius especially in weeks when I'm putting in a lot of hours at work and just don't have the time to run around doing errands.
I also use Dave Ramsey system to budget and plan. Last payday of the month I plan then mid month I update making any adjustments tracking spending and stuff.

Now I have to find a way to get back on track with working out. I had a different job before with stable hours and I was able to workout almost everyday.

now my hours are crazy sometimes my hours go up to 60-80 a week I really don't have a set time to go home so that makes it difficult especially I have to be at work early.

I've been trying to do my devotion and prayer at night before bed that's about 15 m and I listen to podcasts while driving if it's not finances investing it's religious sometimes audiobooks. Some nights I'm just too tired once I get home so that's not consistent either. I'm also taking online classes to move up career wise in the future.

I've cut down TV watching to 2 shows tops that a record and watch when I have time. So that I can have more time to study for class and bible study time which I split with prayer time now.
I don't know how married ladies do it it seems impossible. Have some of you looked behind you there's got to be capes flowing behind some of you wives and mothers seriously.

I need some advice on balancing schedules To do all of this I need a better plan.

 

*bumpity bump*

Let's continue to share tips!

 

How are things now @DreamLife ?

 

Hey @Maracujá !So I've probably said this before but I heard someone say "life is not about balance it's about seasons" and that really resonated with me.

So by the end of the year I will move to a new city, have a new job, new place and my wedding is this year. So there's a lot going on!

Last year I was running around for everybody else and now I'm officially done!

I've been focused on restoring my relationship with God, self care and health, finances, and maintaining important relationships. This year I'm feeling comfortable with saying NO. I can't go, I just plain don't want to go. No more awkward explanations. No more allowing annoying family, associates and coworkers eat up the time that I need to maintain my life. In the past I've felt selfish for this but I've suffered as a result.

Things I need to work on :
-limiting social media time
-limiting my time reading news articles (which was initially a goal to read newspapers now it has gone too far lol)
-reading my Bible more. I typically do a devotional in the morning but I feel like I need more
-Cardio and water intake (currently strength training 2x/week)
-More self care
-sticking to my budget - I did well last year with Dave Ramsey and January I fell off so starting back up in February

 

I am working on having devotional time during my lunch break so that I can recharge with HIM.
I am working on capsule warerobes so that I know I will always be put together. I am also working on simple makeup looks.
I am thinking about getting a gym membership so that I can focus on physical toning and improvement.
I will on limiting my time on social media and increase the time I spend with family and friends.
I will improve on my budget.

 

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Great ideas and goals
What’s a capsule wardrobe?

 

It boils down to this:

 

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