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By: Macey Marketos
Since I was in grade school, I always found sufficient ways of organizing my school life alongside my personal life. It is my opinion that a professional life and personal life are not fully separate, so finding ways to balance the two so that they can coexist and you can feel less stress is essential. In this post, I hope to highlight a few simple tricks I have used to balance the two. Not only do I hope these tips and tricks prove to be helpful, but that they resonate with women who are in a similar situation to a young woman like me looking to transition from school life to work life and how the skills I’ve learned from balancing school life and personal life can translate to a more professional setting in the future.
First things first, I am a stickler on time management. I strongly believe the best way to begin your balancing journey is to sit down and write out your work tasks and personal tasks for the week. Once they’re listed in the same space, you can set aside specific hours of your day to each task which is a fantastic way to hold yourself accountable and not procrastinate. Visually laying out your tasks so that you can better utilize your time allows for easier balance and trade off between business and pleasure! The tangibility of crossing off tasks on a to-do list is also very rewarding and motivates the mind to keep going.
A second important tip when balancing work and personal life is to create firm boundaries for yourself. The week doesn’t always pan out exactly as you plan. There are times when you spontaneously say yes to an activity with your friends or have to go out of your way to devote time to an unexpected problem at work. However, you can set boundaries to prevent yourself from getting too off track and causing additional stress. For example, learn to say no to additional commitments that you know you can’t juggle on top of your current responsibilities. No one will think less of you because of it which is something that took me a while to understand. I feel that sometimes, as women, this is common, that if we aren’t pleasing everyone else then we’ll be seen as not doing enough. However, putting yourself first in certain situations is essential to keeping the balance. Set time limits on screen usage for recreation so that you don’t waste productive time scrolling or binging. Be ok with reality and its ever changing nature, set aside room for life;s unexpected curveballs. With this tip it is so important to remember to give yourself grace; boundaries can be hard to establish in the beginning!
The last tip seems simple in nature, but is extremely effective when approaching the juggling act of work and play: Self-love. As a woman entering the business world, the statistics and nature of the entire thing can be intimidating. I personally know that one of my strengths is being an achiever, but I’m also a known people pleaser and know that I need to set realistic goals for myself that I can accomplish well and to avoid feeling inadequate. Life and people can be demanding and sometimes it might feel like you’re trying to swim with sharks, so I believe one of the best ways to learn balance is by reminding yourself of your worth and capabilities. A few great methods for self-love that I enjoy practicing and highly recommend are as follows: mindfulness and gratitude practice, a hot bubble bath, journaling, yoga or exercise, a glass of wine, healthy eating, reconnecting in nature, drinking plenty of water, getting enough sleep during the week, and calling the people you love. All of these are extremely simple ways to give yourself a small reward or break to help keep you grounded and steady.
Overall, being a woman is so badass. We are strong and radiant and insanely capable of anything we set our minds to. Though we face challenges every day, we find ways to overcome them and help one another along the way. This blog post is my small version of how I can help other women and show that juggling all of the things isn’t easy, but it can be made a little easier with a few tips!
About The Author:
Macey Marketos '25
Human Dimensions of Organizations
Entrepreneurial LeadHERship Fall 2023 Student
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