Achieving a Better Work Life Balance

A Note From the Author: 

It has been over a year since I have blogged, and I miss it.  Writing is something I have always enjoyed, but having three kiddos and being a full-time teacher makes it hard for me to find the time. I am going to try to write more this year. 🤞  I have also decided to change the focus of this blog. When I first started writing, I attended it to be more education based, and I am sure I will still write about teaching at times.  But, over the last year, I have focused on trying to not allow work to be the center of my life and focusing more on my family, home, and myself. I would like my blog to reflect that because ultimately I am writing for myself. If anyone else enjoys it or finds it helpful that is just a bonus. 

Fall 2021 was difficult for me.  I found myself struggling more as a teacher than I had since my first-semester teaching. I felt like I was drowning all the time. It caused me to be anxious and depressed and began to seep into my home life. I had no patience for my own children and a lot of mom guilt to accompany it. My house was in utter chaos, and I felt like a failure as a housekeeper.  And the most concerning problem of all was that all of my personal relationships felt strained.

So, that December I took a long hard look at myself and decided to reset and make some changes that I implemented when I went back in January.  It is a year later, and my life is so much better.  It is still not perfect.  I still struggle with the day in and day out, but not as much.  And while I am not perfectly consistent these are the five things I think have made the biggest positive impact on my life. 

1. Leaving On Time

Believe me...I know this is WAY harder than it sounds.  I am that perfect combination of perfectionist and people-pleaser that turns into a workaholic. But, over the last year, I have made a point of leaving as close to on time as possible. This is a huge mind-shift change for me, but none of the other changes I have made would work without doing this. 

2. Bringing Home Work Habits

I realized that I was pouring out all of my positive traits and habits at work and not bringing any of them home.  So, I started bringing home some of those habits and applying them to my home.  The most important of these was organization. My classroom is meticulously organized because I can't function otherwise.  Not having things put away causes me stress and makes it difficult to concentrate.  But, when I came home I didn't put in the same amount of work to create organizational systems and maintain them because I was "too tired".  As a result, my home felt like chaos, I was overwhelmed, and nothing got done. 

As I reflected on the failures of my duties as a wife and mother, I realized that I was using my greatest strengths (organization and dedication) at work but not at home.  I started to change this by tackling areas in the house where the lack of organization frustrated me the most: the hall closet, pantry, and kitchen cabinets. All of a sudden chores I hated (like putting up groceries or emptying the dishwasher) became no big deal or even enjoyable. (I love refilling my pantry canisters and baskets every Sunday after grocery pick up. I am that kind of weirdo.) Since then, I have been working on one organizational project after another making my home increasingly functional and, therefore, manageable. 

3. Don't Sit Down 

I am like a rock. It is really hard to get me moving, but once I start rolling it is hard for me to stop.  So knowing this about myself, I have consciously made the decision to use the momentum I have from the workday by not sitting down when I first get home. I know as soon as I sit I am done. 

When I walk in the door, I start prepping backpacks, unloading the dishwasher, doing a load of laundry, and attending to anything else I need to get done that evening. After that, I begin making dinner. Once I sit down for dinner everything I have to attend to (besides the bedtime routine) is done.  

4. Meal Planning

If I were to rank these as the most life-changing this is hands down #1! I thought I hated to cook, and I would wait until my husband got home to start cooking hoping he would do it (most of the time he did). This, however, was not ideal and was a huge frustration for him. 

One of the biggest reasons I didn't want to cook when I got home was because after a long day of making decisions making the decision of what to cook was one too many.  So, I started to meal plan.  Every weekend, I sit down and determine dinners for that week and make a Walmart grocery order as I plan. 

Now that I don't have to figure out what we are going to eat when I get home each day, I find I actually like to cook.  We also have less food waste, are saving money, and my husband is much happier at the end of the day. 

5. Kitchen Sink Rule

This is one I borrowed from YouTuber Kallie Branciforte. I started watching her channel But First, Coffee around the same time I started making these life changes. 

The Kitchen Sink Rule is never to go to bed with a dirty kitchen sink. The idea behind this rule is two-fold. First, no one likes to wake up to dirty dishes. It makes preparing breakfast difficult in the morning.  For me, it makes me more likely to follow through with that meal planning if I have a clean kitchen to cook in. Having to clean the kitchen before cooking is the WORST!

But, it is also about creating small habits that snowball into larger ones.  If you are already cleaning the kitchen sink, then you might as well wipe down the counters too, etc.

I am not perfect on this one, but 98% of the time I do follow through and it has helped make the kitchen a positive place to be in my house instead of a place I avoid. 

Bonus Tip: Another thing I picked up from watching Kallie that I find useful is: "Do something today that future you will appreciate." This shift in mindset has helped me stop putting off those little unpleasant tasks and prevent them from piling up.