In the previous two portions of this series we have covered a great deal about the balance of your life.  It's important to remember that your life balance is the cumulation of many things and not just one single thing.  It's also important to remember that while your life balance can affect others, and others can affect your life balance it's still your life balance and no one else's.  If others are affecting your life balance it can be harder to rebalance your life than if it's something you are doing to your own life balance but in general this series does focus on our lives being off balance from the use of technology.  Despite all of that, the methods listed in this series to help rebalance your life may actually help you even if technology is not something hurting your balance.  With technology being such an enticing object in our lives that can draw us in very easily its important to be covered as an item we have to work towards separating ourselves from.  It is also very easy to mistake time being spent as quality time with loved ones without technology when in fact we are still using that technology.  If I go camping with my family for example, even if I am outside in the woods, if I spend that time around the fire with my phone in my hand in front of my face it's not actually helping your life balance.  In fact if your balance issue is already related to technology and is already affecting your relationship with your family, that moment around the fire with your phone drawing your attention is likely going to drive a wedge between you and your loved ones even further.  Another example is if I go to the ball game and spend the whole time taking pictures of the game and reading stats on my phone rather than watching the actual game or talking with friends or family I am with about that game you are not separating your current moment from technology and your not spending quality time with your family or friends.  Technology is still monopolizing your time in both of these examples!  

Interestingly our take in this series is that in many cases you can actually use that technology to try reclaiming your life's balance!  Just as a quick recap step one of this process is soul searching to determine what in your life is throwing off your balance.  Again while this article goes over a lot about those who are dealing with technology overuse it's important to remember that no matter what your soul searching finds these techniques we mention in this series and other balancing techniques may work for you.  Step Two deals primarily with getting organized which we are going to continue going over in Part 3.

For many of us it is in our nature to live a very busy, and hectic life.  When people I meet see how much I have on my plate and comment about it I typically joke that it keeps me out of trouble.  While that may be a little true I can honestly say that many times I say that very painfully.  There are days I wish I could just wake up, turn on the tv, and never get out of bed but the truth is I am simply too busy so I rarely watch anything on tv.  When I finally watch something it's typically something I have been putting off and in many cases I don't finish watching the show or movie because I fall asleep or something comes up so I continue the show where I left off.  That is one of the things that I love about streaming a show.  I can continue the show or movie exactly where I left off.  Don't get me wrong, I actually love what I do even if and when it is time consuming.  No matter what else I may say to describe what I do we can sum it all up to I am a problem solver.  When I meet anyone in the course of my professional life it's typically related to something that isn't working right or efficiently for them, their business, or otherwise related to technology and it's my job to identify the cause and in many cases fix that issue.  I enjoy that challenge and what I really enjoy is when those challenges are something new I have not specifically seen before.  Despite my love for my chosen profession I also have to admit that at times it has eaten up a lot of my life balance ultimately through the consumption of an enormous amount of time.  For a time my calendar was full of work events.  Every moment that had an opening seemed like an opportunity to be filled with additional work tasks.  I suddenly realized that I was all work and no play so to speak.  I needed to stop plugging in those openings in my calendar with nothing but work and I had to start scheduling when I was going to have “me” time or “family” time.  I never titled it that way of course.  I always put in what I or we were doing.  Camping for example over a few days would go into the calendar.  Even if a priority work event came up I would look at my schedule and see that I already have family time through a camping event, and schedule the task elsewhere with the same mentality as I would if a customer appointment was in that same block.  I have to treat myself and my family with the same or higher priority than a customer!  That is what many of us forget.  While clients and customers may come and go hopefully our friends and families last a lifetime.  Of course in my experience my clients and customers have at times also become very good friends as well!  That being said our most loyal customers also will understand and even support that we too need time for ourselves and families!  That being said I don't always tell my customers why a particular time block is not available so an explanation is not really necessary.  As professionals we schedule ourselves into our available time slots.

To do this I personally l like to use Google calendars.  I know this may seem somewhat unimaginative but let's be honest.  When it comes to scheduling and reclaiming the balance of our lives do we really need to be imaginative.  While some may not like Google, let's look at it from a very honest perspective.  Google calendars work on all phones.  If you're using an iPhone or Galaxy Phone and you exclusively use their calendar you are going to have a really hard time sharing that calendar with any other phone or device if it's not using the same technology.  Google on the other hand does not discriminate against their functionality or usefulness like Apple or other products do.  In the end however, use whatever works for you.  With my google calendar I have created a multitude of calendars.  Each one is relevant to different aspects of my life.  For example, I have a calendar specifically for business operations.  I share that calendar with everyone in my team and family that needs to see what I am doing.  I have a calendar for my fundraising activities so that I can keep it separate from my professional life and I can also share that with Fundraising team members and again family.  I have a family calendar that is shared with primarily family members so that we can all mutually see what we are doing and as we run our separate calendars we can make sure none of us accidentally cause a conflict with family time.  These calendars are great and in some cases can even be shared with websites as well.  I don't personally have to do that one but I have set that up for others.  This can allow you to share certain event activities you have upcoming for demonstrations, conventions, concerts, and so on so your followers can see where and when you will be at certain venues.  Again, completely and efficiently working as a tool which is exactly what that technology is.  Through all of this the Google Calendar allows you to sit down on your device of preference with no discrimination between one device versus the others to set up when you are available to your professional life and when you are doing things for yourself, family, friends, and so on.  Through doing that you can make sure your life is more balanced than perhaps it has been in years while communicating with the important people in our lives whether they are professionally or personally important.  These are the tools that when used perhaps wrong, can also become a balance issue, but in this case it has become a tool towards reclaiming your life.  Now through monitoring and managing your time through a simple calendar app like Google on your phone, PC, or Mac you are now able to balance your life!  To do this schedule time for you to do things where you are setting aside your device, keeping it in your pocket, or even better you are leaving it in your vehicle while you enjoy some quality time with your loved ones.  Schedule a time to go outside and pitch a tent for the evening so you can enjoy that time while technology is as far away as possible while still keeping yourself connected just for those emergency phone calls when the unthinkable happens.  Don't turn on social media, bring a flashlight instead of using your phones, and take the night away from your mobile devices games.  Enjoy the world around us because that world has a lot more to offer than our mobile device.  Schedule a time to go to a sporting event and instead of taking pictures throughout the game actually enjoy the game with your own two eyes.  Schedule a moment to go bowling, play pool, and do the things that keep us linked to the people around us.  These are the moments worth living for and none of them need a phone in front of our faces and in some cases these moments can be bought without any money at all and with only the cost of time.

  Walter Kiser - 10/21/2024