When you love what you do it can be soooo hard to tear yourself away from eating, sleeping and breathing it 24/7.

Lately, I have been realizing how infrequently I have been taking the time to join the real world and head out for a breath of fresh air. That is why this year I am determined to change things up and get out more! I mean letsbehonest…one the of biggest pluses about being a blogger is being able to make my own schedule and see every coffee shop, acai bowl, and brunch spot that San Diego has to offer, right?!

As much as I want to live a balanced life, it can be super to difficult to break patterns because old habits can die hard. After several attempts of loosely planning to do things differently resulted in me sitting down at 9 am with a fresh cup of french press coffee to answer a few e-mails, only to glance up what feels like moments later only to discover it was already 3 pm and I hadn’t even eaten breakfast I decided I needed a better plan.

So I’ve begun to dig a little deeper and may have enlisted a little help from Bloglovin’ who recently dropped a lovely newsletter in my inbox sharing good reads about living a more balanced life. Score! So after some perusing I have whittled it down, tested it out and am happy to share three helpful hacks that have helped me live a more balanced life:

Plan Your Days

Once I realized I was going nowhere (literally) I decided I needed a contingency plan. One thing I am good at is creating and executing to-do lists so I decided to start compiling lists of places I wanted to see and tasks that I wanted/needed to accomplish. I have found that the key to a good well-executed to-do list is to schedule when you complete each task instead of just creating one giant list. This allows you to prioritize your tasks, plus it doesn’t feel so daunting when they are spread out.

Personally I love using Google Chrome to keep organized so I put my schedule in the Google Calendar which syncs to my phone. When you plan your days and your weeks, instead of just saying ‘oh tomorrow I’ll get out to a coffee shop’, it becomes ‘tomorrow at 11 am I am heading to James Coffee for a coffee and blog sesh’. Much more likely to happen!

Establish a Routine

I used to think routine was another word for lame…but I was totally wrong. Routine is just another word for rituals or signature lifestyle. It’s all about creating routines that you love. What that looks like is going to be different for everyone depending upon what kind of job or life you lead. Take pride in the routines your craft, small habits make up our big lifestyle choices.

For me, I love getting up at 7 am – having a leisurely cup of coffee, walking my dog and reading the paper before I crack my laptop or look at my phone to post on Insta and check my e-mail. I’ve learnt that posting on Instagram regularly can help to engage with your followers on a daily basis, as well as picking up new ones along the way. Brilliant. But I’ve also been told that a site like Nitreo, the best instagram followers app, (or so my friend tells me) is also a good way to increase your following if you’re unable to post content as much as you’d like to. Even better. At least you have something to use if your posts aren’t working in your favor. That’s the good thing about waking up early, you can do some of your jobs whilst it’s still quiet outside. I’ve tried the whole 4 am early rise and workout thing and it just isn’t me. I mean…to be completely honest I am writing this blog at 4 am and I haven’t slept yet, soo….the odds of me ever becoming a morning person are slim. I also love to workout at night, so I adjust my days accordingly. I have found that being realistic about what will most likely happen as opposed to what I would like to happen has made a big difference.

I have found that multitasking is a slippery slope, and I tend to have a higher chance of accomplishing my goals if I don’t multi-task. Be it actually enjoying happy hour with friends without looking at my phone to check my Instagram…or even something as simple as posting a blog for that day, it feels great to really slow down, be in the moment and enjoy whatever it is that I am doing.

Take Care of Your Body

Exercise, meditation and eating a clean and healthy diet are essential for living well. Not only do endorphins make you happy, but it just feeeels empowering to sweat it out during a good workout. I love to switch up my routine between boxing, distance running (BTW – if you are in San Diego and are going to run the La Jolla Half Marathon, lets run together) and Yoga. Having a variety of workouts also keeps me from getting bored because the scenery is constantly changing. Check out some of my fave workouts here!

Same goes with taking the 20 minutes to still and meditate, be grateful and also set some intentions for the day. I used to wake up and would have hundreds of notifications on my phone so I already felt behind and would feel overwhelmed, so I would get out of bed and just start going non-stop, I would constantly check my phone and never really felt fully present in pretty much anything I was doing. Now, I realize that the digital world will always be there…and it can wait. Meditation has taught me to live with intention, and not out of habit or fear.

Eating healthy is another great way to maintain a healthy balance. It goes hand in hand with the whole routine thing, I don’t eat (or drink) as many calories when I am making kale smoothies, brussel sprouts (click for recipe) and kale chicken salads (click for recipe) at home everyday which allows me to really splurge at brunch or a good girls night out. Meal home delivery services can be utilized as well, it doesn’t have to be hard to find the right one for you, you can look at ones like factor vs freshly and see which one would suit you better for your healthy eating needs.

So there you have it! Some of the fun tips and tricks I have learned to add a little more chic in my life of disheveled, I hope they help you find a sense of balance in your lives! BTW – if you have any other helpful tips I would love to hear how y’all maintain your day to day! Drop a comment below and hook a sistah up! 🙂

xx,
Jessica