Ryan Stramrood

How to balance it all? Well, let me be the first to admit that sometimes, I don’t! And it’s from those moments – when it all gets a bit much – that one learns how important it is to prioritise, to plan and to take time out to breathe. My prioritising strategy may seem a bit granular and extreme, but it suits me.

Here’s how it started: I sat down, opened an Excel spreadsheet and charted every day of the week and every hour of the day, so I could see exactly how much reasonable “awake time” I had.

Then I prioritised, in a list, everything in my life: my son at the top of the list always, then family, advertising career work, speaking-related work, then swimming training and body conditioning, friends, community work, social life and so on.

Then I plotted a non-negotiable minimum amount of time each list item needed. I could see on one screen what is possible, what is reasonable, what is ridiculous and what desperately needs to change to avoid a total breakdown. Regardless of whether you stick to the chart or not, just seeing it all in front of me immediately instilled a sense of calm and structure. I could see that nothing was being neglected, and it also helped me say no when it was appropriate.

Happy planning 🙂