Work/Life Balance?

Goals are great, but they have to be tempered with the reality of individual situations.

For a long time, I was about doing all of the things, all of the time and I was pretty rigid with my goals...miles and miles in the saddle and 3x per week in the weight room, etc. Ultimately this left me with a lot of imbalance in my life and something I used to enjoy was starting to become miserable and I was wrapped up in this "gotta train" all of the time mindset.

My 2017 resolution was to take a step back and strike a balance between my work, my fitness, and my family. I have goals/targets, but they aren't rigid...they're quite flexible. Ideally I'd like to ride about 50 miles per week which is a substantial reduction from what I was doing before...but I don't let that target interfere with other important things in my life...if I ride 50 great...if I ride 30, great...if I have a crazy week and only get in 10 or 15, great...i'm still moving and doing.

In most cases, I can get in 50...when I can't it means that there's usually something going on the weekend...often a camping trip or a weekend getaway with the family, which is more important than my longer ride. I keep my weekday rides short as to not interfere too much with family life and other domestic obligations. I'm also only lifting 1-2x per week during the riding season...usually 1x. That will change in the winter when I will start focusing more on the gym and my riding will come down a lot to maintain that balance.

As far as other things go, my family in general is pretty active. We like to go hiking or to the rock climbing gym or swimming...we like camping (which is where we do most of our hiking), etc so we're out and about as a family quite a bit. We watch very little in the way of t.v., so that gives us quite a bit of time for other things.

My wife "does it" by sleeping 14 hours each night and day, keeping an iced Coca-Cola or iced sweet tea nearby at all times, showering twice a week, having a breakfast of 2 scrambled eggs, then snacking on Cheetos and ice cream the rest of the day.

The family had to learn to expect nothing from her, and did.

I have a husband, but no children.

I have a full-time job.
I attend university part-time working toward a Master's degree.
I do homework in the evenings.
I also do housework in the evenings.
I am an active member of a long distance cycling club, holding roles and doing stuff for the club.
I am also a long distance cyclist, so I fit as much cycling as I can into my week (so is my husband, so we do that together).
In addition to cycling, I/we go to the gym, walk, and occasionally do other things like perhaps canoeing.
My main hobby is photography which I try to slot in there somewhere ... in my free time ... hahahaha.
I read before bed sometimes ... a good way to relax before sleep. That's about the only time I can fit reading in.
And I've already mentioned social activities ... the cycling, walking, etc.

When I started university, it was a bit of a struggle adding it into the mix, but now I've gotten used to it and it fits.

But it's all about priorities.

For example, for me, it is more important to get out there and do a 100+ km bicycle ride on the weekend than it is to vacuum each week. Yes, vacuuming will get done semi-regularly, but not weekly.

And for me, it is more important to study for an upcoming test than it is to put away my laundry. I will finish the test, and then I'll do the laundry.

Also, although I will watch TV, I cannot just sit and watch TV. It's more like background noise while I'm doing other things. I simply don't just sit and do nothing. Tried it ... can't do it. Too boring.

I do squats between patients.

I have no idea. I have two kids, a full time job, a beautiful wife and honestly I have no freakin clue how some people keep it all together. Our house looks like a natural disaster, I'm behind in a university course I'm taking (second degree), I struggle to fit in workouts and I've got a list of things to do, like winterizing our trailer that just keeps getting longer. So don't feel bad, it happens to a great many of us. The way I look at it though, is no one ever died wishing they'd cut their grass more often or spent more time fixing up their house. The regrets are always missing time with friends and family so I figure as long as I cover that off, the rest will just be what it will be.

I am married with two young kids. Both my wife and I have full time professional jobs. I train A LOT. Here is how I do it.

1. My job is professional and salaried so I was able to negotiate longer lunches in order to train at noon everyday. (My wife works out most days at noon too.)
2. We switch off night class during the week up to 3 times (her Zumba, me MMA). The other spouse knows they will be taking full kid duty from homework, to dinner, to bath, to bed. Weekends are for family time, though she will slip in a Zumba here and there and I will do some strength and conditioning when the kids are napping.
3. House could be a less cluttered, but it is not a hoarder hovel.
4. Neither of us watch much tv, if any. We don't consume much media in general.
5. We get zero alone time, but we don't particularly like each other anyway, so that is no biggie.
6. Most of my friends are at the gym so 90% of my social time is doing training related activities

Ultimately, having flexibility professionally and a spouse that is on the same page about training/workout time seems to be the key for me. Without that, it would be very difficult to train as much as I do.

It’s important to me to keep balance and also include self-care into my day. I’m a married mom to 3 kiddos (one is off at college and then have a 7 year old & 9 year old) and we have a dog. I also work full time.

My husband is very helpful with the house and kids so that adds to us both being able to fit it all in. He has a poker night once per week and I have my gym time plus go to the barn weekly.

I’m a salaried employee with a flexible job so I workout on a lunch break some days, some days I use lunch to grocery shop, some days I use lunch to walk my dog. Or some days I go in early and leave early to get stuff done while my kids are in school- just schedule it around meetings. I also have the ability to work from home as needed, I tend to work from home one afternoon a week.

My husband and try to do a date once a month. Even if it’s at home but sometimes will cut out a little early on a Friday for a date while the kids are in school or take a long lunch for a movie....or ahem just meet at home for lunch. We work at the same company and are less than 10 minutes from our house.

My house isn’t perfect. It could be better, I’m forever doing laundry lol bathrooms are always clean but my room looks like a laundry basket threw up in it & I always seem to have random shoes all over the place. We used to have a housekeeper but now as the kids are older they have more chores too so we removed that from our monthly budget...although we may go back to it after the holidays. We also hired a company to scoop dog poop and another for some lawn care. If the finances are there nothing wrong with outsourcing as needed.

Having time with my kids and sitting down for dinner 95% of the time is very important to us. Most evenings you can find us out front with the kids while they play. My boys spend a good two hours each evening playing outside and I love that! I’ve also started doing neighborhood bike rides with them.

Somehow it just fits in. We focus on what’s most important to us (family, self care & careers) and that means sometimes the rest struggles (house keeping & lawn care)

(Edit to fix some typos)