By: Daniel Velarde

The average American adult workweek is clocked at 47 hours.  That is 9.4 hours worked a day if you have the typical Monday-Friday gig.  That leaves 14.6 hours in your day for family, exercise, social life and even sleep which is recommended to have at least 7-9 hours of a day.

Keeping track of what you need to do every day and integrating your priorities into one daily schedule can help you maximize not only your work hours, but your free time as well.  Here are three things to consider when planning for work / life integration.

1. Be Real: Act with authenticity by clarifying what’s important to you.
   This is probably the most difficult of the three steps, identifying what’s important to you and what holds the biggest priority.  Have a conversation with the people in your life to be clear on what needs your attention.  Then, figure out appropriate scheduling in each day by practicing boundaries. This will help you incorporate more tasks, and gives opportunity to blending and accomplishing these tasks that every aspect of your life demands.

2. Be whole: Act with integrity by recognizing how different parts of your life work can affect one another.
   Use your values and contributions as a guide to mold and shape your eventual outcome.  Understand that finding the perfect formula to happiness and balance is not a reality, but cultivating a system that works for you, your family and community is absolutely possible.

3. Be Innovative: Experiment and be creative on how to get things done.
   Imagine the possibility of each aspect of your life offering up a moment to complete the request of another aspect.  Take advantage by using technology, the energy of your young children or the offering of help from a friend or colleague. These can all be tools to assist you in accomplishing your many tasks.

In conclusion, the possibility of having work/life balance is a day-to-day acknowledgment.  Making the appropriate edits and adjustments as you move along will get you closer to achieving the impossible, and that is a very gratifying accomplishment.