Month: September 2019

3 Tips for Balancing Work/School Life with Your Other Goals

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A few weeks ago I hosted a Q&A on my instagram live and had my followers ask me questions. One of the questions I got asked how I balance law school, homework, fitness, and everything else. I loved the question so much I gave a short answer on my live and decided to write a post about it. Here are some ways I achieve a balanced life when I’m busy as hell.

Get Clear on Your Priorities and Dedicate Your Time Accordingly

You can’t achieve balance if you aren’t crystal clear on exactly what it is you’re prioritizing. Once you know what your priorities are, you will have an idea of where most of your time should be going and how much time to dedicate to less important things. One way I get clear on my priorities is when I set goals as if anything is possible. By setting goals, you understand what it is you truly desire. This allows you to move forward in prioritizing your time and balancing your many aspirations.

Be Realistic

I’m not sure about your reader but when I was in high school I learned about something called SMART goals. The R is smart goals stands for realistic and I feel that this is such an important part of goal setting and achieving balance between all aspects of our lives. While I do believe that we can do all we set our minds to, we also need to be semi-realistic when striving for balance in our work/school life. For example: if I want to achieve a school/life balance, I cannot set goals that would take much more time and dedication to achieve. For example: if I’m trying to make sure my grades are at least average or slightly above average (shout out to the law school curve), I can’t make one of my goals to be a nationally recognized body builder in the next 3 months who also goes out every weekend. Getting good grades takes many many hours of studying, being a Nationally ranked body builder takes many many hours of training and hyper focusing on nutrition, and going out every weekend takes energy and uses time that could be used for studying or bodybuilding. All three of these goals can be achieved in a lifetime but in 3 months (based on my experience in law school only since I’ve never been a bodybuilder much less a national recognized one) they are almost impossible to achieve all at the same time.

Use Your Planner

My planner is one of the most important tools I have for keeping achieving balanced in my life. I personally like the write things done because the power of writing things down has been long documented. Anyone who knows me or has been reading my blog for a while knows that I live for my passion planner. However, for my friends who do not love the paper planner life, I also live for my google calendar (simply for the fact that it’s easier to edit when things come up and I have to make last minute changes

Being a busy bee can be stressful but that doesn’t mean you can’t live a balanced life. If you’re clear on your priorities, are realistic with what you can accomplish, and use some sort of planning system, you can do what you need to do to handle your business.

Did you find any of these tips helpful? Which one(s) do you plan on using in your life moving forward? Are there any other tips you have for maintaining work/school life balance? Leave a comment below!

Share this article with a busy person in your life who may benefit from these tips!

Why I Started Blogging

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The last few weeks I have been struggling with thinking of  posts to write that aren’t related to law school. Law school has just become a major part of my life so it makes sense but I do want to get back to the primary reason I started my blog. Two factors I consider before I write a post are 1. Do I care enough about this to write about it at length and 2. Will this post help my readers in some shape or form? As a reflected on these recently, I decided that it may be important to revisit why I started my blog in the first place and sharing that with my readers would benefit you all and me.

When I first wanted to start this blog, I was really in love with the name “Motivated/Motivating Millennial.” Unfortunately for me, that name had already been taken by someone else. I went with “The Musings of Mara” instead. Regardless of what name I chose, the intent behind my blog has always been to motivate millennials (and now generation Z as we figure out what twenty-somethings fall into that category).
At the time nearing my college graduation (and even now), the word “millennial” was used in a condescending and negative way. People talk about millennials as if we are lazy, entitled, and unwilling to work hard. My blog started with the idea of showcasing that NO, we’re not any of these things. I and other millennials are some of the hardest working people I know.

As I moved away from the “motivated” adjective and more towards the “Motivating” adjective, my goal then became to motivate other millennials to live their best lives. To toot my own horn, I have accomplished many education related things in my life and wanted to help other college-aged people do the same. However, as I finally settled on the name “The Musings of Mara”, my goals shifted once again.

My current tagline of my blog is “creating a life I love through honest self-reflection & introspection and inspiring others to do the same.” I do not only want to help people live their best lives through education and work (which should only make up a small part of our lives) but also through sitting with oneself, reflecting, and achieving a balanced life and great overall wellness. The purpose of my blog is to encourage twentysomethings to strive for balance in their lives by not neglecting their well-being (emotional, mental, spiritual or whatever else) in the pursuit of their goals. As I had to learn the hard way in undergrad, being “successful” doesn’t mean shit if you are fighting off panic attacks daily and are facing an internal battle with your low sense of self-worth and lack of self-love. I went through it so you don’t have to.

If I can continue to help my readers achieve a balanced life full of joy and self-awareness, my blog will serve its purpose. If you’re reading this, I hope I’ve helped you at some point in my blogger life!

Do you have a topic you would like to see me blog about that would help you live your best life? Leave a comment below with a topic suggestion!