Five Things I Am Trying to Better My Work/Life Balance in 2025

As an entrepreneur, I have been obsessed with building my business for nearly six years. The obsession has consumed my life and driven me to work constantly. I have lost my balance between work and life, which was one of the reasons I decided to open my own business in the first place, to have more of a life beyond work.

While I want to build a team of people who continue to have an “outside life”. How can I ask them to do that, when I can’t seem to practice what I preach? From the client side, how can I deliver the expertise and passion I exhibit for their productions if I am not rested and ready to take on each challenge I am given to drive their sales?

Here are Five Things I am trying in 2025, and I will be happy to report later this year on what is working and what fell by the wayside.

1) I am reclaiming my 5–9 am: The most precious thing we have in life is time. Usually, when I wake up, I immediately dive into email and calendaring. T

This year I am using early mornings to do three things:

a. Spend time alone- journaling or meditating to reflect

b. Exercise or move my body- Maybe I lift weights or stretch or do 10 minutes of yoga

c. Spend time with my family- I could be driving my youngest to school or having tea with my husband without my phone.

2) I am calendaring more than just meetings: I am a visual learner, I need to write things down and see the bigger picture of the week, month, and year ahead. So, I am using the following tools to do that:

a. I bought myself the Big A** Calendar to keep at home. This calendar shows the entirety of a full year in one large poster and you are encouraged to include events that open you up to goals beyond work. It could be you train for a race or plan a family vacation or a once-a-month event with a friend. I plan to take myself on a date to see the dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum this year and finally take my kid abroad.

b. I was gifted a hard-cover desktop planner — This will be used for a mix of work and life events, where I plan to put doctor appointments and reminders for my hair coloring and all my work travel.

c. I am building an Excel calendar for all the campaigns my team is working on. While we can look at this in our Google calendars- I like the weekly/monthly overview a calendar provides

3) I am Habit Stacking: Every morning I wake up, let out my dog, and use the time she’s out to take my multi-vitamin and drink one large glass of water. It’s such a simple concept but something I learned from reading James Clear’s Atomic Habits called “habit stacking”- where you take one thing you do every day and add in something else you need to do. It means I never forget to take my vitamins. Now I simply want to track what else I am doing and add to it.

I walk from Grand Central to my office most days; I am going to use that time to listen to a podcast or music to lift my mood. On the days I work from home, I am going to take a longer walk with my husband to set our intentions around what we need to do at work and home. I need to exercise my body, what can I do with this time to set up my mind? And where else can I Habit Stack?

4) I am putting a one-weekend getaway on my calendar every three months- Maybe it’s a weekend in Vermont or a trip to visit my daughter in Chicago- but I travel so much for work, I think giving myself 2 days away and having something personal and fun to look forward to. I often say, “all the work will be worth it”.

I may not remember the meetings I had or the weekend I cleaned my house, but I do remember taking two days to go renew my vows in Vegas last year and I remember visiting two of my best girlfriends in London last summer. I want to get back to making memories.

5) I am going on a strict sleep schedule- One of the things that continues to plague my life and work is my inability to sleep effectively. This year I am implementing the following bits of sleep hygiene:

a. I am plugging my phone in the other room so it’s not the last thing I look at as I fall asleep and the first thing I look at in the morning

b. I am cleaning up my bedroom to create the most uncluttered space in my home. I hear a calm space equals a calm sleep- and I know I sleep better in a hotel room than anywhere else, so let’s try this.

c. I am reading for ten minutes before bed every night- can be a script for work or a business work like Ogilvy on Ogilvy — but anything non-digital is my new way to dreamland.

That’s everything I’ve got. And I truly think these are all manageable. They are all worth trying.

Here’s to a new year with a better balance for you all. And let me know if there are other things you recommend to balance work and life in a better way in 2025.