I have a lot on my plate. My daughter is nearly two years old. I am coordinating and teaching in a program for local immigrants who need to learn English. I am in graduate school. The urge to eat my stress and anxiety away is also rearing its ugly head. I find myself asking a question that I’m sure other working parents and people with binge eating issues are also asking. How do I find balance? So, I did what I always do when I have a question. I asked Google! This quote is what jumped out at me.

Balance is not something you find, it is something you create. So the question we need to ask ourselves is: How do I create balance? Here’s what is helping me on my search for the answer:
- Using a planner. Mine is a fancy disc bound planner that I write in with different colored pens. I go as far as color coding things. I use one color for work, one for housework, one for school, and one for appointments. You don’t need all that, though. You can use any old notebook and writing utensil you like. I just like pretty colors. They make me happy.
- Setting boundaries and sticking to them. I used to check my work email at all times of the day and it was stressing me out. Now, I only check them when I can do something about them. That is while my daughter is napping. I also do not get my work emails sent to my phone anymore. It’s hard to stress out about emails if I’m not constantly getting notifications about them!
- Not multitasking. This one is hard for me because, like I said, I have a lot going on. In my planner, I outline specific tasks for myself. If something is not on my planner page for the day, I don’t do it. I also put specific times for each task. Work emails are during my daughter’s naptime. Schoolwork happens after she goes to sleep for the night. If I try to do either one of those things outside of those times, I find that it is too much for my brain to handle and I go straight to the kitchen to find something to eat. So, I try not to let that happen.