You’ve probably heard about the work-life balance, which means making sure you live a balanced life. You’re not working too much and burning yourself out, but you’re still productive enough to get things done. It’s a hard line to walk, and it will change through your life. Damn, being an adult is hard work.

However, with a focused mindset, you can balance your life to ensure you’re getting the most out of it. This means working hard, playing hard, and doing what you need to do to live a happy and fulfilling life. To help you get there, here are 13 tips you need to know.

1. Learn to Manage Your Time

First things first. You need to ensure you’re managing your time properly. This may sound silly and like a baby step, but you’d be surprised how many people are unable to do this. Even if this means getting a calendar and pencilling in what you’re planning to do hour by hour, this is a good start. It’s all about developing the habit.

2. Health Should Come Firstj

What are you without your health? If you’re working so much that you’re making yourself ill, you’re not going to be able to do the things you love, and you won’t be looking after yourself. If you feel ill, don’t push yourself too hard. Prioritize getting before over anything else.

3. Do Something You Lovej

There’s no way you’re going to have a good work-life balance if you’re not filling your days with something you love. If you love your work, you’ll work too much. If you hate your job, you’ll work too little. Make sure you’re listing out things you love, and ensure you have diversity in those activities!

4. Set Boundaries

It’s far too easy to let people take advantage of you. They ask for this, and then they ask for that, and before you know it, you’re working all the time, and you have no time to yourself. You need to make sure you’re setting up boundaries, which means being able to say no to people, and not working outside of setting hours.

5. Minimize Distractions

Work takes so much longer when you’re distracted, and there’s so many out there to try and avoid. If you’re working for a little bit and then checking your phone every few minutes and reading your email, studies show it takes at least 25 minutes to get back into the swing of things, so resist the urge to look.

6. Disconnect from the World

It’s so easy to fall into the trap of being connected to the rest of the world all the time. Social media is right there in your pocket. The news is constantly telling you the top stories. People are constantly messaging and communicating. Don’t worry; everyone feels overwhelmed by this. The trick is to dedicate time where you can switch off and spend time by yourself.

7. Journal Daily

This can be a hard habit to form, but journaling every day is so good because it helps you reflect on everything you’ve been up too and helps to ensure you’re sticking to your goals, as well as understanding what’s going on in your mind. Something bothering you? Journal about it and see what kind of insights you get back.

8. Have a Whole Day Offj

When was the last time you actually had a day off? This means no phone, no computers, no work, not even checking one single email. It means actually having the full day off. You’ll be amazed how difficult it can be to have this kind of rejuvenation day and how much better it can make you feel.

9. Spend Time in Nature

You may read and see this all the time, but that’s because it’s so damn important! Science clearly shows that spending time in nature makes you happier and more fulfilled with your life, it releases stress, and it helps you stay focused and centered. Just go for a walk, even only a short one, once a day and see the difference for yourself.

10. Learn to Practice Gratitude

Gratitude is the key to a fulfilling and happy life. If you’re not grateful for what you have, you’re never going to be satisfied with your life, and you’ll always be craving more and more and more.

Every morning, wake up and write down three things you’re grateful for in your life, no matter how big or small those things are. You’ll be amazed at how much of a difference it makes.

11. Do Something Fun

And I’m not just saying because you get something back from it; I’m saying do something fun just for the sake of doing something fun. That doesn’t mean it has to benefit you in any way. There doesn’t have to be a reward or advantage to what you’re doing. Just do something for the hell of it.

12. Have Your Timej

We can spend so much of our lives catering to other people, whether that’s answering client emails and replying to our bosses. If you want to stay healthy and happy, you need to make dedicated time to spend by yourself, with your family, and with your friends. Switch off anything else that doesn’t matter at that time.

13. Accept There’s No ‘Perfect’ Balance

There are going to be times where you slip and spend a whole day binging Netflix, just like there are going to be days where you need to work long into the night to get your work done. There’s no such thing as the perfect work-life balance. Instead, just focus on doing what you can.

Author is a writer at  Economic Essay Help and Academized services. She writes about Work-Life Balance and making sure that human beings around the world are looking after themselves properly.