You are in control. Many lose sight of that. Know when to say no.  Work with clients that are a good match for you and how you work. Set expectations with people up front.  

I tell clients, I am up early. However, I am generally shut down by 8pm.  When people know this, they work with it. Clients that are up all hours of the night know that if they email or text me while I am sleeping, they will have a response when they wake up.  Seriously, there isn't anything so earth-shaking that needs to be done at 3am.  We are not ER physicians. 

Treat yourself like a VIP client. Schedule time for yourself and your needs, for your family just like you would setting listing appointments and prospecting. Schedule it. And don't deviate.
We really do have enough hours in the day.

I think work life balance is a myth and it is up to you to define.

It’s very easy for it to take over your life. I use time blocking and as others have said I protect my personal time with a vengeance. I have also learned to say no. Over the years I have also learned to refer more business which has helped me focus and be much more selective 

set a schedule for personal time and make sure you leave that time dog eared for you.... 

The heart is very helpful in these matters Tamara

Love Kathleen Daniels' advice - and I agree 100%. 

I'm notorious for being 'too available' to anyone who needs me so, do as Kathleen says, not as I do!!

Good luck and welcome back, Tamara!

Practice and live by your schedule. Respect it before others respect you and your time.

Join a team that believes in work/life balance. There will be a logical and commonsensical division of labor. You can pursue your passion for working with buyers and/or sellers while the team's admin staff handles the dreaded paperwork and contract to close tasks. The team owner will provide some or most of your leads, reducing your stress and expense of perpetual marketing.

Check out a brokerage that has the training and the culture of teams. Interview several brokerages and see which ones are most open to creating the conditions of work/life balance.  Make sure to include a Keller Williams office in your search.

Many comments here are excellent and I think that is the goal - to have a life and to do work that you find interesting.  Doing real estate can be a 7-day a week career, IF you let it Tamara Jensen.  There are different priorities in different decades from what I have seen, and you need to be present for them, because they will change (kiddos are not kiddos forever, and parents are not always there for us, there will be times when we need to be there for them, etc.).  Scheduling and prioritizing are the key words for me.  I work as a Team, and when Roger is gone I am there and vice versa.  And when we both are gone, we are together!  You can make this work, and Best of Luck!

Tamara,

It is about knowing your priorities starting with you.  And I think that Candice A. Donofrio gave you a great suggestion.  Ron and I never had a problem with finding time for living our lives.  A

Family always has a priority status. Schedule your family time just like your other appointments. 

I have always found it best to involve the family in the business.

However Gary Keller has some interesting thoughts on this in The One Thing, it is not about balance so much as finding a good counterbalance solution.

I just do it... been balancing everything for over 45 years... but at the end of the day expecting a perfect balance is unrealistic. As Joe Pryor  said, the work/life balance is a myth and running your own business pretty much will need to consume you, especially in the early years. You will have to decide on your priorities and then work around that.

I think balancing the different parts of life is one of the trickiest parts of this business. Trying to keep the family, clients and ourselves happy and healthy takes careful planning. For example, every day I am up early and at my desk first thing to get work done in a few hours of quiet time when I won't be disturbed. Then I make a point, 6 days a week, to get some sort of exercise in the morning, and I'm usualy done before most clients/etc will be looking for me. So I've already taken care of me! And I won't deviate unless there was an emergency of some sort. The word "no" is important to learn.

I wish you the best with your re-entry!

Schedule your time accordingly.  And stick to it.  

Used to have business dictate time management. One day, I woke up and smelled the coffee. Family first, business around it! Worked out OK!

    Set office hours for yourself. 

   Schedule at least one day off per week.   

   Turn your phone off during your free time.  

Focusing DAILY as I prepare a "Things to Do List "

We carve time out for ourselves and each other and the kids purposefully but not enough.

"I had put mine first."

Tamara, you have proven you've got your head on right, your thinking proper and your priorities aligned.

Balance will prove to be a non-existent problem.

My suggest is to always view this profession at the vessel in which you travel through life in the fullness of your greater purpose.

Few professions offer the opportunity to touch lives in such a durable, transformational way. When you have your priorities right, it becomes a extraordinary adventure of witnessing changed lives.

The contradiction occurs within those who think real estate is the destination.

By putting God at the beginning of that list.

Most just pass on leads or farming and focus on family. The real successful ones do not have a life besides real estate.

I work at it

Agree with all answers. 

Decide what your business hours are, make your clients aware of that. Then stick to your business hours/schedule. Which also means when you are working WORK! don't go off and do personal errands, family (non-emergency) things during your working hours.

Tamara Jensen 

When you are trying to provide for your family and trying to succeed I like the word balance but sometimes at that stage there is no balance in my opinion. Sometimes in periods in our lives we have to be inconvenience to be convenience later...If kids are older and you still want to find balance: 2 things put everything on schedule. I do. when I have a dinner date, watch TV with my husband, when people want to talk to me over phone, I schedule it or it wont get done and I don't allow buyers to control my schedule. my friends think it's crazy for scheduling with my hubby but I get it done when its on the schedule. Otherwise you can lose control of balance

I second what Kathleen Daniels said.  You are in control and you set your own hours.  Don't lose sight of that.  I have set hours I work and a set cut-off time.  That doesn't mean I don't go past it if needed, or if I'm having fun, but it just means my email and phone won't alert me unless I tell it to.

If it's not on your schedule it doesn't exist...

Create a schedule and just stick to it. Sounds easier then it actually is but its really the only way. Personally I find that most clients want to see houses during off times so my "free time" it in the mornings, Mon-Fri.

It is all about 'balancing' and not 'balance', Tamara Jensen.

Depending on where you are in your life, you will have to give extra to one of the legs (without totally ignoring the others.) 

I am not the best at it! I would suggest following office hours and not working on things as they pop up. That is much easier said than done though as an agent. 

I meet with a lot of new agents and I like to tell them that they are in control, they need to look at their lives first and put everything on a calendar, all the important events that they are aware of, birthdays, anniversaries, days off etc,. Schedule those as appointments that you will not break.

  Then figure out what is left on the calendar and schedule when you would like time for yourself, vacations, weekend getaways, nights, weekends, whatever time you want for yourself, put it on the calendar next.

   Then see what is left to schedule time for clients, work etc., there should be plenty of time to set up a work schedule. Late and early hours can be spent researching markets, marketing programs, stuff that does not require communication with your clients, then schedule time for your clients and let them know the parameters.

  The more efficiently you can use your time the more in control you are, and find a great referral partner to cover you when you just cant accomodate.

This is a queston that I had to answer as well.  I was so involved with real estate that I placed the needs of my family last as well as myself.  I was very unhappy and saw a decline in my business. I thought about leaving the industry to relieve the pressure of just being overwhelmed with it all. After a conversation with a mentor that challenged me to have gratitude for myself, my family, friends and my business. I found that I was much happier and had more to give. I took a vacation which, gave me time with my family and recharged my batteries. Before vacation I mailed out thank you cards to family and friends. Each card expressed what I wanted and needed to say to them.  I also realized that when you have done all of your to do list for the day, it's okay to take the rest of the day without guilt. Do something nice for or with your family or just go home and be present.

Keeping in mind the priorities will help, as well as being in control of your personal, family and business schedule, plus setting expectations with clients. They don't need to know that appointment you have is for something with the kids or other personal matters.

Buffini & Company Coaching and centering my weekly goals here:

(I can get you a FREE coaching session no strings if you contact me)

It can be difficult.  You'll need to find what works best for you.

I have always managed to do  it.  Good luck

Plan ahead of time and stick to it.

The problem for me is it was always tilted to business. Selling new construction, working 7 days a week for near a whole year for 7 years straight. The recession gave a break with no new homes to sell but lots of bank owned homes. Since i schedule school events and block the time, i schedule short vacatations, i shcedule my gym time. You have to just do it and stick to it. Most clients will understand and those that do not you do not need anyway

Great answers are here. Good luck. 

get a book with time in it and schedule time for play,work and kids.

There are days and weeks this is quite the challenge.

The main to remember is real estate is not on the same plane as the other two items.   Customers are, in reality, temporary relationships.