I try to break the routine by doing a hobby, like DDR I managed to be able to do heavy/difficult songs now. Also, fire and LED poi, but college gets in the way of me making time for it. I also am trying to learn to program for video games using Lynda.com. I'm not very good at it, but I finished the course on 2D programming in Unity. I also do commissions for art for people and RP. It sounds like a lot, but you'll be surprised how much you can accomplish with 10 minutes to an hour a day or week, or month, on something.
But by doing so, I get very frustrated when school, work, or life, get in the for me to do a hobby. I get so mad because there isn't a time to escape. But when I do get around to it, I try to put my all in the little amount of time that I have. But I want to stress that I get super mad, and usually I'll get depressed and not do anything fun for weeks.
I think finding balance is finding where you tend to spend the most time doing nothing, and fill it with something you think is super cool. So it can keep your mind off of the present, and into the future. But it takes a lot of patience. It took me years to get to a difficult level of DDR, and a long time to have the courage to spin fire without my parent's permission. (Now I'm old enough to not give a damn.) Also, it took me forever and a year to get to my level of art. (See my icon.) But I never looked at my current skill as being bad, I saw every piece as a stepping stone to whatever that future goal may be. I still have more goals, like learning kanji, and honestly, I NEED these hobbies to keep my mind off of everything, or else I'll go crazy. Sometimes, I wonder how I even made it this far. But at least now, I'm enjoying the fruits of some of my labors.
Idk, sorry for the rant. Basically find a hobby to get your mind off of shit if your patient and hard working enough. It'll take your mind off of things. If not, I have no idea, because that's my single way to cope with anything. The balance from work, friends, family, and school comes from years of determining and attacking where and when "nothing" is happening and filling it with something that has an end goal. Even if that time is only 10 minutes. And I think it'll help you find more efficency in other daily stuff you have to do like work, school, and chores, because you want to get back to escaping as soon as possible.