Nowadays, it is difficult to balance between professional and personal life. However, it is not a herculean task. Determination towards your work can assist in maintaining work life balance. There are some ways to maintain work life balance.
Feeling like all you do is work? You’re not alone. Several statistics show that more than 60 percent of U.S. employees feel like their work-life balance is out of whack.
But how do you balance your work-life with so much work happening at home? And how do you balance your workload to be more efficient?
Professional life vs Personal life
Is it more than just hitting a weekly yoga class? And, most importantly, in a world where the boundaries between work and home are increasingly blurred, how do you figure out what works?
In our relentless pursuit of balance between work and life, we often stumble upon the harsh reality of imperfection. Embracing Imperfection in Balance invites us to reconsider our approach, encouraging a shift from striving for an unattainable perfection to seeking harmony within the chaos.
“Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing.” Harriet Braiker
With so many struggling to find harmony between their jobs and their home life, it can seem inevitable to feel overwhelmed and overworked. But it doesn’t have to be.
Here we’ll identify the pattering of healthy and unhealthy work-life balance and ways individuals and managers can find better ways of managing both.
What does work-life balance mean?
Healthy work-life balance refers to maintaining a harmonious relationship between your work and personal life. It involves consciously managing your time and energy to meet both professional and personal commitments while prioritizing self-care and well-being.
In an ideal world, this line of thinking goes: after work, we’re able to spend time on things that nourish us as people. This could involve spending time with friends and family or engaging in a hobby.
Some characteristics of a healthy work-life balance may include:
- Setting boundaries: This involves establishing clear boundaries between work and personal life by defining specific working hours and separating work-related tasks from personal activities
“You can do anything, but not everything.” – David Allen
- Time management: Efficiently organizing and prioritizing tasks, ensuring that you allocate enough time for work responsibilities as well as personal pursuits, such as spending time with family, engaging in hobbies, or pursuing personal goals
- Stress management: Implementing strategies to manage stress levels, such as practicing mindfulness, engaging in regular physical activity, taking breaks, and unplugging from work-related activities when needed.
“It’s all about quality of life and finding a happy balance between work and friends and family.” – Philip Green
- Flexibility: Having the ability to adapt and adjust your schedule to accommodate unforeseen circumstances or personal needs without jeopardizing work commitments
How to improve work-life balance?
The truth is, there’s no prescription that will fit everyone. And you may have to play with what time scale feels most relevant to you. Trying to find balance in any single day may feel frustrating, but the balance may be easier to achieve across a week or more.
The best way to determine the best balance for you is by learning to check in with your inner compass — and your results.
Following steps may help you to managing your work life balance
“Self-care is not a waste of time; self-care makes your use of time more sustainable.” – Jackie Viramontez
- Plan ahead
Plan ahead to combine work activities with leisure, social, or fitness activities. If you find yourself with several virtual meetings back-to-back, try taking them while you go for a walk. You could also take a call outside (if ambient noise allows!) or invite a friend over to work with you.
- Embrace the way your brain works
Use productivity hacks like a Pomodoro timer to work in short, focused bursts. Block out all other distractions so you can make the most of your time.
- Set blocks of time for different tasks
Designate a time to check (and respond to) messages, a time to take meetings, and a time to do mentally-intensive work. It helps to anchor these tasks around the times that you are personally more productive.
“Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.” – Dolly Parton
- End work at a certain time
There’s a saying that “work expands to fill the time allotted,” and when you work from home, it’s even easier to let work spill over into personal time. Set a time to end work for the day, and reinforce it by powering down work-related devices, locking your office, or scheduling something afterward.
- Enlist technology to help you unplug
Use an app to block distracting websites during the day, and then block work tools after hours. If you can, restrict work to one device, or try to keep one work-free device so you can disconnect completely.
