How’s your work-life balance? Are you always in conflict with your work role and personal life? You are not alone! In a research conducted by Harvard Business School, more than 90% of working individuals reported that they work for more than 50 hours a week, which is far from ideal. And this makes it impossible to maintain a health balance in work and life.
Balance is something that you make when you are going up on a trek or speeding down a mountain. Similarly, when you are travelling in your journey to happy life, you need to maintain the balance – work-life balance. Be it a manager or an employee or a CEO, you need to understand, its not ok to check your emails in bed, take work calls on weekend, and ignore life in the pursuit of work. You are just killing yourself slowly. So, what should you do?
Read on and find it out.
Why work-life balance is important
According to Gallup’s State of the American Workplace 2017, 53 percent of employees say they prefer to choose a role that gives them a greater work-life balance and better personal well-being. So, the organizations need to realise the importance of work-life balance. The impact of an imbalanced lifestyle can spoil the physical aspects of the workplace. It is vital to create an environment that promotes the wellbeing of the team and happiness as well.
Ways to achieve work life balance
1. Define priorities – professional and personal life
How do you set the priorities of your life – professional and personal both? What is involved in setting the priorities? First, understand thyself, your need to work and enjoy your life. Allocate time for the priorities that you have set for yourself. Then, to prioritise the two, learn to separate personal from professional. Have separate to-do lists, schedule time for the things, and just be realistic and you will never be stuck.
2. Create your rules
Once you have set the priorities for your life, have some consistent rules to achieve them. Being strict with yourself is always good. Nobody says it will be easy to get to the goals, but if you are passionate enough, you will find a way to achieve it. Make it a rule to keep your work at work and forget about your boss when you are at home. A mental on-off switch between work and home will keep all the distractions away. One way to do that is through a complete digital detox. All in all, it is in your hands to defend your own time and decisions.
3. Set and maintain boundaries
You need to consistently maintain your boundaries according to your availability. If you lose a control over your boundaries, it is certain that you will find your schedule keeping you in mess. Another thing to consider is to set the right work hours and methods so you do not have to think of the pending tasks when you are at home. Successful people make deliberate choices about what they want in life.
4. Keep things in control
The best way to make sure you establish a balance is to adopt useful ways to keep things under control. The use of simple project management software can be the best way to keep things at work under control. You can organize your work by tracking time, maintaining to-do lists, setting priorities and more by using a reliable software. Hence, you will be able to keep the work stress away from personal life.
5. Encourage time off
Successful people believe that if you’re feeling down that’s going to influence your quality of work and keep you away from success. Your work may be demanding, keeping you always busy, but vacations are certainly a necessity. Be it a single day away from office, a break from work will give you a great opportunity to recharge and refresh. It will do wonders for a balance in your work-life improving your focus when you return to the office. The American Sociological Association compiled a report, says that vacations lead to a decline in the psychological distress of people. So, a time off from your schedule can be really helpful.
6. Smart work, and no long work
Does less work means less productivity? Many people at work are told to do overtime for more productivity maybe. And this is a big destruction to work-life balance. Richard Branson, one of the successful businessman, believes that people can work equally or more efficiently even by working for less hours. Soon you will be more obsessed with productivity by working “normal” working hours and therefore achieve a proper work-life balance.
7. Spend time in nature
It’s your choice: break out or burn out. The best quality results will never be produced by the long work hours, it will depend on your skills. And we all need fresh air to thrive. Ambitious people connect with nature and the outdoors to bring out the best of themselves. It is really tough to live your best self by just dwelling into office, sitting around your computer and working under fluorescent light. Live a little different from the hustle and bustle of everyday business and rebalance in nature.
8. Forget multitasking and engage
The fine line between work and play is slowly getting blur by our act of multitasking. Tonny Robbins writes in his article: The most productive people don’t have less to do. But then how they do well? Definitely not multitasking but an organized plan of doing one thing at a time. When at work try to concentrate on your work and when at play be there. By choosing your attention wisely, you will be able to work more and enjoy more as you deserve.
Engage in office fun
It is important to be socially active both at work and play. Team-building exercises may sound perfect to foster a much-needed sense of teamwork around the office and relaxation as well. You will get a time to relax your brain, collaborate with your teams better to find a support whenever you are overwhelmed by your life.
9. Don’t take work personally
Apart from controlling all your actions to balance your life, another important factor is to control your thoughts and emotions. Ofcourse, you are never going to be detached from your colleagues, demanding bosses and office gossips but it is on you how you take those things after work. Do not let the work criticism dominate your thoughts. Keep it separate and never let it to leave an impact on your personality.
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How do you achieve work-life balance?
Life may be a constant juggling show, but we hope you find these ways helpful to bring balance to your life. Be on right path to the healthy work-life balance!
