Today, most of us remain stressed due to our unbalanced professional and personal life. Creating a tuneful work-life balance is important for our career. When you create a schedule that works for you, it helps you to achieve a balance between your work and personal life.
What is work-life balance?
It is a state of equilibrium between your work and your life. It equally prioritizes the demands of one’s professional life and one’s personal life.
Some of the reasons which lead to poor work-life balance are :
- Increased responsibilities at work
- Working longer hours
- Increased responsibilities at home
- Having children
Work-life balance is more about adapting ways to get things done in your professional life without disturbing your personal life. Employers who are obliged to give an environment that supports the work-life balance to their employees can experience more productivity, lesser cases of absenteeism, and save costs.
Here are some of the ways by which you can improve your work-life balance.
- Accept that there is no “ideal” work-life balance
You become excited when you hear the term “work-life balance” assuming that you would be extremely productive at work and leaving early to spend the rest of the day for your personal life. While it appears to be true for a day, but always it is not.
Don’t struggle for a perfect schedule but have a realistic plan for it. For some days, you may work hard for your professional life, and for other days you may have more time to spend pursuing your personal interests, with family and friends. Balanced is achieved over the course of time and not in a day or two.
- Do what you love and love what you do
Don’t opt for a career that you haven’t planned to work for. Always opt for the field you love, or once you opt for any field, love to work for it. Your career should not restrain your personal life. You don’t need to love every feature of your job, but you should be happy to do it and must not feel dreary to work for it.
If you are finding it difficult to take out the time for your personal interests because of your work then something is wrong with your work. Either it is due to your absenteeism or you have not managed your work properly in working days.
- Health must be a priority
Your main concern while balancing your working and personal life should be your physical, emotional, and mental health. If you struggle with depression or anxiety and feel that remedies help you then fix a time for it into your schedule, even if you have to leave your work early or miss your personal interest classes. If you are suffering from illness, don’t be afraid to take leave. Overworking leaving behind your health would prevent you from recovering soon.
Prioritizing your health will make you more productive during office hours making you happy more than before. It doesn’t mean you have to do extreme workout but by simply doing meditation and a few exercises will do magic.
- Don’t be ashamed to give yourself a break
Cut ties with the outside world from time to time. It allows us to give space for our thoughts and emerging ideas. Recover from your weekly stress by giving yourself a break from work-related activities.
If you feel you want a break then don’t be ashamed to tell your boss. Take a walk or even work in an entirely uncommon place at the office. You can make break-out rooms.
Reading your favorite book, or listening to your favorite music, or talking with your team members, or pinging your friend can make you feel more energized at your workplace than before.
- Vacation is a much-needed work
Almost 52% of the employees reported not using their vacation days at the end of the year. They are often afraid that taking time off for themselves would disturb their workflow and they will have to face a lot of work after returning to their workplace.
But the truth is that there is no honor in not utilizing your vacation days. You have to shut down your work for some time to rejuvenate yourself again. It’s important to take time away to boost yourself physically and mentally without worrying about the workload you would face when you return.
- Take out time for yourself and for your family
You have to plan for your personal life, your interests, your hobbies, and your long-term goals. If you don’t take out time for these things, they will never be accomplished. No matter how hectic is your schedule, always make time for your family.
Spend time with them without work-life conflict. Realize that no one at your workplace is going to love you the way your family does and no matter how important your job is, the workplace will not miss a beat if you are gone.
- Set boundaries to avoid burnout
Set specific work hours to avoid burnout and make boundaries between yourself and your work. Put your 100% at the workplace and make sure when you leave the workplace, you don’t think about the upcoming projects and check company emails.
Consider a separate phone or computer for work, or make an email id only for work-related activities, so you can put it off when you clock out.
- Set priorities and stick to them
Notice when you pay attention to your work and cut off the activities which are not related to the work. The major time-wasting tasks that deviate your attention are checking your phones and emails every few minutes. Do your best wherever you are put at.
Work with full concentration at your workplace and fulfill your personal demands with the same concentration. Don’t mix the two.
Employers should take care of their employees and give them a flexible workplace and schedule as working at the same place for a long time may lessen the productivity of your employees. If you want to attract and retain the top talents, you must provide ways to flexible work. It will take your business productivity ahead unceasingly in the long-run.
- Be a supportive employer
Know what your employees are striving for, talk to each employee about their objectives in life as not everyone can make the same work-life balance. Some employees may be benefited from working remotely, while others may like changing their daily work schedules.
- Set a good example
Your employees are led by you and if you send emails all day and night, or make them work on weekends also then your staff members think that is what is expected from them, too.
- Keep your work-life schedule flexible
Many people make only one schedule and even if circumstances around them change they don’t change their plan. So, you need to keep ahead of the curve on arising trends of work-life balance.
