Creating Work-Life Balance
You have probably heard of the term “work-life balance” at least once in your life and that is because it is both a hot and important topic currently, especially with the rise in technology in our days which makes it easier to blur the line between our personal/family and work related activities.
If we can manage to establish a work life balance which works for our lifestyle, there are many benefits associated with that, which is why I was inspired to write this post today.
I hope you get something valuable out of this one :)
WHAT IS WORK-LIFE BALANCE?
When talking about work life balance, we are talking about the level of prioritization between professional (work, school) and personal activities in our life. Everyones work life balance is different because we have different preferences and priorities in terms of how we like to spend our time.
I would also like to clarify that work life balance is not always “balanced” in the sense that we spend our time equally among a variety of activities. There are times in our life where we are busier with work or school related work, and other times where we have more leisure and family time.
The idea with work life balance is not to create a “perfect” balance of how we live our life, because perfection does not exist and our work life balance in this sense has to be adaptive and able to shift according to our time priorities in a certain phase of our life.
The point is to create a work life balance - a distribution between personal and work related activities - which feels right to you and fore mostly works for you and makes you feel fulfilled and balanced in some way.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
What do the benefits of having a functional work life-balance look like?
Increased productivity and motivation to work
Decreased illness and absenteeism
Increased physical health
Improved personal relationships
Lowered levels of stress
Improved sleep and less insomnia difficulties
Improved mental health (lower incidence of depression and anxiety)
Greater reduction in chance of encountering burnout while working
Greater clarity of mind and focus (Being able to unplug from work)
Re-establishing a sense of what matters to you and creating personal priorities
Not feeling guilty for taking time off or time for yourself when you need it
15 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR OWN WORK-LIFE BALANCE
Come to terms with the fact that everyones work life balance looks different and there is no perfect formula
Take time to pause and rethink your current routines, priorities and values: How do they match with how you ideally want to be spending your time?
Make health and family time one of your priorities and balance all other work around that
Reduce unnecessary tasks which do not add any meaning to your daily life. Try to delegate tasks which are taking up too much of your time or energy
Pay attention to which activities drain you of energy and which ones energize you
Pay more attention to your body and emotional wellbeing (one of the first signs of a unhealthy work life balance is feeling over stretched and unsatisfied)
Try to negotiate changes to your schedule or work at your work place
Set time boundaries at home and decide on a time each day at which you stop working
Plan ahead and schedule in important activities into your calendar
Set times to digitally unplug and switch off from “work mode”
Take a break or vacation if you really need it
Make use of weekends and days off
Consider wether you enjoy what you do as an occupation
Make your working more efficient by blocking off time in your calendar for certain tasks and setting a time limit on the tasks you do
Be motivated to implement changes in your daily routine: Identify what makes you motivated to work more effectively as in that way you can finish your work faster and have more time left over for other personal activities
CONCLUDING WORDS
Within todays post, I wanted to focus on the idea of work-life balance and what it represents as well as what are some practical ways in which you can currently improve your own. Remember, there is no “perfect” balance at any point in time, our priorities and what we value shifts through time so accordingly we have to be flexible with our schedule and lifestyle.
I hope you were able to learn something new or useful from this and that you make it part of your weekly practice to try and realign your current actions with your true priorities.
Thanks for reading.
