You will probably have heard of the work-life balance; it’s the practice of being able to enjoy time away from work without worrying about it, as well as being productive when you are at work because you know you see your family enough or enjoy your hobbies for the perfect amount of time. With all the demands on modern life, however, the work-life balance can often be skewed towards work more than anything else. Here are some ways to put the balance right again.
Spend Time With Your Family And Friends
It’s important to set time aside to be with your family and friends as much as you can. This may seem impossible at first because of all the work you think you have to do, but taking just an hour here and there, to begin with, is enough to start with. Over time, once you have settled into your new routine, you can prolong this time. It’s good to book in some days out with your family so that you aren’t tempted to check your emails or take time away from them to sit at your laptop answering emails.
Remember, when you are with your family and friends you need to be completely with them and focused on them, and not thinking about work. If this means you need to leave your smartphone in another room or turn it off altogether, that’s a good idea.
Find A Hobby
If you have a hobby, then you will be less inclined to work even when you’re not meant to be. When you have nothing else to do, it can be tempting to log on and read emails, answer them, and perhaps even act on them, even if this is the weekend or an evening. Filling that time with something else will prevent you from over-working and also give you a new past time to enjoy. Think about what you really like in life, or think back to when you were less busy and the thing you used to do then, and you will easily be able to find a hobby that suits you. You could try online gaming, about which you can read more now online, reading, painting, sports such as soccer and martial arts, playing music, or gardening are all excellent hobbies that will help you to take your mind off work and give you a great work-life balance.
Exercise
Ensuring you do enough exercise when you’re not at work is a good idea for many reasons. The main benefit of doing more exercise is your health; the more exercise you do and the more active you are, the healthier you will be (and combine your activity with a well-balanced diet, and it is even better). You will lose weight, you will be generally much healthier, and you’ll be at less risk of stroke, heart disease, Type II Diabetes and other conditions that can cause big problems for your health and life.
Another benefit of getting more exercise is the work-life balance. When you’re exercising you’re (probably) not working, and even if that is just for an hour or so at a time, it’s better than nothing. Plus, when you work out you release more good hormones into your body such as serotonin which makes you feel good and less stressed, meaning you’re more likely to feel positive, be more productive at work, and have less reason to bring work home with you, thus making the work-life balance much easier to achieve.
Book A Vacation
Going on vacation is a good way or restoring the work-life balance, of course, but the act of simply booking one can be enough to start the process. When you want to book a vacation, you will spend time looking through brochures and browsing websites. You’ll speak to people about the places they have traveled to and ask for recommendations. You’ll be making time away from work to do this, and that’s great because work won’t be taking up all of your time.
When you have booked, you can then use that time you carved out to create an itinerary or research the area you’re going to. You can make lists of what you need to pack or make sure that your passport is in date (and if not, renew it). Finally, you can go on the vacation itself and relax fully. If you are going with friends or family, you can use the time you are with them to get to know them better – even if you live with people it doesn’t mean you know everything about them. Work can be forgotten about completely for a week or so, and when you return you will still have good memories of your vacation, and you’ll be more keen to keep the work-life balance going.
Don’t Be Hard On Yourself
Guilt has a big part to play in upsetting the work-life balance. If you spend more time at work, you feel guilty for not spending time with your family at home. If you take time with your family, or just for some alone time to de-stress and unwind, you feel guilty because there is still work to do. This can mean that you try to do too much and please everyone, which is impossible, and when you realize that can’t happen, you are hard on yourself because of it.
However, being hard on yourself is not going to help you, and it could even make what little balance you do have between work and home life even more difficult to keep hold of because you end up doing far too much. You need to be completely realistic about what you can and can’t do, and not try to take on everything just to keep everyone happy.
In many cases, this will come down to managing your workload. Trying to do too much at once simply makes you more unproductive than anything else, and if you have more work than you can handle then you will need to speak to your employer and be truthful; they may simply not have realized. Once your workload is dealt with, the balance can be restored.
