If you find yourself unhappy with your work, putting in long but unfulfilling hours and having strained relationships with friends and family, it might be time to rethink work life balance.
A better work life balance will ensure that you are energetic and productive at your workplace without compromising on other areas of your life. Here are work life balance tips that will help you achieve more in life.
Tips to Maintain a Better Work Life Balance
Know your Priorities
Priorities vary from one person to another. For a newly married couple, priorities can be making more money and spending time together. For older couples, making money may not be the primary goal but to slow down and relax. Understand your goals and work hard to achieve them. Many people sacrifice family for work, and as a result, they never find fulfillment in life even if they achieve major success in their careers. You must always strive to prioritize both work and family to achieve a healthy work and life balance.
Create and Respect Boundaries
If you do not have a proper schedule when you should start work and finish or when to create time for other activities such as dinner with family or an exercise routine you are likely going to mix things up. Boundaries allow you to attend to what you have to at the right time. It helps you build a healthy culture and lifestyle where you can predict all your days’ activities. Building and sticking to boundaries is not easy because there is always something extra to attend to just when you want to call it a day but stay focused. As actress Betsy Jacobson said,’work is not better time management but better boundary management’.
Learn to say no
As much as you would want to help everyone and be there for them including your boss, it is not always possible. You will end up achieving less and getting frustrated in the end. Saying no is healthy and does not mean that you are selfish. Weigh every request and put aside those that will take too much of your time and energy or those that will interfere with your work life balance.
Learn to control Technology
Technology can be addictive. Learn to survive without your phone or laptop for a day especially when you are on vacation. If you have time with family, refrain from checking emails or attending to office work. You can set time every day when you do not check your phone, answer calls or reply to emails. Within this time, focus on a better relationship with family, friends or have time to yourself without distractions.
Work Smarter
Throughout time, the need to work hard has been oversensitized and those who work for long hours and sleep less are deemed as hardworking and high achievers. In the new age, it is working smarter that matters. Output or quality of work should be your focus and not the many hours you put in. For instance, if you get to work early, spend most of the day checking emails and chatting with friends then take care of your responsibilities later after working hours. You will probably achieve the same with a person who came to work on time, focused on the day’s duties and left early to unwind. The only difference is, you will be more tired and disoriented.
Delegate
Part of achieving a healthy work life balance is understanding that you cannot handle it all on your own. If there are tasks that can be taken care of by other colleagues, delegate. This will free up your time for other activities such as being with friends or taking care of yourself. At home, get someone to clean and take care of the shopping and other errands. It can be hectic coming from work only to continue with the house chores where you left off in the morning. You will never have time to relax or be with those you love.
Create your pace
There are days when you have to put in every effort or spare time you have on work projects, and there are days you need to take it slow. There are days your body will demand you slow down and relax while on others, you will be super energized. Knowing your pace will help you achieve a healthy work life balance.
Take Good Care of Yourself
To achieve a good work and life balance, create time for yourself. Eat right, exercise and have days when you reward yourself for the achievements you’ve had. When you are happy, the happiness will flow to all other people around you because it is infectious.
These work life balance tips can be adopted by anyone regardless of what state they are in life. It is never too late or too early to start. As Hillary Clinton said,’do not mistake having a career with having a life’. Do not throw away your life at the expense of a job.
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