How Can I Improve My Work-Life Balance?

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Balancing your professional and personal life can be challenging, but it’s essential. Work often takes precedence over everything else in our lives. Our desire to achieve professionally sometimes push us to put our well-being on the back burner. Creating a harmonious work-life balance, or work-life integration is vital not only for our physical, emotional, and mental well-being but also for our professional success.

What is work-life balance, and why is it important?

Work-life balance is a key part of self-care when juggling the responsibilities of your workday, home life, and relationships with your family members and other loved ones. It is dedicating a healthy amount of time to your professional and personal life. You need to be able to separate both in your brain and stop yourself from thinking about one when you’re engaged in the other. It can’t be work, work, work all the time. You need to find ways to take some time for yourself, whether it’s relaxing on the beach with a good book, taking a cooking class, or horseback riding for the first time. On the flip side, you shouldn’t be daydreaming about having fun when you’re on the clock. It can be tough to balance it all!

In a nutshell, work-life balance is a state of equilibrium in which a person prioritises both his or her professional and personal obligations equally.

Some of the common reasons that lead to a poor work-life balance include |

Increased responsibilities at work
Working longer hours
Increased responsibilities at home
Having children

A healthy work-life balance has a number of advantages, including less stress, reduced chance of burnout, and a stronger sense of well-being. This is advantageous to both employees and employers.

“Employers who are committed to offering work-life balance environments for their employees can save money, have fewer incidents of absenteeism, and have a more loyal and productive staff.” Employers who provide telecommuting or flexible work schedules might assist employees in achieving a better work-life balance.

Consider the best method to create balance at work and in your personal life while developing a timetable that works for you. A work-life balance is more about having the flexibility to get things done in your professional life while still having time and energy to enjoy your personal life than it is about splitting the hours in your day evenly between work and personal life. There may be days when you work long hours so that you can enjoy other activities later in the week.

Here are 12 ways to create a better work-life balance |

Some people find it difficult to strike a work-life balance, but it is entirely feasible with a few lifestyle changes. Regardless of their schedule, here are some simple strategies to achieve this harmony. Start with just one of these suggestions, and you’ll be on your way to a more balanced existence in no time!

Stick to a Consistent Schedule

I’m not referring to simply clocking in and out at the same time each day. Every week, try to keep everything at the same time and on the same day. This includes:

Eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner
Client Meetings
Exercising
Checking your email
Grocery shopping
Helping kids with homework
Yardwork
Bathing or showering
Watching TV, reading, journaling, or any other leisure activities
Sleeping

A routine gives you peace of mind and allows you to keep all of your balls in the air. Make every effort to do this, and your time management will almost certainly improve as a result.

Use Calendars, Lists, & Reminders

When it comes to striking a work-life balance, your phone might be a lifesaver. Keep track of business meetings and tasks, as well as personal occasions such as weddings, birthdays, and appointments, with the digital calendar. If you’re not a big fan of technology, you may always use paper calendars and notebooks. Whatever is most convenient for you!

Take Breaks

Taking a break between work can help you cope with stress. The human body is not built to work for long periods. Physical activity, such as a light stroll or some desk exercises, can be extremely beneficial in this situation. Short pauses like these will help you recover from exhaustion and improve your job agility.

Even a 5 minutes microbreak after every 90 minutes can |

Improve concentration
Reduce stress
Keep you feeling engaged
Make your work feel more enjoyable

It’s especially important to be mindful of this when you’re working from home.

Take a Technology Timeout

61% of people believe they are under pressure to respond to work-related emails or phone calls after hours. Your phone or laptop may be interfering with your ability to achieve a better work-life balance, but you must set clear boundaries. Every day, unplug for at least 1 hour and do something else with that time.

Being “married to your work” can lead to exhaustion, ill health, and missed family time. Why put your health at risk? Stay “connected in” to the present moment by putting your phone down!

Proper Planning

Another method for maintaining a good work-life balance is to plan daily activities at work. It assists people in prioritising their actions based on the relevance of a task.

Furthermore, sticking to a well-thought-out plan might help you save a lot of time at work. As a result, they will be able to concentrate on topics other than work or use it to refresh themselves.

Prioritize Your Health

Recognizing the value of physical, emotional, and mental fitness is the first step toward making it a priority in your life. A stress-free mind is a room full of clarity, just as good physical health allows one to stay vibrant. This allows you to succeed in both your profession and your personal life. A healthy lifestyle is also a fantastic way to reduce stress and cope with it more effectively.

You may consider some habits to help you prioritize your health |

Daily meditation
Movement/exercise
Social connection
A gratitude practice
Committing to using your paid time off

Try Something New

Weekdays and nights might become monotonous after a time. Try something new, whether it’s a Monday night softball league, an archery class, a volunteer opportunity, a reading club, or something you can do at home like an exercise DVD, to break the cycle.

There’s a big world out there, and you could be missing out on something wonderful. Change up your routine by doing something different, even if it means hiring a babysitter!

Switch to Remote Working

Every professional’s dream is to be able to work from anywhere. It’s not that they’ll be travelling all the time; rather, they’ll be able to choose where they want to work.

This facility would help in attracting top talent to the company. Furthermore, it will allow everyone to fulfil their social obligations without missing work.

Team-Building Exercises

The purpose of team-building is to get people to work together to achieve a common goal. It has the potential to be a very successful method of enhancing relationships. Many people, however, are unaware that team building can also help with work-life balance.

Communication and collaboration are essential in today’s remote teams.

Planning activities that bring your company together in a fun way is one of the finest methods to improve your work-life balance. While it may not be practical to bring everyone together, you can typically plan exercises or events to bring some team members together.

Set Goals and Priorities

Set attainable goals by using time management techniques, reviewing your to-do list, and eliminating things that are of little or no value.

Keep track of when you’re most productive at work and set aside that time for your most important work-related tasks. Checking your email and phone every few minutes is a significant time-waster that detracts from your concentration and productivity. Planning your day can help you be more productive at work, which means you’ll have more time to unwind outside of work.

Make Space in Your Schedule for Family Time

Set aside some time to focus solely on your family. This will only work if everyone in your family makes this time a priority. Ensure that everyone is on the same page. You must all resolve to take the required efforts to carve out this time. You can also use this time to make long-distance calls to family members or other loved ones.

Dedicate Time to Rest & Relaxation

46% of people say they never have time to unwind. To put it bluntly, it’s because they don’t take the time to unwind! Stop trying to be perfect, ignore that inner voice that tells you you should be doing something else, and relax.

Take a nap, meditate, read, do yoga, have a massage, soak in a hot tub…do anything you want for at least 6 hours once a week. While a full day may not be feasible, a quarter or half-day is completely feasible. Come on, you’ve worked hard for it!

Summing-up

Make healthy work-life balance a priority. Work-life balance is essential for leading a healthy, well-rounded life. If you don’t feel like your time is split evenly, the quality of your professional and personal life will suffer. Today’s world is fast-paced, but you must be prepared to do whatever it takes to enjoy the ride. Because everyone’s schedule and lifestyle are different, try any of the tactics that work for you. You’ll be less likely to say to yourself, “I don’t want to work today,” and you’ll be on your way to a more balanced life!

Creating work-life balance and integration is an ongoing and fluid process. You’ll constantly be learning and adapting as your interests and circumstances change over time.

Let it be fun! And don’t forget to periodically revisit your priorities to see what’s changed. You’ll want to assess whether your priorities continue to line up with how you’re spending your time and energy.

Use Shergroup’s Your Peace of Mind solution to help you align your priorities and achieve a work-life balance. As part of our set of Health + Wealth solutions, we can connect you to Wendi McLean, founder of Mind Place. With skilled questioning, NLP techniques and hypnotherapy Wendi can help you identify all those feelings, thoughts and emotions that are getting in the way of you having the future and outcomes that you want. Wendi Mclean is a Certified Coach, Hypnotherapist, Master NLP Practitioner and Timeline Therapist working primarily with clients who want to make positive changes to their life. Contact us to book a FREE 30 min insight call with Wendi to discover how she can help you improve an aspect of your life.