Why is having a good work/life balance important? Firstly it helps maintain your mental and physical health, it increases your productivity but most importantly you only get one life - you want to spend it wisely. We have a list of very simple yet effective ways to have a great work/life balance.
Set manageable goals on a day to day basis while at work. This allows you to write down your tasks and feel like you’ve accomplished something in your day. Also allows you to set a timeframe for each task which means you can work towards timeframes.
Be efficient with your time, whether it is taking a task on at work or home. Distractions and procrastination are the killers of time. “I’ll do it in 10 minutes” “I will just check Facebook to see what my friends have been doing” are examples of procrastination, you could have finished the task by the time you put your phone down which drags the task out longer than it needs to be.
When you are at home you need to unplug, shut off to your work phone or computer. This allows you to turn off to the work pressure and separate yourself from work.
Stay active. Staying active is the key to be able to clear your mind from the stresses or events of the day.
Spend time with friends outside of work - unwind. You need to make sure that you have a network of friends that are not related to work so that you can chat without the chat being about work.
Even though you are completing these steps, it might be hard to make a judgement as to whether you are doing the right things and if it is working. You need to take a step back and evaluate your overall well-being - both physical and mental health. From there you can adjust certain aspects of your day-to-day life to ensure that you are as balanced as you can be. There is no one-size-fits-all method to getting the perfect balance of work and life balance because ultimately it is different for everyone. The balance will vary from day-to-day, some days you may feel like you need more downtime whereas other times you are thriving off work, so you want to stay and work longer.
There needs to be a sense of ‘give and take’. If you are asked to work late or an extra shift, take it up, the reward will come later. Even though it might be a shift in your balance but that can always be worked on. The overall idea is the fact is that if unexpected things come up don’t let it affect your mindset.
