Creating a Work-Life Balance

Creating a work-life balance

Behind coloured rimmed glasses, her light brown eyes stared strenuously at a screen as life flashed by unknowingly. Birthdays, anniversaries, significant events have seemed to escape her. Without a moment’s notice, we too can miss out on so much if we do not maintain our work life balance

Work fixation is quite common, whether the task is pleasurable or not, it can consume your life and leave you barren of significant moments. Can we really afford to sacrifice our health, family moments and attention to our love ones for work?

Let’s slant our gaze away from that tempting work screen and explore some easy management strategies to help you balance your realities:

• Flexi-time. Depending on your employer you may be able to negotiate flexi-time where you work per task versus fixed hours which gives you more control over your time. This allows you to help with homework with the kids, chores, or just general relaxation time.
• Overschedule. This is a highly undervalued tactic for time management, if you overestimate timeframes it prevents disappointment to you and your employers or clients. It also accounts for possible emergencies and allows you a surprising amount of additional time for yourself.
• Distancing. ‘The new normal’ Working from home means that there is a continuous connection to your work from your devices and it may be challenging to feel distanced from it. Therefore, it is essential to create a routine and fixed hours that allow you to remove yourself mentally from work and focus on other tasks and experiences.
• Reject tasks. Sounds harsh, but sometimes you can refuse work by creating a list of realistically achievable projects for the day and not deviate from those tasks in order to fulfill your goals. This also ensures that your work hours do not run beyond your intended timeframe.
• Teamwork. Work with your team, learn to delegate or collaborate on projects to reduce production time. Work intelligibly to attain the maximum results and benefit from team building and a shared sense of accomplishment.
• Evaluation. Assess your process every month, quarter, or in a timeframe, you feel fit. Audit your workflow to see what works and make the relevant changes.

• Take breaks. You may feel like you’re glued to your seat and you just have to meet that 4’o clock deadline. But taking 5 min breaks during the day actually helps with clearing your mind, not to mention stretching those legs. You’d be amazed at how a little time away from the desk can help you feel more relaxed and help to refocus on your assignment when you do get back down to work.
• Leave it at the office. Try not to take your work home every day. Your time at home is your time to destress and spend time with your family or just to relax. You’ll find yourself working 24-hour shifts and that is not good for your body or mind.

Now you can adopt one, or two, or even all of these tips to help ease your work neverending days.  Remember that every situation is unique and there is no one right way but by self-awareness and attention to your environment you can develop the best methods to be successful in managing a work-life balance.