How to Achieve a Better Working-Life Balance Today
Your downtime is precious. When you’re off the clock, it’s not healthy to talk or even think about your day at work with your family and friends. If they want to know how your day went, consider talking about funny things you noticed or were thinking about while you were working.
“Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
Don’t talk about what you did or what your co-workers did. This creates two different environments in your mind; where one is dedicated to honing your craft and the other to re-charging your creative juices.
Take Control of Your Life With These Effective Strategies to Separate Your Personal Life From Your Professional Life
Creating a healthy work life balance requires managing your time effectively, eliminating unhealthy stress, and not taking your free time for granted.
What is Work-Life Balance?
Work-life balance helps you in effectively separating your professional life from your personal life. A healthy lifestyle combines elements of both work and play. In order to have a work-life balance, you must properly prioritize your time according to your career, family, friends, and leisure time. There is not a single aspect of your professional and personal life that’s inherently more important than the other, so if you are striving for a healthy lifestyle you must balance your time according to priorities.
What Are The Benefits of Having Proper Work-Life Balance?
-Work our means of production is not always required but it’s a necessary part of life. We all have to find a way to put food on the table.
-‘Work’ alone cannot provide life with meaning. Downtime and family time is vital to supplement your career so there is not only one primary source of fulfillment.
-Avoid the stress and burnout from overwork with time for family, friends, health, and leisure.
-You have more control of your life.
Managing Stress
Would it surprise you to find out that most people’s personal lives are causing them more stress than their jobs? When you have an unhealthy work-life balance, your problems in personal life tend to spill over into your work and vice-versa.
We tend to make things harder than necessary on ourselves. We put too many things on our plate and carry a lot of baggage that we should have left at the airport years ago. Take time to focus on how to make things easier on yourself. Learn how to prioritize your time effectively. Not all stress is bad, however. In both the workplace and outside, some kinds of stress are actually healthy and help us grow as individuals.
Unhealthy Stress
Unhealthy stress can be described as: -Small worries -Excessive fear -Anxiety -Stress causing sleep problems Unhealthy stress has a tendency of lingering and manifesting itself into chronic psychological and physiological ailments over time.
Healthy Stress
Examples of healthy stress are: -Working under deadlines -Quick reactions. Situations that keep you on your toes -Fight or flight response to dangerous situations Stress is a natural response of us protecting ourselves. Find ways to utilize it to your advantage instead of having it weigh you down.
Keep Busy but Don’t Feel Rushed
The happiest people are those who keep themselves busy. Your mind is constantly in motion and you are growing as a person with each productive activity and social interaction. You are honing your practical skills in your work time and re-energizing in your off time.
If you feel rushed all the time, think about ways you can prioritize your time more effectively. The stress of rushing yourself everyday adds up over time and causes an array of mental and physical health problems later on in life.
Take Control of Your Life
Anxiety is reduced by the feeling of control. Things that you can’t control: Your demanding boss, your toxic relationship, your exorbitant phone bill from last month. Remove those thoughts from your mind when you step into the office or when you’re out with your friends. Those thoughts are weighing you down and creating a negative atmosphere in both your work and personal life.
When it comes to the things that you can control and that are causing a burden; write them down and prioritize them in the order of importance. Take control of your life and find a way to eliminate stress.
Take Control of Your Work
It goes without saying that the more control you have at work, the more healthy your environment will be and you will have a more positive outlook on life.
If you are working for someone else and you have no control or room for creativity, just constantly remind yourself the reasons why you are doing it and count your blessings. Hang in there and always keep your eyes open for new opportunities. If you end up finding a way to make money by working for yourself, congratulations because that’s normally the best situation to be in.
Pursue Your Passions
Not everyone is fortunate enough to have a job they enjoy. If you fall in that category, spend your time off doing things you enjoy. The things you are passionate about are the things you are most likely to be talking about with others. It’s obvious that we like talking about things we are interested in, so don’t be shy about pursuing those interests. You will end up finding like-minded people and expand your social circle in the process. This is key to a healthy work-life balance.
Keep Your Body and Mind Fit
If your job has you sitting in the same place for several hours at a time, your body and mind will require that you compensate somehow. Take short breaks every hour or two to stretch. Before or after work, or even during your lunch break, consider going for a short run. Find a local sports club team on the weekend. Unless your job requires manual labor, your body and mind crave exercise to keep the blood flowing.
Leave the coffee and energy drinks at home. With a regular exercise schedule, you will wake up with more energy and your productivity at work will noticeably improve.
