Maintaining a healthy balance between your personal and professional life can sometimes become challenging, but it is so important. Read on to find out how you can enhance your work-life balance following some simple steps.

Have you ever had the feeling all you do is work? Ever felt like time is running away from you? More often than not work can take over everything else in our life. As it happens, we want to succeed professionally and have an outstanding career. And that can sometimes push aside our own well-being. Creating a healthy work-life balance is essential for our physical, emotional and mental well-being. But, did you know that it is also essential in order to obtain a successful career?

What Is Work-Life Balance?

The balance between work and life refers to the level of prioritising between personal and professional commitments. It is an important aspect for any individual and healthy work environment. Establishing and maintaining a healthy work-life balance can significantly reduce stress and help prevent burnouts.
Did you know that chronic stress is one of the most common health problems in the workplace? It can result in hypertension, heart problems and chronic pains. On top of that, chronic stress can negatively affect your mental health and lead to higher risk of anxiety and depression.
But, what is a “good” work-life balance? Well, there are many views on what makes an ideal work-life balance. There definitely is no right or wrong answer, as we are all unique, have different preferences and live different lives. Paul Krassner, master of many arts and founder of the freethought magazine The Realist, once said that often happiness is defined by little to nor differentiation between the personal and professional life.
So rather than finding the “perfect” balance, let’s see how you can find harmony between all aspects of your life.

Poor Work-Life Balance

Before diving into the ways of how you can improve the harmony of your life, we need to first identify the issues that are leading to a poorer work-life balance. It is important to define the cause of your imbalance to then effectively take action to change it.

Here are some of the most commons reasons that can induce imbalance between your professional and personal life:

• Working over hours
• Receiving more responsibilities at work
• Receiving more responsibilities at home
• Working unsocial hours
• Working from home
• Isolated working conditions
• Job insecurity
• Few rewards for your effort

If you can relate to one or more of these factors, you might want to take a minute to reflect and ask yourself: Am I happy? Is my work leaving me feeling fulfilled? Can I completely relax when I am home? Or are you feeling exhausted and are trying to juggle a million things at once?

Stress is a natural response in dangerous or challenging situations. Don’t get me wrong, a small amount of stress can give your adrenaline a kick and might excite you, such as working to a deadline. But, these little adrenaline kicks from stress are only effective and healthy for a short time. Pressure that holds on for too long can easily become draining. And as a result, you’re not just feeling mentally and physically exhausted, but also can leave a negative effect on your work success and relationships.

Improving Your Work-Life Balance

Here are 5 simple ways how you can improve and maintain your work-life balance.

1. Accept that there is no right or wrong

Probably the most important thing is to accept that there is no “perfect” work-life balance. We are all unique and have different circumstances. Don’t try to aim for the perfect schedule, but rather for a realistic one.
Your energy levels change with every day and so does your desire for how you want to spend your free time. One day you might be killing at work and feel like going out with your friends or spending time with your family straight afterwards, while on other days all you want to do is sink into your couch with a tub of your favourite ice cream and don’t get up for the rest of the night.
Give yourself time too, you don’t have to achieve your goals overnight. Balance will come in time, with each day and a little patience.

2. Take some time out

Don’t forget, you have the control of your time and life. Yes, the job is important and necessary, but it shouldn’t take over your life. Try to prioritise the things in life that you love. Whether that is reading a book, going out with your friends or getting sweaty during a workout. Whatever makes you happy will help find you a better balance between work and life.
Maybe it helps to create a calendar where you can schedule quality time with your best buddy or loved one. You might have so many things on your minds that managing your time with a calendar can help you stay on top of things.
Also make sure to take time out for yourself in between socialising. Let’s be honest, us busy bees we don’t want to miss out on anything. But sometimes you need to learn to say No and make some quality time just for you and yourself. Treat yo self, you deserve it!

3. Leave work at your workplace

When you finish work and leave the office, truly leave your work behind. Stop your mind from thinking about upcoming projects and tasks or replying to emails. Sometimes easier said than done, but switching off completely is important to give yourself a break and avoid feeling stressed.
If you are working from home, create a working space that is dedicated to work only to keep your work out of your personal space. Another tip is to use a separate phone and computer for your work. If that isn’t possible, make sure to use separate platforms to avoid getting life and work mixed up.
Define when you work and when you stop working. Otherwise, you will always find yourself drifting from one to the other impacting your productivity at work and peace of mind at home.

4. Manage your time

Revisit your daily or weekly schedule and analyse each task and activity while asking yourself: Does this add any value? Will I benefit from this? If your answer is no, simply strike it out.
Avoid time-wasting activities such as checking your emails or phone every minute. Such activities will only lead to less productivity and losing focus. Instead, look at when you are most productive at work and make sure to reserve that time for your most relevant projects.
Using time management will help your productivity and get work done faster. And that means you will get more free time to do whatever you want, huh!

Bosware Recruit comes with an amazing feature called LifeTrack, which lets you manage your time, set goals and celebrate successes all with one click only. Check out how LifeTrack can help you manage your time better here Lifetrack

5. Love your job

It’s true! I am sure you have heard of this phrase before: ‘Do what you love and love what you do’. Honestly, we should all live by that sentence. Work takes up a big chunk of our daily lives, so if we don’t like what we do, how are we ever going to be happy?!
Your job shouldn’t take over your life and make you feel suffocated. If you come to a point where you just hate what you do, walk away. Don’t simply walk away if there are certain aspects of your job that annoy you, we all have that. But if it doesn’t fulfil you, if it doesn’t excite you or give you a sense of meaning then it’s probably time for a change.
Good managers will always support employee’s work-life balance and care for an inclusive and healthy work environment.

Don’t strive for a perfect work-life balance, because it simply doesn’t exist. Instead, try and enhance the harmony between your work and life. And remember, keeping track of your time will actually improve your productivity and leave you with more free time.