One day you suddenly realize that your work has been becoming your life for a long time. When was the last time you spent time with your family, your friends or enjoyed your favorite hobbies? A lot of people spend a lifetime pursuing career success without understanding that it doesn’t necessarily guarantee a happy life. Work-life balance is definitely not a new concept, but it’s becoming the ultimate goal of more and more people, no matter who you are, a well-known billionaire entrepreneur or an entry-level employee.
Work-life balance helps us to become healthier, enjoy happier life and even work more productively than usual. So, how to achieve work-life balance? Of course, there is no exact step-by-step approach for all of us; but hopefully these few tips will somewhat help you find the best way to strike a balance between work and life.
1. Assess your current situation
To get started, you need to analyze all aspects of your work (job characteristics, short and long term goals, ambition) and personal life (personality, personal habits, general lifestyle, family obligation, spirituality…). Then you have to identify your problems with your work and personal life to discard and figure out your top priorities which really matter to you to focus on.
2. Master your time
Time management is the key to a balance between work and life. Everyone everywhere has 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. You may sometimes wish to have more time a day to do more work, but the fact is you can change anything! So, all you need to do is master your time instead of complaining. Time is a valuable asset, so you should manage and use it effectively. Just focus on your priorities and eliminate time wasting in unnecessary stuff. Work smarter, not harder, to have time for your personal life. Be sure that you always schedule your work and plan your life.
You need to clearly understand your boundaries and respect them. For example, you want to work at your office from 8 AM to 5 PM every workday and you do not accept work overtime or bring work to home. Evening time you want to spend with your family.
3. Ask for support
Depend on each job characteristics, your work – life balance can be easier or harder to achieve. For instance, if you are working as a travel coordinator who has to be always at the service 24/7, you can stop thinking about work life balance in this career.
If you want to achieve work – life balance, make an open conversation with your manager. I believe that he/she will empathize because he/she also wants the same thing, especially if you are a standout employee. Make sure that you understand the company policies and can make benefits for both employer and you if following your time arrangement. You need also ask your colleagues to help you some tasks or avoid contact you for work purpose after you leave the office. And if you can’t reach any agreement, it’s time to consider a job move which allows you more flexibility in time.
4. Love your health, love your job, love your life
You can never achieve work-life balance if you do not enjoy everything you do. Remember to take care of your health first. A healthy diet with good nutrition and a quality sleep will provide enough daily energy for you to do your job and enjoy your life. Of course, don’t forget to do regular exercise or play your favorite sport as an effective way to manage stress, stay healthier and have a nice figure.
In your work time, try to turn your work into your passion and do your job with 100% of you. When coming home, you should turn off all technology devices using for only work purpose such as laptop, tablet, and smartphone and spend your quality time for your family, lover, friends and yourself as well. Technology, on the one hand, could be the efficient tool to achieve work-life balance by improving our productivity, but on the other hand, it can steal our personal time by unpaid working-from-home hours.
Obviously, a perfect balance between work and personal life seems unachievable for anyone in a short time. It’s a continuous journey which we have to change day by day. Hopefully these tips can improve your work-life balance to have a better and happier life.
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