In today’s busy world, prioritising between your work and your personal life can be a huge challenge. Is spending every possible minute on your work the best thing for your business? Is it the best thing for your life? What about work life balance? It seems logical that the more you put into work, the more you will get out of it, right? However, eventually, we all know that this leads to burn out, and can actually have a negative effect on your business and even worse, your life and those around you.
See here for more on a healthy work life balance.
Start by knowing what you want.
Many people don’t know what they really, truly want. Finding balance is from the soul, so start with incubation. Contemplate, meditate, and think about what you want in your life, and what will let you balance. ‘What do you want?’ is the first question on the path.”
Create a vision.
Dare to dream and write down the top 10 things you want to accomplish on your “life list.”
Define your version of work/life balance.
Think about where you plan to be in 5 or 10 years.
Write down your personal vision statement and mission statement.
It will help you see where you are going in life.
If we are living a truly fulfilled life then there should be no separation between work and life.
Critique yourself.
If your 40-hour week has transformed into something a bit closer to a 60-hour week, you owe it to yourself to review the issue. Get to the bottom of where the majority of your time is being spent during your workday to allow for increased time management and productivity. Understand how much you can accomplish in one day.
Live by your values.
Do a mental check and be clear to others on what is important to you. If you value family but keep putting work first by staying late every night, you are sending a contradictory message. This also affects your own psyche and can bring feelings of negativity into your work or home life.
Schedule one thing you look forward to each day.
Book some time to go to the gym, go to an art museum, or have a massage, learn something new.The activity doesn’t have to be time-consuming, complicated, or expensive.
Put aside an hour on your schedule to read a book, take a walk, or just to be alone.
Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That’s why it is called the present.
Use technology as a tool, not a leash.
Texts, e-mails, and voice messages can be both best friends and worst enemies when it comes to life outside of work. Boundaries again come into play, and they are different for each individual.
But even if you don’t have much control over the hours you have to work, you can ask yourself: In what other ways am I bringing greater enjoyment into my life?
Limit your work time
If you don’t set limits on how much of your day that you want to spend at the office, for example, then you’ll be at risk of working around the clock and losing time you need for the “life” part of your work-life balance.
Project in – project out
If you want to say yes to taking on an extra responsibility or project and have no time for it (see the last suggestion), review your commitments and get rid of another project or task. If you’re already overloaded, then in no time at all, even the most wonderful-looking project will become another chore.
Know it won’t always be perfect.
It is good to use perfection as a guide, but recognize that it is unattainable. Perfection is a process; not a destination. Iterate toward perfection but launch once you pass “good enough.” Perfectionism inflates your workload by preventing delegation.
Simplify.
Focus on quality over quantity. Don’t try to do it all. Choose what’s truly important to you and do it well. It’s a lot more satisfying.
Focus your time and attention on things you can control.
Organize.
Bringing your time into line isn’t just a matter of scheduling. The mechanics of how you operate can be every bit as important. That means organizing most every element to allow as smooth a workflow as possible. Set priorities, work smarter not harder, delegate (and really let go!). Create lists and save them for re-use. Keep a main calendar centrally located to post everyone’s activities. Eliminating working late and leaving work at the office often comes down to better time management.
Learn how to say no.
One of the things that gets us into the most trouble with our work-life balance is our inability to say no. As human beings, we have empathy for one another and we really do not want to let anyone down. In the meantime, we are letting ourselves down because every time we accept a new responsibility, we are taking time away from our personal priorities.
After reading this article, answer these questions.
I need to:
- Start doing…
- Stop doing…
- Continue doing…
- Do more…
- Do less…
- Do differently…
Praise yourself for what you have achieved at the end of every day! Take care and live in your present.
Which phase of life are you in, and how is that affecting your work?
