Around 64% of American’s say that work is a significant stressor in their lives; 14% of these people directly attribute that stress to also having to balance household responsibilities.
Learning how to balance work and life isn’t always easy, but those that manage it are undoubtedly happier and usually more productive.
So, if you’re working towards finding the balance between work and life responsibilities, you’ve come to the right place. We’re here to lay down a simple guide to re-balancing your life – crack this, and your family, mental health, and physical health will thank you.
Read on to learn more.
Set Work Goals
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Setting goals is one of the cornerstones of having a good work-life balance. If you’re organized and know what you’re trying to achieve, this will mean that you can implement time-management strategies to ensure you meet the goal.
You should set yourself daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly goals for what you want to achieve at work. Then at the start of each day, week, month, and year sit down and work out what you need to do to accomplish this.
If you don’t think that you can achieve your goals in the allocated timeframe, it’s time to adjust your expectations. You’ll never be able to keep a balance between work and life if you’re constantly trying to meet unreachable objectives at work.
Use Smart Business Tools
How often have you thought it would be easier to balance your work and life responsibilities if you had less to do at work? Probably, often.
So, why not make your life easier by using business tools that’ll take jobs off your hands. Try using apps like Trello or Notion for project management and optimize your phone lines with cheap 800 number forwarding.
Using these tools can help free up some of your time to prioritize the ‘life’ aspect of work-life balance.
Have Boundaries
Work-life balance and mental health are directly linked. A critical part of maintaining a good work-life balance is having some personal and professional boundaries.
So, review your work contract and make sure you aren’t overworking or working outside of contracted hours. If you’re self-employed, it’s a good idea to write yourself a personal contract that sets out your work boundaries.
When you’re working, make sure that your family knows you’re off-limits: this is your working time, and you are not to be disturbed. Equally, when you’re on downtime, make sure your colleagues and boss know that you will only respond when you’re back in the office.
Make Time For Yourself
Sometimes it’s easier said than done, but you need to schedule in time for yourself. To be a good family member, friend, and employee, you need to look after yourself first.
So, alongside scheduling work meetings and family activities, make sure to book yourself into the spa, golf course, or whatever else floats your boat.
Nurturing yourself may feel like an indulgence you can’t afford, but it’ll actually make you a more productive employee and happier around the home.
Set Priorities
To maintain the balance between work and life, it can be helpful to match your priorities. Start by writing down your top five work priorities and your top five life priorities.
Then, match each work priority to a life priority. You should spend equal time on both of these. For example, your work priority may be to spend 5 hours per week blogging, and your life priority is to spend 5 hours a week doing fun activities with the children.
Each time you work on one, you should also consider the other. This way, your blog, and your children get equal time and attention.
Vacation
Finally, you get vacation days for a reason, so use them! Even if your working situation doesn’t allow for paid vacation, you should be able to find a few days each year where you can be out of the office.
The benefits of taking a vacation are excellent for both the ‘work’ and ‘life’ aspects of work-life balance.
For the ‘work’ part, taking a vacation will help refresh and re-energize you, allowing you to achieve new productivity and innovation when you get back to work. For the ‘life’ part, what’s better than a vacation to spend time with friends and family?
Unplug Your Communications
The beauty of the 21st century is that we’re always connected – unfortunately, that’s also the curse.
Make a rule to leave work at work, and stick to it. This is easier for some than others, but it’s possible for everyone.
- If you’ve got a work phone just turn it off out of hours.
- If you use a personal cell then put a ‘screentime block’ on work apps.
- Shut down your email application on your laptop after work hours.
Most importantly, don’t be tempted to respond to work requests when you aren’t working – you’ll only seem overly available, and people will continue to reach out when you shouldn’t be working.
If you really don’t feel like you can unplug at any time, you need to consider getting another job if the work-life balance is essential to you.
Balance Work And Life Responsibilities The Easy Way
That’s your need-to-know guide to how to balance work and life responsibilities. Prioritizing balance will lead to a healthier, happier, and more productive you.
So, what are you waiting for? It’s time to get started – audit your life and consider where you can add balance to day-to-day activities!
Did you find this article helpful? If so, make sure to check out our other posts for all things health, lifestyle, business, and more.
