Having a good work-life balance is important for your health and your daily life. It can help keep employees from getting burned out or stressed out and improve their general health. Sometimes, though, it can feel hard to find a good balance between personal hobbies and work goals.
Find out what work-life balance is and why it's important in this guide. It also has 17 helpful tips on how to improve your work-life balance.
How do you balance work and life
A person has a good work-life balance when the pressures of their personal life and job are equal. A person can enjoy a number of benefits once they have achieved a healthy work-life balance, including the ones below:
- Having less stress.
- Not as much burnout
- A better sense of well-being
What makes it hard to balance work and life
With all the technology and ways to communicate we have access to, it's getting harder to stop and unplug, and to keep work and personal life separate. When you don't have a good work-life mix, these things tend to happen:
More duty at work: Having a long list of things to do can be stressful, especially when they start to pile up. These extra work tasks and duties can make it hard to balance work and personal life, which can lead to employee stress.
Longer work hours: If you work longer hours than planned, you might not have time to spend with family or friends or do other things that are important to your personal life.
Corporate culture: Some corporate cultures can make workers feel like they have to work long hours and spend most of their time on work.
Poor time management: Not being able to keep track of your time well can make you feel overwhelmed and make it hard to balance your responsibilities.
Not having enough flexibility: If workers can't change their work hours, for example by not being able to work from home or leave early for a family emergency, their work-life balance may suffer.
Read also: Building Healthy Lifestyle Habits 3 Steps
Work-Life Balance: How Important Is It
Increased Work Productivity
If you have too much work to do, you might not get as much done and make more mistakes. People can come back to work more refreshed and effective if they take time to rest, recharge, and do personal things. If you want to be more productive, you might want to use project plan templates to keep your project tasks and schedules in order so they don't become too much to handle and cause you stress.
Not as much burnout
The APA Dictionary of Psychology says that burnout is when you are physically, emotionally, or mentally exhausted and have low drive, poor performance, and bad feelings about yourself and others. Getting a better mix between your work and personal life responsibilities can help you feel less burned out or even stop you from feeling burned out altogether.
Enhanced Health
Not having a good mix between work and life can cause worry, anxiety, and other mental health problems. Living a balanced life with enough rest, relaxing, and time with loved ones can make you healthier generally and lower your risk of mental and physical illnesses.
Higher Retention of Employees
As a boss, you can make the workplace happier by urging your workers to find a good mix between work and life. A recent study found that companies that help their employees balance their work and personal lives have a 25% lower dropout rate than those that don't.
People are more likely to stay with your company longer if they feel like their personal life is accepted and valued.
5Work-Life Balance Cheat Sheets
Along with managing work duties, it's important to make time for people and hobbies in your personal life. It can be hard to figure out how to balance work and life. Here are 17 tips that you can use at work and at home.
1. Take a Break
If you want to find a good mix between work and life, you should start by taking breaks, like lunch. For some fresh air, you might want to take a quick stretch and walk around the block if you work from home. You can also do breathing techniques or short meditations at your desk during short breaks.
2. Get better at managing your time
You can also get a better work-life balance if you know how to use your time well at home and at work. There are a few things you can do to train this:
Use software to handle projects:You can finish jobs and tasks on time with the help of a project management tool.
Get a calendar for each day:A planner can help you stay on top of things and make your to-do list easy to read. This will make them seem less difficult to deal with.
3. Do you want to work from home if you can
If you can, think about working from home. If you're a boss, think about letting your workers work from home. The Hybrid Ways of Working 2022 Global Report from Jabra says that workers who can choose where they work are happy with their jobs.
4. Allow for flexible schedules
A flexible work plan gives workers the freedom to make their own schedules so they can find a good work-life mix that works for them. Depending on the person, this could mean starting and finishing the job earlier or later, or it could mean doing a mix of the two.
5. Show your self kindness
Don't be too hard on yourself if you feel like you're having a hard time balancing work and life because things are busy. We're only human. Becoming more self-compassionate and kind to yourself can help you deal with problems and mistakes.
Also, study from the National Library of Medicine shows a link between self-compassion and mental health, including less anxiety, sadness, anger, and burnout, as well as more support and motivation for oneself generally.
