Work may be important to your financial survival, and it may even be a job that you’re passionate about, but it should never be your whole world. We humans need hobbies, time for socialising, and even rest to feel happiest and to stay healthy. Having enough time to rest is key to managing stress levels and preventing chronic health conditions such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
However, many people struggle with work-life balance. If you’ve caught yourself struggling over late-night work tasks when you’d rather be doing anything else, you’re not alone. Plenty of other people wish they had more balance in the way they use their time.
Luckily, you’re not doomed to be a worker drone forever. Here are three strategies to improve your work-life balance.
Get in Touch with Your Priorities
Chances are, you know what is important to your boss or your clients. However, do you remember what is important to you as a person? What are your goals and dreams outside of work?
Remembering what you hope to prioritise in your life will make you more motivated to maintain that work-life balance even when deadlines start piling up or your boss “encourages” you to take on more responsibilities. It can also help you organise your rest time better so that you prioritise your goals instead of mindlessly scrolling social media or other activities that don’t actually rest you.
If you’re not sure about what your goals and priorities are, take some time to journal through your wants and needs. See what stands out to you, whether it’s pursuing a creative interest or just spending more time with your family. Then, write those down in a clear place so that every time you are tempted to stay later at work, you remember what you are missing out on.
Plan Your Day Out
You may think that you already have a smooth organisational system in place, one that keeps track of all of your deadlines and work to-do lists. However, if your organisational system is missing what is important to you, then it is not helpful at all.
In your journal planner (and if you don’t have one already, be sure to get one), block out time slots for other priorities besides work. Plan out times to work out, play with your kids, work on building your model aeroplanes, or whatever is important to you. Then, treat those with as much reverence as you would a meeting time at work.
Planning out your time and dedicating time to your leisure activities will help you prioritise them. If you are attempting to squeeze in everything that you actually want to do in the few minutes after you are finished with work, you will not have the energy or the time left.
Start Right Away
If you’re reading this article, then chances are that this isn’t the first time that you’ve been concerned about your work-life balance. Maybe you’ve wanted to carve out some time for your hobbies before, but you told yourself that you cannot afford to take time off work until you earn more money or earn your promotion.
The longer you put off your restructuring, the less time that you will have to do the things that you love. Without getting too deep into morbid thoughts, we all know that our time on this planet is limited. Shouldn’t you spend the most time possible doing what you love?
Maybe you won’t be able to take as much time off as you want right away, but you can start with small steps, such as not checking your email on the weekends. Make a list in your journal planner of ways that you can start improving your work-life balance now.
Work-life balance is crucial to maintaining your physical and mental health, but many busy professionals neglect it. You can recommit to a better personal balance today by recording your priorities, getting a journal planner to carve out blocks of time for your hobbies, and taking action right away instead of procrastinating.
Your life belongs to you, not your work, and it should reflect your values and priorities. Recommit to your personal objectives today!
