5 Tips to Achieving a Healthy Work-Life Balance
- Hayley
- Feb 20, 2018
- 3 min read
Updated: Oct 22, 2024
Now-a-days, achieving and maintaining a healthy work-life balance is one of the hardest things to do, regardless of how important it is for our well-being. If you’re unsure what a work-life balance is, it’s basically the act of juggling your professional work-life, with anything in your life outside of work which can include hobbies, family, friends, and any other aspect of your life.
So, why is this so important? Basically, many studies have shown that failing to have a healthy balance can actually damage your health as too much of one and not enough of the other can lead to stress, and an overall lower quality of life. Concentrating on work too much and not giving yourself any time to relax and have fun can lead you to feel over-burdened and burn out, and on the other hand, spending too much time relaxing and having fun can lead to falling behind on work and feeling unnecessarily stressed trying to catch up. No one wants to feel over-burdened or stressed, so the following is 5 tips to help you get a healthy work-life balance that will have you feeling great!
Plan & Prioritse Your Time You may have 20 things that you need to do, but by not setting a to-do list and organising by time and priority, it can make you feel like the list is endless. Invest in a diary/planner and plan out your week of day-to-day tasks and then prioritise them on an urgency scale of 1-5, ‘5’ being the highest priority and ‘1’ the lowest. Don’t just include work tasks, make sure to include holidays, birthday’s and any other family commitments.Remember to never plan personal time as a low priority, as this can have a negative effect on your health, everyone needs some personal time, even if it’s just a small break.
Know Your Limits It can be so easy to say ‘yes’ to every task thrown your way, but you have to take a step back and ask yourself if you can really handle it. Don’t just think about your
work-life, consider your personal-life too, if you’ve made plans and this extra task will be the cause of cancelling them, don’t take it. It really isn’t a sign of weakness to recognise that you can’t do something or that you are overwhelmed, it is actually essential to self-growth.In the same category is knowing when to ask for help. Some people find this extremely hard to do and again, feels like it shows weakness, but it is also essential for self-growth. So, next time you feel like you’re drowning in work, whether that be at home or in the workplace, remember that the people around you won’t know you feel this way unless you tell them. By following this, you could relieve a lot of stress and free up some time to focus on other tasks.
Stick to Your Work Hours
It’s understandable that when you have lots of tasks to complete you want to stay back every night, or to take your work home with you, but it’s not always a good idea. Yes, overtime is fine, but not when it’s taking over your personal life, for example, answering work calls at the dinner table, or still being focused on work while you’re on holiday. You need to take a step back and embrace your off button before it starts becoming unhealthy. When you’re with family or friends - be with them, when you’re on holiday - be there, if you’re not, then you’re missing out on key moments in your life that you can’t get back, plus it’s not great for those around you either.
Take Your Holidays We have a set number of holidays for a reason – it gives you a
chance to take some planned time to yourself, use them! You don’t have to take a week off at a time, even if it’s just a day here and there or a long weekend, it’s better than nothing. When you’re feeling bogged down and over-worked, book a day’s holiday or two to recharge your batteries and you’ll feel a whole lot better.
Work to Live
Not the other way around! Take time to look after yourself, exercise, or find something you love to do and
stick at it, take as much time as you can to enjoy yourself. Research has shown that those who are active are usually happier in general, and this can carry on into later life as research conducted in the Canadian Medical Association Journal has shown those who are happy maintain improved physical function and faster walking speeds later in life.In essence, between you and work, you should be the number one priority. To work well, you have to be in the right state of mind, and to be in the right state of mind, you have to look after yourself.
