Work-life balance is important to maintaining your wellbeing and productivity. It helps you balance your personal and professional life and encourages you to divide your time based on your priorities.
Maintaining a balance by devoting time to yourself, family, health, vacations, business, travel, and career is essential to living a happier and more prosperous life. Work-life balance can:
- Reduce workplace burnout
- Increase productivity
- Reduce stress
- Fewer instances of absenteeism
- Improve mental health
- Better family relations
But how do you achieve work-life balance? What are the most practical ways to streamline your life and achieve your goals? Today’s article will highlight a few evidence-based methods/strategies to help you maintain a healthy work-life balance. Read on!
Divide Goals into Smaller Objectives
Dividing goals into smaller objectives make them easier to achieve. Develop SMART goals for success by making them more specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely.
The SMART strategy is an excellent way to push yourself further, create a sense of direction, and organize yourself. Thus, you can achieve your goals efficiently, reliably, and quickly.
Therefore, divide your goals into multiple objectives and set a specific duration/timeline. Work on a single objective and move to the next one after you have completed the current one.
Most people think that multitasking can increase productivity. However, this is a misconception. For example, completing paperwork, responding to dozens of emails, and compiling different resources to complete a project can lead to stress and burnout.
On the other hand, you can divide a goal into smaller objectives and work on each one at a time. For instance, allocate time to respond to emails and document compilation and reward yourself after completing a specific objective.
Take a Break from Work
Taking a break from work soothes your mind, restores energy levels, and helps you maintain your work-life balance. While not everyone has the budget to go for a vacation, celebrating your bi-annual or annual leaves is essential to your wellbeing.
So, a break from your office work allows you to spend time with your family or kids and enjoy yourself. Likewise, this enables you to recuperate and recharge your mind, body, and soul.
Remember, this is essential to improve productivity and focus when you return to the workplace. A growing body of research evidence shows that spending time with family or friends can reduce stress and increase productivity.
So, if you have enough budget to visit another city, state, or country, don’t hesitate to go for a vacation. According to the American Sociological Association, vacationing can reduce psychological distress and improve overall health.
Take Short Breaks Throughout the Day
Some people don’t have the option to take time off, so in that case, you can encourage yourself to take smaller breaks throughout the day. Bear in mind that your body and mind can’t tolerate continuous working, such as staring at a computer screen for hours.
Otherwise, you will experience burnout, stress, fatigue, low energy, and decreased productivity. So, ask your boss to create a games room in the office where you and your colleagues can socialize and distract themselves from work for a short period.
In addition, perform light exercises in the office gym and introduce walking meetings to your team members. Request a colleague to take a short walk and grab a cup of coffee.
You can also subscribe to Netflix and other streaming platforms to watch a movie clip or documentary or listen to music on YouTube to relax your mind. All these techniques/methods will positively impact your mind and increase workplace performance, productivity, and satisfaction.
Learn to Say No
If you are a people pleaser, you will experience stress, low self-esteem, anxiety, and workload. For example, if your colleague says they have an appointment with a doctor and requests you to prepare the report, you can help them.
While this is good from an ethical perspective, saying “YES” every time a colleague requests help will make you feel sick and increase stress/anxiety. Therefore, learn the art of saying “no” to people and prioritize your own work.
Understand and acknowledge your skills and make substantial efforts to streamline your office work. While you can help your relatives, friends, and colleagues from time to time, if they make a habit of asking you for help, say “NO” right away without worrying about the consequences.
If your relative, friend, or colleagues does not accept “NO,” they are not truthful to you or do not respect you. So, stand firm, and avoid feeling compelled to give justifications to everyone. Believe in yourself!
Prioritize Self-Care
Set aside some time for physical activity or exercise, and plan for nutritious and balanced meals to improve your health. Spending quality time with your family members and loyal friends is integral to self-care. Bear in mind that self-care is not a luxury but a necessity.
When physically active, you improve your brain’s wellbeing, maintain a healthy weight, and reduce the risk of acute and chronic health conditions. Exercise increases blood flow to your brain, causing it to release dopamine and serotonin. These two hormones improve your mood and make you feel happier.
In addition, a healthy diet is essential for your overall physical and mental wellbeing. It protects you from chronic conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. A healthy body and mind mean a happy life and increased performance at the workplace.
Follow Pomodoro Strategy
Do you want to increase your performance and stay productive at the workplace? If yes, focus on your time management skills and follow a sophisticated technique called the Pomodoro method to manage your time efficiently.
The Pomodoro method requires you to leverage the use of a timer. For example, you set a timer for 20 minutes and work diligently to complete a task within the duration. Once the timer goes off, you take a five to ten minutes break.
So, this strategy is an excellent way to utilize your time, increase productivity, restore energy levels, and complete your tasks/projects efficiently, reliably, professionally, and quickly.
Final Words
Lack of work-life balance can cause severe problems, negatively affecting your relationship with your spouse, parents, kids, and friends. It also drains your brain and fatigues your body. So, follow the strategies above to maintain your work-life balance and achieve your goals. Until Next Time!
Sources:
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7037206/
- https://www.betterup.com/blog/how-to-have-good-work-life-balance
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/deborahlee/2014/10/20/6-tips-for-better-work-life-balance/
- https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/work-life-balance
- https://www.industryweek.com/leadership/article/21982458/12-key-strategies-to-achieving-a-worklife-balance
- https://www.asanet.org/sites/default/files/savvy/journals/SMH/Nov13SMHFeature.pdf
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