Balance is a term that most people can associate with. The world itself provides a sense of relief and satisfaction. However, in today’s world, the meaning of balance is now tied to achieving a healthy work-life balance. It’s not that easy to get that balance, instead, you have to often struggle and choose either one.
What does Work-Life Balance Mean?
Work-life balance refers to maintaining a harmonious relationship between your work and personal life. It involves consciously managing your time and energy to meet both professional and personal commitments while prioritizing self-care and well-being.
In an ideal world, this line of thinking goes: after work, we’re able to spend time on things that nourish us as people. This could involve spending time with friends and family or engaging in a hobby.
Some Characteristics of a Healthy Work-Life Balance may Include:
Drawing the Line
One might say having a work-life balance is about having a clear distribution of time for professional and personal life, but it’s not. Instead, it’s about creating a balance between the two where professional and personal don’t entangle. It’s about prioritizing what’s more important instead of just focusing on one aspect of your life.
For instance, it might have happened to you on several occasions that you are on a trip away from work with your family or friends and you are getting a work call. Now some might call it a toxic work environment and ask you to ignore the call. Having a nice balance between work and personal life will help you decide if the call is important or not, and whether you should take it or not.
In an alternate situation, you might get a call from a friend or family member while you are at work, and some might immediately rush to take the call which might end up being just a regular call, just a few friends having a conversation, something that could have waited.
Organizations Playing a Major Role
For having a defined work-life balance, the main aspect is that organizations these days set certain boundaries, excluding the cases of emergencies to help their employee achieve work-life balance through some of the parameters mentioned below.
However, if you are someone with a remote work culture, it is even more important to respect the working hours in the remote setup, since there is no commute involved.
Technology Being Integrated
Since today’s world is governed by various advanced technologies such as AI-ML, it often becomes difficult to create a straight line between professional and personal lives. And not to make it sound like a negative aspect of these advanced technologies, it is at a certain point also beneficial for employees as well.
This allows them to be connected with their professional life and at the same time don’t feel completely detached from their personal life while working. Allowing them to work even while spending time at home. The only thing to consider here is to create a clear distinction between what’s the priority and what’s not.
How to Improve Work-Life Balance
As you work through the below steps, recall that finding an approach that works for you is a process that will likely require several attempts. Rather than being a sign of failure, modulating your approach is an integral part of the process.
Trying to find balance in any single day may feel frustrating, but the balance may be easier to achieve across a week or more.
The right way to determine the best balance for you is by learning to check in with your inner compass — and your results.
With intentionality and a little creativity, you can recalibrate your expectations and reset your work-life balance with some of the tips given here.
Plan ahead
To combine work activities with leisure, social, or fitness activities. If you find yourself with several virtual meetings back-to-back, try taking them while you go for a walk. You could also take a call outside (if ambient noise allows!) or invite a friend over to work with you.
Set blocks of time for different tasks
Designate a time to check (and respond to) messages, a time to take meetings, and a time to do mentally intensive work. It helps to anchor these tasks around the times that you are personally more productive.
End work at a certain time
There’s a saying that “work expands to fill the time allotted,” and when you work from home, it’s even easier to let work spill over into personal time. Set a time to end work for the day, and reinforce it by powering down work-related devices, locking your office, or scheduling something afterward.
Enlist technology to help you unplug
Use an app to block distracting websites during the day, and then block work tools after hours. If you can, restrict work to one device, or try to keep one work-free device so you can disconnect completely.
Go out for lunch or enjoy lunch with coworkers
Even if you’re working from home, you can go out for your lunch break or connect with colleagues. The change of pace will be refreshing — and, of course, will remind you to eat something.
Take time off
When you’re home all the time, you tend to try to work through illnesses that certainly would have kept you home from the office. Time off, including sick time, personal time, vacations, and bereavement, are important ways to nourish your well-being.
Practice mindfulness
Mindfulness makes imbalance hard to ignore. When you practice mindfulness techniques, like meditation or breath awareness, you become more in tune with your emotions and physical sensations. Paying attention to these feelings helps you learn how to notice when you might be suppressing a need in order to work. It’s hard to return to that spreadsheet after you notice your stomach rumbling.
Find something you love outside of work to engage in
If you have something that you’re excited about doing after work, it will make it easier to disconnect from work messages or end your day at a predetermined time. Our hobbies boost our energy and vitality. When we play and feel creative, we bring our fresh selves back to work.
Reconsider work that makes you yearn for balance
If your work feels completely unrelated to the activities that stir your interest, enthusiasm, energy, and sense of meaning, you may need to look at how you can change the work you do or the way you do it. While work doesn’t need to (and can’t) satisfy all your needs for purpose, meaning, social connection, and challenge, we can expect work to provide moments of satisfaction, accomplishment, and connection.
Communicate with your manager
Poor work-life balance is often exacerbated by the fear that we’re not doing enough. Talking to your leaders can help you prioritize where to spend your time. If there is too much to do, it might be time to talk about hiring additional help or streamlining certain tasks.
Why is Work-Life Balance so Important?
Just like in our diets, to stay healthy and energized for the long haul, people need variety. When it comes to work-life balance, people need to engage in a variety of activities and rest. We tend to fall into the trap of believing that we can be productive all the time, or that an eight-hour day at work equates to eight hours of output. However, that is hard, if not impossible, for many individuals to achieve.
Plus, overworking has negative consequences for both employees and employers.
Workaholics and those who struggle to practice self-care find themselves at higher risk for burnout, fatigue, and stress-related health issues. Poor work-life balance can also leave employees working more hours but being less productive.
It is important to understand the necessity of maintaining a healthy work-life balance and take the necessary steps towards it. The reason is that it will help you focus better on the work, you won’t feel low on energy, and will always have the zeal to achieve your goals.
Take the Steps Towards the Health Work-Life Balance Today!
Author: Kanika Singh, Chief Risk Officer, IMGC