If you’re a workaholic, remembering to make quality time for yourself can be challenging. Of course, if you want to keep both your employer and your family happy, learning to balance the two is important. Here are a few ways you can create and maintain a healthy ratio of work and personal life.
1. Get a Day Planner
Physically scheduling for both work and personal tasks in a single planner can help you see how you’re spending your time. Analyzing your documented time planned and spent can help you to acknowledge whether or not you’re devoting too much energy to work or, conversely, not enough.
After you’ve tracked how you spend your time, sit down and sketch out an even divide between work and personal obligations. You might want to write weekly or daily schedules. Use the method that helps you best balance your time.
2. Stop Multitasking
Not only has multitasking been proven to be ineffective, but if you’re trying to both excel at work and have a personal life at the same time, you’re not giving each side due attention. You need to evenly divide your time between the two which means no work at home (or no work during non-office hours) and vice versa. Focus only on what you need to be doing.
When you multitask, you produce lower quality work while increasing stress levels. It can be tempting to get some work out of the way at home while you’re relaxing, but relaxation time is just as important for your mental well-being. People who work constantly become stressed and depressed.
3. Protect Your Health
A beneficial work-life balance can only be achieved if you care for yourself first. Streamline your diet, make time for exercise, and schedule time to relax. These three things are a part of both work and personal aspects of your life.
If you eat well at work, make time for exercise, and remember to take breaks, your work day will vastly improve. The same can be said for personal time. Without these components, you can’t achieve a true balance between your personal and professional lives.
4. Communicate When You Need Support
If you are struggling at work, speak to those above you. A good employer knows that employees are human beings and sometimes need time off or reduce their workload. If you are feeling overworked, are having trouble making time for life, or are dealing with a personal issue, communicate with your employer and fellow employees. Chances are you can find a way to reflow everyone’s tasks and partner up on projects so that the organization as a whole feels less strained.
In your personal life, you should reach out to friends or family if you are in need of support. If you are a recovering workaholic, telling friends you need help remembering to relax is a good way to guarantee time away from work. Personal commitments such as lunch with friends are more difficult to cancel than sitting at home, trying to resist focusing on work. Use the support networks that you have at your disposal.
At the rate the average American works, finding time for a personal life can be difficult. It may feel unimportant that you spend time with friends or at home reading or having a meal with friends or family. But if you value your mental and physical well-being, a life outside work is extremely important. The mind needs relaxation in order to function well and keep stress levels low, which will impact physical health as well. Anyone can attest that a stressed employee is not an effective employee. Take time off from work and keep in mind that you will be a better worker for it.
