Every human desire to succeed in their career and professional life, have a healthy mind and body, spend time with their close ones, travel, and many more. No doubt, to lead a life, all those things are essential, but the main difficulty lies in management. For these situations, there is a phrase or word known as “work-life balance.” In 1986, this term was coined though everyone realized and used it in their everyday life before this.
In America prior to World War 2, America’s W.K. Kellogg company had created a 6 hours shift for four days a week by replacing three daily 8 hours shifts in a week. India is also trying to help its workers to maintain a healthy work-life balance actively. India is one of the world’s top five countries to offer maternity along with paternity leave. Not only this, flexible working hours such as work-from-home options are provided by many organizations.
What is work-life balance?
Life is a balancing act. If we make a complaint that we don’t have enough time to live our own personal life, then we will ruin our professional as well as personal life by getting frustrated. We always have to keep one thing in our mind there is no perfect work-life balance. We have to balance it according to our priorities.
Work-life balance is defined as the time you spend balancing your professional life and your personal life. In simple terms, it is a state of equilibrium where a person has to give time to his job/work and to dear ones or pursue personal interests/hobbies.
Why it is essential
Work-life balance helps to improve an individual’s overall well-being, including physical, mental, and emotional health. Working long hours can lead to severe health issues such as depression, diabetes, sleeping disorders, impaired memory, heart disease, and many more. Even long hours of working reduce our productivity, leading to burnout and other negative repercussions. So we must make a schedule that works for us and helps us in achieving a good balance, manage stress, and prioritizing our self-care.
Ways to improve your work-life balance
Think in a quiet environment
Take some time or break from both your personal and work life and think about how various parts of your life are affecting one another. Calmly think about your current work-life situation and ask yourself how you feel. Then few questions may strike your mind:
- Am I spending my precious time doing what I really want?
- Where do I feel more struck?
- On which thing I aligned more- my professional or personal goals? Why and why not? What do I really want to do?
Find a job that you like
Actually, there are various fields one can opt for as a career. Choosing the field that you love to do as a career can make you happy. If your passion and job match, you can be able to do your work with excitement and can stay engaged. But if you do not truly love the job, then it may make you feel that “What hell thing I am doing.” It will then become a reason for frustration for you.
Assess your priorities
If you are once able to sense what you would like to adjust, where you want to devote your time and energy, and what really matters to you, then you will start identifying what you want to prioritize.
Be efficient at work
When you are in the office or at work, do you work efficiently to complete it within the working hours? Always try not to take your pending work at your home to complete; it affects your personal life and health. Try to focus on a single task at a time rather than multi-tasks.
Time Management
Time management is essential to maintain work and personal life properly. Most people lack a sense of time management which creates a big problem for them because, at the end of the day, they have no time. You must have a sense of time when you will work and when you will stop.
Draw boundaries
Draw a boundary between a personal and professional life to avoid burnout. No doubt, at the very beginning, you will face difficulty, but slowly by trying continuously, you can able to maintain. When you come back home, try to leave all your official accessories in the office, which will let you engaged in your personal activities.
