Establishing an appropriate work/life balance is a challenging task for most people. However, perfecting this skill is one that is vital to ensuring a high quality of life. Check out these tips to help you maintain a healthy balance between the two.
Make Time for Yourself
You can’t give 100% to your job if you’re only giving 30% to yourself. You need to make sure you’re carving out time during your day to focus on self-care. Take yourself to the gym, eat healthy food, read a fun book, and get an appropriate amount of sleep every night. According to an article written for mentalhealthamerica.net, “Being in good shape physically increases your tolerance to stress and reduces sick days. Eat right, exercise and get adequate rest. Don’t rely on drugs, alcohol or cigarettes to cope with stress; they’ll only lead to more problems.” Treat your body right and you’ll be surprised how much easier it is to accomplish your to-do list.
Set Work Hours and Abide by Them
Setting and sticking to your work hours is similar to setting boundaries for yourself in a relationship. You can’t be a pushover and let work ‘walk all over you’. Decide when you’re going to start and finish work each day and strictly abide by that. Without boundaries, work will slowly start taking over your personal time. Creating that balance is vital to your happiness. Make sure to prioritize it.
Check in with Yourself
Life can be stressful. Sometimes when we’re in the thick of an incredibly hectic work week, we forget to check in with ourselves. If you’re having a rough time, take a break. Consider what is working for you and what isn’t so you can make adjustments for the following week. You have the ability to treat each day and week as a ‘trial period’ so tweak your schedule until it suits you best. There will be some things you can’t control, but try not to focus on them. Take the things you can control and turn them into the best case scenario for you.
Know your Limits
It’s okay to say no. Resist the urge to ‘do it all’. Over committing is a huge problem we often create for ourselves. When you overload your schedule, it not only causes stress and anxiety, it leads to us feeling incredibly burnt out. The fact is, most of us are going to be working for 40+ years. Wearing yourself down even halfway through that time span is doing yourself a huge disservice. It’s so important to know your limits. When you learn them, you can become comfortable expressing them to others. This will help you separate work and home life and will allow you to figure out what workload and schedule strike the best balance for you.
Don’t let work wear you down. Take the time you need to recharge your batteries. In doing so, you will create lasting happiness as you continuously work on your work/life balance
