Balance is key in all we do in life, our work and personal life inclusive.
According to businessnewsdaily.com, work-life balance is the state of equilibrium where a person equally prioritizes the demands of one’s career and the demands of one’s personal life.
Oftentimes, people find it hard to achieve a good work-life balance as they have not been able to strike a balance between these two essential components of their life. You see individuals who make use of the time meant for their loved ones on their work projects and deadlines to the detriment of their homes and vice versa.
Having an unhealthy work-life balance as an employee affects your physical and mental health and this, in the long run, reduces your productivity to the barest minimum.
There are various reasons for unhealthy work-life balance, and they include increased responsibilities at work, working longer hours, increased responsibilities at home, parenting, and so on.
Balancing your professional and personal life can be challenging, but it’s essential. Discussed in this article are five ways to achieve good work-life balance.
1. Proper planning
Adequate preparation is said to prevent poor performance. One of the reasons people fail in achieving a good work-life balance is a lack of proper planning.
Planning your day-to-day activities at work and at home helps you achieve a good balance between your personal life and work. Adequate planning helps individuals organise their tasks in order of importance.
You don’t just achieve a good work-life balance through proper planning of your daily activities. You need to learn to stick to and work with your plan.
When you plan your day ahead, you are able to strike a balance between your personal life and work without having any of the two affect each other.
2. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle
Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is important if you must achieve a healthy work-life balance.
As a worker or business owner who seeks to achieve a good work-life balance, you must prioritise your health and overall well-being since it goes a long way in determining your productivity.
A healthy lifestyle helps you cope with stress, eliminate various health risks, and it rejuvenates you and ensures your effectiveness as a worker or business owner.
You can maintain a healthy lifestyle by taking breaks while at work, eating healthy meals at the appropriate time, getting enough sleep at night, and exercising daily.
When you maintain a healthy lifestyle, you not only achieve a good work-life balance, but you also excel in your career and in life.
3. Setting work boundaries
To achieve a good work-life balance, you need to set boundaries in place. The inability of employees and employers to set boundaries for where their work activities stop has been a major cause of unhealthy work-life balance.
Oftentimes, you see employees and business owners taking their work home to make up for the deadlines.
Your inability to leave work at the workplace is a major reason for the lack of balance between your personal life and work.
When you set work boundaries, you are able to avoid getting burned out in the workplace, as a lack of boundaries prevents you from getting enough rest that your body requires and it also hinders other aspects of your life.
To achieve a good work-life balance, set boundaries.
4. Time management
Another tip to help you achieve a good work-life balance is time management. Time management is a very important aspect when it comes to having a proper work-life balance.
Most individuals tend to ignore this phase. As a result, they end up getting overwhelmed by work at the end of the day with no time for themselves.
To achieve a good work-life balance, you must make sure you have a good control of your time.
5. Creating quality time for yourself and your loved ones.
While your job is important, it shouldn’t be your entire life. You were an individual before taking the position you occupy at your workplace.
Therefore, it is important you don’t lose that identity because of your work.
You need to create time for yourself and loved ones if you must achieve a good work-life balance. And this decision requires deliberate action and intentionality.
The truth is, if you do not plan for personal time, you will never have time to do other things outside of work. This, therefore, foregrounds the need for intentionality and deliberateness in deciding that no matter how hectic your schedule might be, you will always create time for yourself and your loved ones.
Always remember that “no one at your workplace will ever love you, stand by you or appreciate you the way your loved ones do” and also do not forget to bear in mind that “everyone is replaceable at work.”
In all, either as a business owner, an employee or employer, we all need to learn how to achieve a good work-life balance. We need to ensure that every and any aspect of our lives is not affected as a result of our inability to strike a balance between our personal life and career.
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