How To Achieve a Better Work-Life Balance For Your Health
Over the past year, in light of the pandemic, more people have been working from home than ever. While you may initially think this means that it would be easier to have a good work-life balance, in reality, working from home makes this more difficult to achieve.
Regardless of your industry, many people feel the need to over-work to get ahead or just to stay afloat. However, having a good work-life balance is important for your mental and physical health and in turn affects your productivity at work and your life at home.
If you’re feeling overworked or you’re unable to manage your work and home responsibilities successfully, here are some tips to help you regain control.
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Identify the Cause of Your Stress
When you’re overwhelmed with work, it may be hard to pinpoint the exact cause. Often times it just feels there aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done. Once you start with a concrete list of the factors that are causing you to feel overwhelmed then you can identify how to make changes.
To get started, here are some examples of questions to ask yourself:
Do you feel that your manager or boss has unrealistic expectations or doesn’t understand the full extent of your workload?
If you run your own business are you overwhelmed with the day-to-day tasks of keeping your business afloat?
Do you already have a full workload and then come home to what feels like a second job of childcare and managing your household?
Once you list out everything you can then start to determine where you can make changes to your lifestyle to reduce stress.
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Set More Boundaries
Depending on your list of stressors you can try some of the following solutions. These are guidelines, so think about what best fits your circumstances.
Prioritize, Prioritize, Prioritize
If you feel that you’re struggling to dig yourself out of a hole or just keep your head above water, then you’ll need to prioritize the most important from the least important.
This may be a challenge if everything is important. Accept that you need to let go of perfectionism and stop trying to do everything. Some things may not get done or will need to wait. It’s ok for the sake of your mental health and well-being.
Learn to say no and recognize the value of your time
Time is one of your most valuable resources and it’s a common mistake to take on too much by saying “yes” to everything. Whether you’re scared of looking like you can’t keep up or genuinely want to be helpful, recognize that you can’t do everything. It’s ok to say no to things that aren’t realistic for you to take on.
If you’re an employee this may involve talking to your boss or manager and setting boundaries with other co-workers.
If you run your own business, this may mean saying no to projects or opportunities that at the end of the day are not worth your time. This also may mean outsourcing some aspects of your business, and delegating some of the work, because realistically you can’t do it all.
Limit your work hours or set a schedule
In addition to re-evaluating your priorities to help manage your workload, try limiting your work hours or set a schedule.
As we have all spent more time working from home, it’s easy to feel chained to your desk or computer all day. By not having to drive to and from work, it’s easy to spend that extra time you used to commute now working.
So if you feel that you’re now living at work vs. working from home. Try to limit your work hours by setting a schedule so you’re signed off from work by a certain time each day. Don’t let work bleed into your evenings or early in the morning.
That won’t mean that you won’t still have some late nights or early mornings, but you’ll at least have more of a balance.
Unplug
Make sure that you also have some time to unplug. This means times in the day where you’re not thinking about work. You need to literally turn off from work to carve out time for yourself and your loved ones. This means no checking work emails or slacks on your phone.
Depending on your job this might result in different things. You can unplug after 6 pm and do not think about work until the next day. Or you can take a walk, workout, cook dinner, read a novel in bed - any activity where you are not engaging with work at all to let yourself decompress.
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Rethink Daily or Weekly Activities
When you’re assessing your list of stressors you may need to reconsider some of the habits that you’ve built or some of your regular activities.
Cut out what isn’t necessary and think about changing things up. If you have a partner and the demands of home life feel impossible to manage with your workload, talk about how you can manage various tasks differently to even the load.
Women typically feel the pressure do it all, have a demanding job and raise a family, so they take on a lot of the home responsibilities while also a full-time career. Do not be afraid to speak up for yourself if you see that you’re taking on more in the relationship.
Is there anything around the house that you can outsource? If you can afford some help in certain areas whether is cleaning or childcare it may be worth it.
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