Work Life Balance?

Having a good balance between work and life is a win-win situation.  It’s crucial for our wellbeing, relationships and satisfaction with life, but it’s also important for our work too. We are much more likely to enjoy our job if it doesn’t get in the way of the things we value in our personal lives, such as relationships or hobbies. When we like our job, we’re then also much more likely to be productive and have stronger performance as a result.

A satisfactory balance between work and life is different for everyone. Some people are happiest when they are working towards advancing their career, so their ideal balance includes more work-related activities. Some people are most satisfied when spending time with their family, so their ideal balance includes being at home more.

We’re human beings, we’re all different. To achieve an ideal work-life balance, it’s important to be really clear and honest about what our values and priorities in life are – and there are no right or wrong answers. When the amount of time you spend at work is incongruent with your values and priorities, especially over a period of time, this creates a problem which impacts both your life satisfaction and the way you feel about your job. The key point here is, we get to choose what out ideal work-life or life-work balance is!

If you feel like your balance is not what you want it to be, give the following tips a go:

• Set clear expectations both at home and at work about what your boundaries are.
• Put ‘life time’ in your calendar and make sure you stick to it, as you would if it were a meeting with a client, a deadline for a piece of work or a required training activity. 
• Make sure you have enough time for both socialising and downtime.
• Switch off at the end of the day, and don’t let your mind wander to tomorrows agenda. Make the active decision to focus solely on your personal time.

In the scheme of life, our health, happiness and wellbeing comes first. And believe it or not, we are actually entitled to have lives outside of our workplaces! Of course, changing everything all at once isn’t always the best option, so start with making some small adjustments to your routine and focus on making them stick. If you feel your work is impacting your satisfaction with your personal life and would like some additional support or advice, then Mindstar might be able to help.