Technalink believes in people working hard with passion, commitment, and integrity. However, it’s also critical to acknowledge that work, while important, is not all that life is. Maintaining a good work-life balance benefits both aspects of a person’s life. Without a positive life, work is impacted, and without a good work ethic, personal life can be negatively affected.
Here are three areas of life people should be evaluating if they are looking for ways to even out the work-life balance to something more healthy and productive.
Defining Boundaries
It seems obvious, but many people forget that a crucial factor in good work-life balance is a clear separation between the two aspects. In the same way that the workplace prefers you not to do personal life-related activities while on the job, the same courtesy should be extended to personal life spaces. Disconnect access to work calls and emails when you are at home. Refuse overtime when there is no emergency need to, and people engage in it to increase productivity.
When it is time to work, it is time to work, but when it is your personal time, respecting this area of your life is also important.
Switching Work Off
Similar to boundaries is the ability to make a distinction in mindset when it comes to work-life balance. Now that the workday is over, you should try to stop thinking about work. You should not suddenly get a work-related thought and stop your personal life to attend to it.
For those who still commute to a workplace, this can sometimes be easier to achieve, as commuting time often marks a transitional period, gradually switching “work mode” off and slowly reviving personal time. Those who work at home may need to resort to other techniques, such as scheduling exercise time to mark this transitional period.
Change Your Structure
Another way to attain a better work-life balance is to change the way you work. For example, if you’re currently doing a traditional 9-5 job, five days a week, is it possible to change your hours or location? What if you only worked four days a week? Or what if you did a hybrid, three days at the workplace and two days at home? Or what if your working hours were more flexible, and you came and left at different hours?
Sometimes, changing your work structure is enough to tip the scales of work-life balance in your favor. A couple of extra days at home during the week, for example, may make a gigantic difference in your ability to manage your time between work periods and personal life periods.
Work Is An Avoidance Tactic
Another common area where the work-life balance can be disrupted is when work becomes a crutch or a vehicle for avoiding something happening in the personal life. This is a well-understood psychological tactic, as work is generally considered a necessary and positive aspect of life, so focusing more on work to avoid dealing with personal life issues can often be regarded as a good thing, initially.
However, ignoring aspects of personal life does not make these things go away, and it often tends to accelerate a problem’s growth. As we’ve already seen, one aspect of life will affect another, so ignoring a personal life problem by drowning in work will eventually impact work as well, often resulting in degrading performance that may lead to the job itself being threatened.
There are plenty of other ways to learn and develop this critical work-life balance. To learn more about healthier work-life balance and cultivating a sense of mindfulness, The Om Factor: A Women’s Spiritual Guide To Leadership is available in print, digital, and audiobook formats.
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