Top Tips for Achieving Work-Life Balance

One of the most widely discussed issues in the corporate world over the past few years have been how employees could achieve a healthy work-life balance. The main motivator behind this debate was the growing realization that many people were working in ways that were seriously detrimental to their family relationships and general health. The best way to respond to the current discussion is to make sure that the growing awareness about work-life balance is not something that you are merely vaguely aware of but that it is something that that you seriously consider and implement in your own life. Here are some of the ways in which you can work towards achieving this balance in your own life:

1) Honestly evaluate where you are at: The first step to achieving work-life balance is to evaluate carefully whether you are currently ‘in balance’ or not. You can do this by asking yourself the following questions:

·         Is my work encroaching on my family and/or personal life? The best way to answer this question is to take honest stock of your relationships and to evaluate whether any of them are being harmed by too little time being invested in them. Another way of doing this would be to simply add up the hours that you spend working (both by formally being at work and taking work home).

·         Is my work affecting my health? It can sometimes be the case that work related stress becomes so severe that it causes all kinds of health problems ranging from sleeplessness to depression. If you think that you are suffering from any health problems that could be traced back to your working environment a good case could be made for reshaping the way in which you think about work-life balance issues.

·         Am I struggling to ‘switch off’? You don’t have to constantly be at work for it to completely dominate your life. If you are constantly thinking about what is happening at work while you are not there it is in a sense just as good as being there!

2) Design appropriate boundaries: One of the most common difficulties when trying to strike the right work-life balance is that both employers and employees are often not very clear where the one begins and the other one stop. Do your best to clearly define this boundary in consultation with your managers. This definition should include very practical matters like when you may be contacted when not at work and under which circumstances you may be asked to work overtime and for how long. You should also note that technology greatly contributed to the blurring of the lines between private and work life. It would therefore be appropriate to make the point that even though your emails may reach you instantly (e.g. through a Blackberry) an instant response should not be expected if you are not at work.

3) Investigate alternative way of working: Modern technology makes it possible to be ‘in the office’ while not actually being there physically. It may therefore be worth your while to investigate whether it might not be appropriate in your case to work from home at least part time. Doing this will obviously help you to reduce the time you spend commuting. Time gained in this way can of course be used invest in your family or in personal pursuits.

4) Get the best possible help and advice: Designing the best strategy for maintaining work-life balance can be a slightly complex exercise since it is so heavily dependent on your own circumstances, goals and work environment. It would therefore be worth your while to spend time with someone who could help you by bringing and informed “outsiders’ perspective”. This may simply be a co-worker who seems to have struck the balance in the right way; you could however also seek out the services of a professional counselor or consultant. Before seeking outside help you should start by raising any questions or concerns that you might have with your direct manager. This will, at the very least, flag up the issue as something that you feel deserves attention. It could often also lead to the manager working through some of the issues with you in order to achieve a mutually beneficial outcome.

5) Take care of your health: One of the most common results of a lack of work-life balance is ‘burnout’. This is where the mind and body simply cannot take the long hours; stress and lack of exercise associated with overwork anymore. Do your best to avoid this by:

·         Always taking your full holiday entitlement

·         Getting enough sleep and exercise

·         Monitoring your diet

Recommended reading:

Molloy, A, 2005 Stop Living Your Job, Start Living Your Life: 85 Simple Strategies to Achieve Work/Life Balance Berkeley: Ulysess Press