Achieving Work-Life Balance

Rock-ScaleGiven the weak global economy today, many people are glad just to have a job. More are likely to stay on in a job they do not enjoy simply because any job is better than no job. Having said that, it is better to enjoy your work than to simply put up with it. And you enjoy work more when you attain that elusive thing referred to nowadays as work-life balance.
Creative Commons License photo credit: neurmadic aesthetic

Enjoy what you do

The single best thing you can do to achieve work-life balance is to find work that you like, enjoy, love, or generally feel good about. Without this basic passion for work, life will feel out of balance as long as you have to work, since you’ll always be wishing you could be doing other things.

I have met many people who work long hours, including weekends, but are genuinely happy because they cannot imagine what they would do with their waking hours if they did not do what they did. In other words, they actually love what they do.

When you enjoy your work, then it enriches your life and gives you a sense of meaning and self-fulfilment. Work becomes one of the necessary components of life’s balance, as your life would be considerably less satisfying without it.

Take breaks during the day

If you are self-employed or work for a company that allows flexibility in working hours, you may have the option of taking a few hours off during the day to do whatever you want. You could have a long lunch, go to the gym, or get some errands done, and make up for these hours by working later that day. Although this method results in your going home later, you feel like you had a good day taking care of yourself and life in general, rather than a day just filled with work.

If you have no such flexibility, use the lunch hour or tea breaks to change your routine. Some people exercise during lunch, bringing a change of clothes so they can jog for half and hour, shower in fifteen minutes, then grab a sandwich during the remaining 15 minutes of the break.

During shorter morning and afternoon tea breaks, you could call your family or friends just to say hi and have a quick chat. Over the course of weeks and months, you’ll feel like different aspects of your life have been taken care of, even if your working hours don’t change much.

Socialise at work

Humans are social animals and one of the reasons your life feels out of balance is that you have sacrificed social activities for work. If you resume social activities, you may feel happier about life in general even with the same amount of work.

Arrange to have lunch with colleagues, one on one or in a group, instead of eating at your desk. Make it a point to do this at least once a week, more if you feel like it. Find out which of your friends work near your office or have flexible schedules which allow them to travel to meet you for lunch.

Instead of talking only about work over lunch, switch your focus to each other, families, hobbies, current affairs or any other topic. If you talk about work even at a social event, it will feel like you have worked all day. If you talk about everything else, you can go back to work after lunch with a fresh mind.

Learn to focus completely

This means that when you’re at home, you are focused completely on the kids, playing with them and being absorbed in that play. If you merely go through the motions of playing while worrying about a project at work, you do neither the project nor the children any justice. And you will feel even more tired after the play session because you have been trying to do two things at once, whilst throwing yourself into the play would have refreshed you.

While at work, focusing completely will also ensure that you get a task done in less time than if you were constantly distracted. The quality of your work is likely to be better, requiring less re-work and other forms of fire-fighting later.

In sum, the way to achieve work-life balance is not necessarily to work less, but to put more life into your work. When you stop mentally dividing your daily activities into work and non-work categories, and instead welcome all of it as part of a fulfilling life, you’ll have achieved this elusive but wonderful balance.



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Posted by Daphne | November 24, 2008 | in Work Hard


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