“Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life”
Many of us are familiar with the phrase that is “Work-Life Balance” but only a few are aware of what exactly this means. A quick google search will tell you that “Work–life balance is a concept including proper prioritising between "work" (career and ambition) and "lifestyle" (health, pleasure, leisure, family and spiritual development/meditation).” But what does the proper prioritisation look like and how do you maintain this work life balance. Here are a few tips to guide you through the process.
Build downtime in your schedule
As you plan your weekly schedule allocate several hours to spend with your family. If you’re long overdue on a date night with your wife or an evening with your friends or even some downtime with your family make plans as the week begins so that there’s a less chance of you forgetting or even the schedule overlapping. If work is all you do, then make the time in your schedule to have a walk or run to get some fresh air and exercise. Although work might not permit you to do all this, make sure to take some time to yourself. The hours don’t stretch but you can always make sure you save a few for yourself.
Find an activity
If you have time to spend but nothing to spend it on. Find yourself an activity that you would like to invest that time on. Because idling at home leads to a lazy start to your day. And when you don’t have something to fill that extra time, you might just end up working to avoid it. Take a hike, explore new places, get together with friends, join a gym, start reading a book or listen to an audio book. There are plenty of activities out there, you just need to find your interest and go from there.
Rethink your weekly schedule
If you are someone that tends to over schedule your week, take a few minutes to rethink the plans you made for the week. Do you really need to spend an extra hour at work venting to your friends? Do you need to run your errands on multiple days? Or can you allocate a few hours from a day to finish it all. If your time could be better spent relaxing or getting some exercise at the gym. Create your schedule in a way that permits you to have some down time for yourself.
Work life balance in the simplest form in having time to live both lives, personal and professional. If you spend most of your time buried under a pile of files or behind a flat screen monitor, it’s time to rethink your schedule and make some changes. Never let one aspect of your life overtake the other, although that sounds quite impossible in a fast paced professional atmosphere with a little bit of effort and thinking one step ahead, will get you there.
