Healthy work-life balance refers to maintaining a harmonious relationship between your work and personal life. It involves consciously managing your time and energy to meet both professional and personal commitments while prioritizing self-care and well-being.
Just like in our diets, to stay healthy and energized for the long haul, people need variety. When it comes to work-life balance, people need to engage in a variety of activities and rest. We tend to fall into the trap of believing that we can be productive all the time, or that an eight-hour day at work equates to eight hours of output. However, that is hard, if not impossible, for many individuals to achieve.
Plus, overworking has negative consequences for both employees and employers.
Workaholics and those who struggle to practice self-care find themselves at higher risk for burnout, fatigue, and stress-related health issues. Poor work-life balance can also leave employees working more hours but being less productive.
In an ideal world, this line of thinking goes: after work, we’re able to spend time on things that nourish us as people. This could involve spending time with friends and family or engaging in a hobby.
Some characteristics of a healthy work-life balance may include:
- Setting boundaries: This involves establishing clear boundaries between work and personal life by defining specific working hours and separating work-related tasks from personal activities.
- Time management: Efficiently organising and prioritizing tasks, ensuring that you allocate enough time for work responsibilities as well as personal pursuits, such as spending time with family, engaging in hobbies, or pursuing personal goals
- Stress management: Implementing strategies to manage stress levels, such as practising mindfulness, engaging in regular physical activity, taking breaks, and unplugging from work-related activities when needed
- Flexibility: Having the ability to adapt and adjust your schedule to accommodate unforeseen circumstances or personal needs without jeopardizing work commitments
Signs of an unbalanced work-life dynamic
Poor work-life balance can have a far bigger impact than just skipping the gym. One study found that the risk of stroke is higher in people who work more than 55 hours a week. The same amount of work hours is also associated with a higher risk of anxiety and depression. And even when adjusting for fairly normal sleep patterns, another study found that working longer hours correlated with a decline in physical health.
By its very definition, work-life balance impacts all areas of your life. It tends to show up differently for different people, however.
Here are eight characteristics associated with poor balance:
- You can’t stop thinking about work when you’re not at work. Those who find it difficult to draw boundaries between work and life are at higher risk of burnout.
- Your relationships — both inside and outside of work — are beginning to suffer. You may be easily irritated with coworkers and distant from loved ones.
- You feel off. You have unexplained aches and pains. You may rarely have energy or find it difficult to focus when at work.
- When you’re not at work, everything seems uninteresting or unimportant. You just don’t feel like doing anything unless you have to. You often turn down invitations, further isolating yourself from your friends.
- You spend a lot of money outsourcing support for personal tasks. Your laundry, dishes, and mail pile up, waiting for the day when you “have time” to get around to them.
- You struggle to take time off when you’re sick, mentally strained, or when you need to take care of personal tasks. You don’t remember your last vacation and you don’t have plans to take one.
- You can’t imagine doing what you do for the rest of your life. Even if you work in a field or a company you once loved, it feels impossible to imagine continuing life as it is for long.
- You always feel like no matter what you’re doing, you should be doing something else. Over time, this lack of presence and direction often leads to an existential crisis.
How to improve work-life balance
The truth is, no prescription will fit everyone. And you may have to play with what time scale feels most relevant to you. Trying to find balance in any single day may feel frustrating, but the balance may be easier to achieve across a week or more.
The best way to determine the best balance for you is by learning to check in with your inner compass — and your results.
With intentionality and a little creativity, you can recalibrate your expectations and reset your work-home balance.
Here are a few tips to have a good work-life balance:
Plan ahead
Plan to combine work with leisure, social, or fitness activities. If you find yourself with several virtual meetings back-to-back, try taking them while you go for a walk. You could also take a call outside (if ambient noise allows!) or invite a friend over to work with you.
Embrace the way your brain works
Use productivity hacks like a Pomodoro timer to work in short, focused bursts. Block out all other distractions so you can make the most of your time.
Set blocks of time for different tasks
Designate a time to check (and respond to) messages, a time to take meetings, and a time to do mentally intensive work. It helps to anchor these tasks around the times that you are personally more productive.
End work at a certain time
There’s a saying that “work expands to fill the time allotted,” and when you work from home, it’s even easier to let work spill over into personal time. Set a time to end work for the day, and reinforce it by powering down work-related devices, locking your office, or scheduling something afterwards.
Discovering that the relationship between work and home life is off-kilter is the first step in rectifying it. It might take some time, but small daily or weekly habits can make a huge difference in the long run. If you need help in building out a plan to improve your work-life balance, coaching can help.
