Achieving Work Life Play Balance
Technology can be a double-edged sword – remote access to email, Skype, smart phones and easy access to the Internet via our mobiles has allowed given us the ability to work from home and in theory, achieving work life balance but has this inadvertently increased the hours we work?
Here are five work life balance strategies to rein back your work hours, get your personal life back and working to live instead of living to work.
Negotiate working from home
Working from home is an ideal way in achieving a work life balance and adding more flexibility to your day. You can save hours commuting back and forth to work, develop an exercise routine you can stick to and save money on transport and lunches. Working from home though can also be fraught with problems and you can easily develop bad habits such as working longer hours, lacking motivation and discipline.
Read more about how to avoid social isolation, bad work from home habits to avoid and ways to motivate yourself while working from home.
Work smarter not harder
Instead of adding more hours to your workload, try and stay within the realm of your standard working day by working smarter not harder. Sounds easy doesn’t it? Learning to use your time more effectively is an important skill that every person can learn whether they are the receptionist or the CEO. Here are some time management tips to add more balance to your day:
• creating To Do lists
• prioritising your workload
• have regular meetings and catch-ups
• learning to delegate
• managing expectations
• manage your employees and colleagues
• managing yourself
Learn more about our time management tips and how to improve work satisfaction.
Switch off your phone
Unless you are on call, an easy way to avoid working longer hours is simply switching off your phone or avoiding checking work emails after your work day has ended. Set boundaries with your staff and colleagues – if people know that you are available after work hours, they are more likely to call you. Another alternative is to set aside half an hour each night to check your messages which will help in achieving a work life balance.
Make your health a priority
Your health should always be an important part of your life but it can suffer and affect all areas of your life if you are working long hours, stressing out about work and not getting enough sleep. Make your health a priority by going to sleep at a reasonable hour, choosing healthy options for meals and snacks when you are at work and taking time out to exercise at least three times a week.
Learn more about strategies to minimise stress in the workplace and regain a work life balance.
Get a life
If you have hobbies and interests outside of your normal working day, this will encourage you to leave the office at a reasonable hour and it will also put your colleagues and manager on notice that you will need to leave work at a certain time. This may involve exercising at the gym, doing a course at a community college, joining a club or learning a new skill. Sadly, sometimes people fall into a routine of working extra hours because they simply don’t have other things to do.
Follow these tips and you will be happily on your way to tipping the scales in favour of a work life balance. Finding time for work, life and play is very important. If you discover that it is a constant challenge to find a workable balance between the three, then you may want to even think about changing your work role, finding a job in a different location or even changing your career to help in achieving a work life balance.