Four tips to help you strike a healthy work life balance

Four tips to help you strike a healthy work life balance

Work life balance looks different to everyone. It may be working 60 hours a week and spending time with your children before they go to bed, or it may be working 25 hours a week and travelling the globe frequently. Whatever it looks like to you, it’s important to strike a balance both for your sanity and your health.

If you don’t have a balance, you will likely wake up in 10 years time regretting all of the things you missed out on. Why didn’t I travel more, or why didn’t I ever learn that language I wanted to?

Not only do you want to have minimal regrets, you want to be in optimum health to ensure you can enjoy the benefits from your hard work. It’s no secret that stress is the number one evil as it can cause a number of symptoms and affect your health in numerous ways.

Consider implementing the below tips to get your balance beam a little straighter.

Set priorities and accomplish them

Writing lists isn’t a sign of becoming old and forgetful; in fact, it’s incredibly beneficial for getting things off your mind and balancing work, life and family.

Write a list and then prioritise your daily tasks to ensure you aren’t spreading yourself too thin.

If you don’t prioritise, you can become flustered and preoccupied during down time or time that should instead be spent enjoying friends and family.

Action things as soon as you receive them

This leads me to my next point, which is action things as soon as you receive them. Either action it yourself, or delegate it to someone else to action.

This doesn’t include responding to emails however, as checking emails and responding as soon as they pop into your inbox can in fact make you less productive. Instead, if you see something important and know it needs to be prioritised, let it jump up your to-do list or if it’s an email someone else can assist with, forward it onto them.

Set daily goals to do something for yourself

Each day, set yourself a goal of doing something that you enjoy.

Whether it’s a fancy lunch or a walk around the river with headphones in. It doesn’t need to be time consuming, but it must either make you smile, take your mind off work or help you relax a little.

Admit that you can’t do everything

And that’s ok. Most people think they can remain sane while juggling work, family, friends and a social life. But it’s important to understand if you’re thriving, or just surviving.

It’s not a sign of failure to admit you can’t do it all and it’s ok to rely on support networks around you. After all, isn’t that what family and friends are for? When you admit that you can’t do everything, it takes a weight off your shoulders – you just need to change the way you think about it.

This comes back to prioritising what you spend your time on. If you can’t do everything, what is a priority? This may be spending more time with your children, or taking more time for yourself. Running your own business may be the most important thing to you, so it’s whether you prioritise late nights and weekend work over downtime.

One of my favourite quotes is by C.S Lewis – “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the end.”

It’s never too late to implement the balance and gain control of your focus.

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