For some, 2024 is the year for finding your work-life balance. But how do you get to an improved situation?
Often, finding your work-life balance is about starting with a specific step. You purposely create a habit that enriches you.
Recently, I polled my LinkedIn connections and followers about some best practices for finding your work-life balance. Here is a breakdown of the voting:
- Prioritizing Self-Care: 80%
- Reducing Overtime: 8%
- Less Screen Time: 6%
- Scheduling More Breaks: 6%
Let’s discuss these options and see if one can help you with finding your work-life balance.
Prioritizing Self-Care
This is a bit of an umbrella solution but self-care is about taking charge of your health. While you may use professionals to help you improve yourself, you’re taking a proactive approach. You shouldn’t allow yourself to become damaged and then pay someone to put you back together.
It’s big picture thinking that can apply to a lot of areas. For instance, if you feel like you never get enough sleep, you would come up with a strategy to get more sleep. This might include improving your sleeping area, not eating before you go to bed, or building in a relaxing routine before you go to sleep. Maybe you talk to a doctor about a medical solution.
As I see it, when you prioritize self-care, you’re not allowed to do nothing and just complain about the problem.
Reducing Overtime
At work, there will always be one more thing that you have to do. But is it something that needs to be done at the moment?
If it’s 5 p.m. or later, does this activity really need to be done right then, or can it wait until the next morning? Is there a chance you might be able to get it done faster and better, if you take it on after a good night’s sleep?
These are questions that are important to ask when it comes to finding your work-life balance. While it can be admirable to show urgency with your work, shouldn’t you also express urgency with your personal life?
Less Screen Time
Today’s phones, tablets, and computers can provide endless online adventures. But while you’re staring at a screen, what are you not looking at?
Every day, we get a certain amount of time to do things. Consider if some of your screen time could be reallocated to different activities.
For example, while I like to periodically look at sports scores, how many times do I really need to check them? I could take some of that time and use it instead to do a five to ten-minute meditation break. Meditation is something I benefit from but never feel like I have the time to accomplish it.
But reducing my screen time, my meditation goal is now achievable.
Scheduling More Breaks
How many of us get in the habit of skipping breaks? There always seems to be something else to do, even though we know a break will be beneficial.
If you have trouble honoring your breaks, then consider using technology to help you build this habit. Set an alarm for the times when you need to stop working. There’s something about an alarm that makes it harder to just ignore giving yourself a break.
Over time, you may stop thinking of breaks as lost productivity and more like a chance to recharge and come back stronger to your work.
Let’s Create a Memorable Meeting
