It can be difficult to find a balance between your career, family, friends, hobbies and other commitments. Often, people only consider work-life balance when they perceive this to be an issue, or feel dissatisfied with their current role.
This article explains how you can improve the balance between your work and personal life, so you feel happier and able to enjoy your life.
What is work-life balance?
Work-life balance is about achieving a balance between the different areas of your life such as your career, spending time with friends and family, participating in hobbies, engaging in personal, spiritual or educational development, exercising, caring for others, resting and anything else which is important to you. It means having enough time to pursue your career and the things you love which make your life seem worthwhile. When your job feels like it’s taking over your life, or you have so many personal commitments you can’t give your best at work, it can lead to stress, dissatisfaction, a loss of productivity, illness and burnout.
You can look at work-life balance as a continuum (or straight line) one end of the line has 100% of your waking hours spent at work, with plenty of money but no time to spend with friends, family or to enjoy life. The other end has 100% of your waking hours spent with your friends, family, hobbies etc, but no work and no money. Work-life balance is about finding the right balance of work (and money) whilst having time to enjoy your life. Work-life balance is your own perception, so it will vary from person to person, it may involve working full-time, part-time, or not at all.
The right degree of work-life balance will vary at different times in your life. A person on maternity leave, caring for their family, unemployed or retired may not currently have work responsibilities, however they have probably had these in the past and may well have these again in the future. It can be helpful to view the stages of your life like chapters in a book, which can include: your time at school/university, your early career, whilst you have a young family, whilst your children are teenagers, after your children move out of home, mid-career, late career and retirement. Someone who is driven to progress their career may find work-life balance by prioritising work and study, whereas parents with young children, or people with caring responsibilities may prefer to work fewer hours (or no hours) and return to part-time or full-time employment at a later stage.
Establish your priorities
In order to find the right work-life balance for you, the first step is to identify what is most important to you.
How important is work/your career? Are you actively trying to progress? How much do you need/want to earn? Is working part-time an option? Do you think you would feel happier by reducing your spending so you can work fewer hours?
What other things are important in your life? This may include things like spending time with friends and family, participating in hobbies, engaging in personal, spiritual or educational development, exercising, caring for others and anything else which is important to you.
What do you love doing? If you love travelling or a particular hobby, it’s important to make time / money available for this, otherwise you’re likely to feel something is missing. If you’re struggling to answer this, it may be time to try some new activities, or revisit some old ones.
The next step is to prioritise this by identifying which activities are vitally important, less important but still necessary, desirable but not essential. Also think about what you wish you were able to do, but do not have time for, and whether there are any activities you would like to drop. Some people may want to eat together as a family in the evening, or pick up their children from school, others may want to reduce international business travel.
Aligning your priorities and activities
Once you’ve identified your priorities, review how you currently spend your time and identify any areas which you’d like to improve. Next, identify the causes and possible solutions to the lack of work-life balance. Are you working too many hours? Are work commitments creeping into your non-work time. Are you taking on too many tasks? How are you using your free time in the evening, are you spending longer watching television or browsing the Internet than you realise?
If you regularly struggle to leave the office on time, ask yourself, “what can I do to leave earlier?”. Could you potentially delegate or ask for assistance with tasks which regularly take longer than they should, such as asking a colleague to attend a long weekly meeting which adds little value and provide you with notes, or working with someone to automate or streamline processes? Discuss your concerns and possible solutions with your manager. You may also want to ask your manager about flexible working opportunities such as working from home, compressed hours (working full time over four days per week), or working slightly different hours to allow you to drop off (or collect) school age children. You may wish to create clearer boundaries between your work and personal life, for instance not checking emails, answering telephone calls, or logging back on to complete a task after you finish work. If it isn’t possible to improve work-life balance in your current role, it may be time to look for a new role.
Allow time for yourself
We all carry out many different roles every day. At work, you may be a leader, a colleague and a mentor, at home a parent, a carer, a sibling and a friend. When we neglect one of these roles, we can quickly feel out of balance. We all need some time to ourselves to recharge by doing things we enjoy.
Do you need professional advice on improving your work-life balance? As a Career Coach, I provide individual coaching, either as a one-off session or as part of a career coaching package, as well a CV Writing and interview coaching service – please don’t hesitate to contact me.
