Mental health professionals constantly warn us against turning into workaholics but despite our best efforts, responsibilities take over and push us away from finding a healthy work-life balance. Most of us spend more of our lives wondering how to balance work and life than seeing any success in it, and over time, this affects both our productivity and our overall health. This leaves us full of work-life balance ideas, chasing a packed schedule with no actual net gain.
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A work-life balance, meaning a balanced experience of your career and the rest of your life, should be the natural state of matters as most of us work to be able to provide good lives for ourselves and our families. The reality is quite different, with the singular component of work dominating our time. Even when we are away from work, it quite often spills into our personal lives and distracts us from the peace we find externally. More than just a trendy topic, it is important for us to learn how to improve our work-life balance if we want to achieve any of the goals we have planned in our lives.
Work-Life Balance Meaning
According to Nancy Lockwood’s 2003 Research Quarterly for SHRM, a work-life balance can be defined as “A state of equilibrium in which the demands of both a person’s job and personal life are equal.” The use of the term can be traced back as far as 1986, but its frequency has multiplied in recent years. PositivePsychology reports that a lot of the term’s early use was centered around women joining the workforce and pushing forth concerns about whether they were capable of working while also overseeing their family life.
The term rose in popularity as labor movements started to gain momentum in redefining the workweek structure and their priorities. In recent employee-centric conversations and movements, discussions of burnout have forced employers to consider how they can help employees separate their work from their personal lives.
Why Should Companies Care About the Work-Life Balance
It’s obvious why employees care about a work-life balance—it allows them to live and enjoy their lives instead of working all day and night. It also allows them to prioritize their personal goals on their own time. But understanding the meaning of a work-life balance should be just as important to businesses, no matter what their ultimate targets are.
Poor Work-Life Balance Leads to Burnout
McKinsey’s survey found that one in every four employees experienced burnout, which is the physical and mental strain experienced from overworking. The American Institute of Stress reported that burnout could be linked to unanticipated absenteeism, possibly costing US businesses up to $3.5 million annually. But this is not the only reason why companies have started encouraging a work-life balance:
Retention and Attrition
Deloitte found that 42 percent of their respondents admitted to quitting because of burnout. The meaning of a work-life balance becomes clear when employees start struggling to hold on to both and are forced to choose life to protect themselves. As a result, retention rates suffer. Workers either take long breaks from work to recuperate or move to a different company that’s willing to work with them.
Evolving Workforce
Each generation has its own work-life balance ideas and opinions and Gen Z is no different. The incoming workforce of Generation Z makes up 30 percent of the world population and will account for 27 percent of the workforce by 2025, according to the World Economic Forum. These fresh adults enter the workforce with their own experience of turmoil and priorities and Deloitte reported that for a large number of them, an employer that guarantees a good work-life balance is one of their top considerations while job hunting. If companies want to attract talent to work with them, they will have to learn to guarantee a work-life balance for every employee.
Competitive Job Market and Fringe Benefits
Technology, industries, and the requirements of the workforce are evolving faster than ever. In order to keep up, companies now have the added pressure of providing fringe benefits that are appealing to their workforce. While the options available are innumerable, from stocks to retirement assistance, employees are just as willing to negotiate terms of flexible work arrangements, mental health assistance, paid time off, child care assistance, and other amenities that can make it easier to handle their life outside of work. Gym memberships and spa treatments provide employees the option to focus on themselves and are exceedingly useful as tools to maintain a work-life balance.
Mental Health Awareness
With the growing number of conversations around mental health and healthy lifestyles, companies can no longer feign ignorance about these topics. The National Alliance on Mental Illness reports that 1 in 5 adults in the U.S. experience mental illness each year. With increasing awareness of these topics, employees are more equipped than ever to identify and speak up about toxic work environments, gaslighting, discrimination, poor work conditions, etc. Employers can face much greater public backlash for overworking their employees and this has increased the requirement for work-life balance ideas and initiatives as well. The “Always-On” work culture has seen a lot of criticism and employers need to do their best to refrain from intruding on their employee’s personal time.
Work-Life Balance Tips: How to Improve Work-Life Balance
These reasons for companies to focus on work-life balance are only the start of the conversation on why employers should value it. On an individual level, it is crucial for you to consider how to balance work and life so that you are able to put yourself ahead of the larger organization’s needs at least once in a while. With some consideration of your current situation, you should be able to come up with work-life balance ideas of your own but to start you off, here are some work-life balance tips to consider.
Assess Your Situation: Do You Have a Good Work-Life Balance?
No one is better placed to judge your work-life balance than you are. You need to begin prioritizing your mental and physical health, otherwise, any initiatives by your employer won’t be able to help either. Deloitte found that even while vacation days are offered by a company, one in four professionals say they never or rarely make use of them. Whether for fear of repercussions or a personal disregard for those days off, it is ideal to make the most of every opportunity you have to focus on yourself.
To start this process, you can evaluate how you are balancing work and life currently by asking yourself questions. Some work-life balance example questions include:
- Am I able to log off from work on time more often than not?
- Do I answer questions and emails outside of work hours?
- Do I carry my work home with me to get tasks done?
- Can I spend time on other tasks without thinking about work?
- Do I have interests outside work and am I able to make time for them?
- When was the last time I was able to sit down with a hobby uninterrupted?
- Is there an area of my life I am neglecting due to work?
- Do I have time for three meals every day and 8 hours of sleep?
- Do I enjoy the work I am doing? Why/why not?
- What would I change about my work life? How to improve work-life balance?
- How often am I able to say no to additional tasks when I already have a packed schedule?
- Do my employers expect me to make myself on days off available even without prior notice?
- Do I get home exhausted every day or do I have the energy for other things?
- Have I been able to check in with my friends and family regularly? How often do I spend quality time with them?
- Can I spend a weekend away from my phone and work or will that cause a problem at work?
- Does my work cause me to feel overwhelmed and panicked more often than not?
- Do I return home irritated and unwilling to talk to anybody?
- Does anger from work show in my behavior with other people?
- Have I noticed any changes in my personality since I started this job? Has my family?
- Am I able to focus on my health and exercise regularly?
- How well do I cope with work stress?
- Do I find ways to accept and address my emotional state or am I holding it in?
- Do I feel like I am growing as a person? Is work leaving room for personal growth?
- On a scale of 1 to 10, how good is my current work-life balance?
- Do I have any work-life balance ideas that I want to try to implement?
Create a Routine
If you feel you are personally carrying work out of your workspace, then you might need to individually consider how to balance work and life. It is quite possible to have an unbalanced work-life because of your own internal issues and not because of your employer. Creating rituals to address your specific situation and distance yourself from work concerns can be a good idea.
- Create a routine for you to wind down your tasks for the day before you log out of work. Create a mental checklist of everything you’ve done and everything you can start the next day with
- Set a routine for your morning rituals and bedtime. Following a system consistently can make it easier to relax at the end of the day
- Respond to high-priority tasks and emails immediately instead of leaving it for the end of the day
- Schedule conversations and meetings in advance so colleagues know when to contact you rather than reaching out last minute when you are unavailable
- End your work week by making time for scheduling so you know what the next week will hold, instead of working during your day off
- Set up a calendar and refer to it every time you are offered additional tasks so you know if you can take it up
Out-of-Office Emails aid in a Work-Life Balance
Setting boundaries is an important part of learning how to improve your work-life balance. If coworkers are likely to contact you while you are taking time off, you might guilt yourself into replying. Setting up automated out-of-office emails can inform them that you are away, and also provide them with any details they might need on who they can contact instead.
Leave Work Frustrations in the Office: Work-Life Balance Tips
It is very natural to take your anger, frustration, and stress home with you when you go back home, because where else can you keep it? This can be very damaging to your personal relationships when your emotions get displaced onto them instead. If you are dealing with a lot of emotions, find a way to do something about it before leaving work.
If you are frustrated with a coworker, schedule a conversation with them in the upcoming week so you have time to think it through and meet them calmly. If you feel helpless because of a manager, try to schedule a conversation with them or HR if necessary. You can type out a message to them and save it so you have your thoughts expressed in one place, and then choose to send it or not the next day. Remind yourself that the work issues will probably be just the same tomorrow morning, so there’s no point in letting it affect your sleep.
Create a Dedicated Work-Space
Online work models have fused work and home spaces to a great degree but you need to take charge of separating the two. This does not mean extensive investment into equipment and setup to make it resemble an office. It only requires a demarcation of where you work and where you sleep. Avoid spending the day working from your bed, and find a table if available. If not, make it a point to put your work equipment away at the end of the day to make the space resemble a more homely environment. If you do have a designated workspace, make it a point to move away from it during your breaks or at the end of the day.
Learn to Say No
This work-life balance tip is for those who take on work at any time in any capacity, even if they do not have the resources to take it up. Learning to say no is an essential life skill and does require practice to get it right. Establish hard and soft boundaries for yourself of what you can and cannot do for your employer. If there are tasks you can rationally take up, ensure you mention your timeline and requirements for the task rather than taking on the pressure to get it done immediately despite your existing workload.
If there are tasks that far exceed what you can handle at the moment, try to be polite in expressing why you cannot say yes to it. Providing alternate solutions, lining resources they can use, delegating the task, and sharing your availability at an alternate time are some ways to soften the blow of a “no”, but you do not have to pressure yourself to provide these either. Remember, your work-life balance is a top priority only for you so you must treat it that way.
Set Personal Health Goals in Line with Your Work-Life Balance
In the “life” component of the work-life balance, your health plays a big role. Ignoring it can lead to health issues that are further exacerbated by stress and you will only continue to feel weaker with time. Make time for regular health check-ups to monitor your well-being, schedule an appointment with a therapist every once in a while just to reassess how you are doing, and set a time for health-oriented activities.
Depending on your schedule, try to fit exercise in every once in a while. Everyone can’t pick up a daily, hour-long gym routine but try to fit in some movement into your day. This can help deal with physical symptoms of stress while also keeping your might more alert to deal with the mental symptoms. Your work-life balance will remain incomplete if you do not take care of yourself so ensure your diet also suits what your body needs.
There are many other work-life balance tips that you can customize to match your situation—finding a time to unplug, negotiating better working conditions with your employer, taking breaks, setting realistic goals, scheduling personal time, cutting down on your project involvement, assessing the workplace culture and leading a change, etc. As long as you feel balanced and rewarded by your work, and can recollect your life outside of it, you should be on the path to a good work-life balance meant for you.