How do you attain a good work-life balance?
Great question and its rightly said that - We need to attain/have a good work-life balance if you need things to be happy at both the sides - Home and Office. Work-life balance does not mean an equal balance i.e. working an equal number of hours at the office and spending the same hours with family. It's more than that and it's like balancing and proper prioritizing between work i.e. career and ambition and lifestyle i.e. health, pleasure, leisure, family.
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Work-life balance will vary over time, often on a daily basis. The right balance for you today will probably be different for you tomorrow. Based on different factors the work-life balance will need to be adjusted. For example, the right balance for you when you are single will be different as opposed to when you get married.
Work-life balance focuses on how to successfully combine work, family relationships and leisure time into a satisfying life. If a person is just bothered about work and misses all the other things like family, leisure, health etc.. then he/she is not maintaining a healthy work-life balance and at some point of time, this is going to hit him back.
I'll now list down some of the approaches to follow that should help you achieve the work-life balance to an extent.
Approach to follow to maintain a healthy Work-Life Balance
- Prioritize things - Create a skill set that enhances the ability to evaluate priorities, focus on the big picture of things and use long-range planning. Prioritization helps to clear out things which are conflicting and gives you an upper edge in doing thins which requires more attention and as a result gives you the time back to spend with family as well.
- Set goals & restrict hours - stick to the goals that you have set in your life. Be it work or family restricts the number of hours you will be working. I know at times we need to go an extra mile to accomplish a goal - its ok sometimes but not always. So, define a time limit and restrict to it.
- Build a strong team - a team on which you can rely and is willing to go an extra mile is always good to have and build upon. Team members giving their 100% will give you the opportunity and flexibility to explore more at work and at the same time, you will be in a position to offload your work so as to concentrate on other projects. A right balance team is another factor that helps in maintaining a work-life balance. A team which is highly dependent on you would require more of your time in resolving issues and leading to many hours of work at the office.
- Time for your self - Workout - There is no arguing that a killer workout makes you feel better. Whether its running or going to the gym or doing Yoga - workout is a great transition activity it gives you the energy back and makes you feel fresh and it's like your working capacity increases - so use it wisely.
Finally, I would just go on and on with the pointers that should help in achieving the work-life balance but its all up to the individual how he/she perceive things. If you have a plan/routine and you stick to it definitely it will help you achieve the work-life balance. But if you are going to change and work ad-hoc you will face issues. Therefore its imperative you stick to a routine, prioritize things, build a strong team and workout regularly as all these things should definitely help you in maintaining health work-life balance in your life which is very much needed.