What an incredibly important task it is to find balance in your professional and personal life to reduce stress and increase your level of happiness. Those with very demanding jobs oftentimes suffer in their personal lives and those with complicated or demanding personal lives oftentimes suffer in their professional life. You’re in a very tough situation if you have both.
For a single person living alone, you can immerse yourself in work and really the only thing that might suffer is your social life and your hobbies or other pursuits, which by the way, are both very important for living a rewarding life. However, if you have children, or are living with a partner, or any other type of family, you need to have separation. Separation between your work and your personal life. Clearly, that’s not possible every day, but when it is possible:
- Change out of your uniform or other work clothes when you get home. This alone will help you be more mentally able to make a separation.
- Put your phone down and don’t read work email or texts. Don’t make or receive work phone calls. Be present with your family or partner. Be engaged, make and enjoy quality interactions with your family.
- Identify your priorities. Don’t let them be vague. Think about what is really important to you, write these things down, write down things you can do to help make them more of a priority in your life and then find ways to make that happen
- Talk to your boss about your personal life. Let him or her know that you are trying to achieve a better balance. They need to know it’s a priority for you. Ask for their help when you need time off or other personal considerations but make sure you are equally engaged at work, don’t allow personal issues to be negatively affecting your work. Don’t be making excessive personal phone calls, or engaging in any other non work-related issues that keep you from giving 100% to your job responsibilities and duties.
- Learn time management skills. There are vast amounts of information available on how to save time and be a more efficient person. Take a time management class and brainstorm ways you can be more productive.
- Learn to say “no”. This is really hard for some people but if you really want to control your own life and your time, you need to be able to do this. Find ways you can say no to someone and still maintain good relationships whenever possible.
Be inventive and determined to find ways that make your work more conducive to balance:
Certainly everyone’s job situation and personal or family situation is unique. There are no one-size-fits-all solutions to achieving the balance that would bring peace and harmony to your life. And the truth is, to achieve balance might require some difficult choices and/or actions on your part.