Evidence is clear that failure to establish a work-life balance is damaging to your health.
In a previous article ‘A Life of Balance’ I wrote:
“If you want to achieve true success in life, you must take steps to ensure you maintain a certain level of balance… spiritually, physically, emotionally, socially, mentally and financially.” Larry Lewis
Recently (2nd – 6th October 2017) we were all invited to take part in National Work-Life Week 2017 #WorkLifeWeek. The fact is a majority of people fail to lead a work-life balance. This comes at a huge cost!
How many of you have or still are making the mistake of spending way too much of your time on your career at the cost of everything else? Is this because you believe that leaning the scale towards your “work” side is the only way to get ahead?
Well I’m here to tell you, you’re wrong. If you spend all your time working, at the cost of everything else in your life, the chances are, you will end up with nothing.
Broken Relationships
Lost health
Constantly stressed and angry
No social life, loss of friendships
Medical bills emptying your bank account
Yet the reality is, you can be successful at work and have a life too.
When we factor in email, phone calls, texts, overtime, weekend work etc., the only thing we will do more of is sleep—that is, if we are not too stressed about our work. The necessity of work-life balance is to remind us that the lives we lead (i.e., our relationships, personal feelings, and self-care outside of the office) deserve as much energy effort and time (as much as we can) as work.
There aren’t enough hours in the day, right? Maybe there are if you can learn to identify and eliminate the many time wasters that are already in your life.
Is it worth doing?
Of course it is. If you’re not making the best use of the time you’ve got, and a majority of this time is being focused on work, think of the sacrifices you are actually making.
The more hours you spend at work, the more hours outside of work you are likely to spend thinking or worrying about it.
It results in you neglecting other aspects of life.
Which can lead to either physical or mental health problems, broken marriages, break up of relationships with kids.
As a person’s working hours increase, so frequently do their feelings of unhappiness.
Not sure your work-life balance is out of sync. Well in the previous article ‘A Life of Balance’ I introduce you to the Wheel of Life exercise that helps you to determine the areas in your life where you are doing very well, as well as some areas where you might want to be putting more of your focus. Go do the exercise!
Let me now give you what I believe is the most important tip for better work-life balance. Every one of us can work to achieve a routine that allows us to flourish both professionally and personally because of a good, healthy work-life balance. Our biggest problem is the amount of time we waste every single day.
You may think a minute or two on Facebook or surfing the internet is an insignificant amount of time to waste, but these minutes add up.
Constantly checking your emails
Playing games on your phone
Stopping off at the coffee shop
Allowing constant interruptions and distractions
The list goes on and on about those things that suck away at your time. Not only do they effect your productivity but also force you to work longer hours. By cutting down on wasted time you get to spend more time with your loved ones, being social and looking after yourself. (I don’t have time to go to the gym – remember that when you are on long term sickness).
Do yourself a favour. My tip to you is for one week keep a “time-waster journal,” and write down everything you do which is non productive, where you know you have wasted time and track how much you lost pointlessly. This will then clearly demonstrate to you how much time you’re wasting and get you motivated to do something about it. Don’t look for excuses, that’s just a waste of time, do it and lose no more time!
Work-life balance is more necessary than ever for health. Don’t let yourself keep doing what’s going to make you ill. You’ve all heard about the definition of insanity:
“The definition of insanity is repeating the same mistakes over and over again” Maybe said by Albert Einstein
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