The juggling game between work and life can be extremely hard to keep in balance. We may allow ourselves to be sucked into working by allowing ourselves to be available remotely. Being on call is a way to interrupt your home life. However, with the competitive job market and layoffs, it may seem as if you only have the option to work at a maximum level and no time for yourself. Remember that no job is worth all of your life.
Build Family Time – When you notice your schedule is getting crazy with work, start scheduling in activities and events with families and friends to ensure that work doesn’t interfere. Setting aside special time for regular events will keep your home life on the radar. The scheduled events are an incentive to work hard and smarter at work to ensure that fun times are still had.
Minimize Wasted Time – When you are at work, notice what activities are causing you to get behind and determine if they are necessary or if they are a brain suck. Limit conversations with people that tend to vent and create negative energy in the workplace. Take a timed break once a day to check email and social media and ensure that it doesn’t detract from your daily work. We all need breaks, but make sure they don’t take over part of your day and cause you to arrive home late.
Errands – Think about all of the household chores and errands that must be done and determine if you can outsource to a more efficient and time saving source. Think about grocery delivery and pet food delivery services. The fee is often worth the savings in time you will receive. Hiring a cleaning company to get the house ready before an event may be worth the six hours it will take you get things in order and that is family time that was wasted. You can also order postage stamps online and save yourself a trip to the post office.
Exercise – Some of us tend to cut out the things that are actually good for us, due to time constraints. Exercise should not be one of the things cut, because it often provides a ton of energy and purpose throughout the day. This energy can be used to help get through the day and boost your energy levels, so you can focus on the tasks at hand.
Relax – This concept of relaxing is very important and a necessity if you want to have a proper work and life balance. Make sure one of your nights at work ends an hour earlier than normal. Make sure to go into work a little late one day to catch up on something at home or in your life. Use your drive time to relax and enjoy some music or even a novel in the audiobook version. Your drive time can be a nice and comfortable space where you can unwind before you get home and start your next job.
