Today’s world, unfortunately, makes it very difficult for us to find ourselves in professional and private life. More and more duties cause that we lack the time to relax. We also demand a lot from ourselves, which makes our professional work take up more and more of our time. How to maintain a balance between work and private life?
In a lecture, a professor showed his students an empty jar with rocks, sand, and a glass of water next to it. He put the stones in the jar and asked if the jar was full – the students confirmed. The professor poured sand into the jar and asked again, hearing the same answer. At the end, there was only water left, so the professor asked again if the jar was full. The students did not know what to say. The professor also fit a glass of water into the jar. This experiment shows us our life. The stones are very important things to us, such as family, values, and ourselves. Sand, on the other hand, is a so-called clog and can be things like work, which is hard to live without, but also cannot become a priority for us. Water, on the other hand, are very minor things that we can live without. These are small things like browsing social media or watching TV. These activities don’t affect our development, so it makes sense to leave them at the end. Knowing our priorities is crucial in planning our lives, including our time. It’s worth knowing the 7 principles that will help us find a work-life balance.
Unfortunately, nowadays many people work remotely, which makes it more difficult for us to find the right work-life balance. Working from home, we have the impression that we are constantly at work. It is a good idea to separate the time you spend at work from the time you spend on household chores or spending time with friends. It’s a good idea to have set working hours that you stick to. Try not to go into your office after hours.
It is a good idea to include time for relaxation, physical activity, and interaction with others in your daily schedule. When writing down our schedule, we need to stick to it, but it should be flexible enough to allow us to save precious moments for unforeseen events. This will help us feel calmer.
Many people are extremely ambitious and are unable to delegate responsibilities. Later, in case of an unforeseen event, such people are trapped because they don’t have time to complete the order and clients are worried. It is worth to help ourselves and try to cooperate from time to time, for example, with freelancers who will help us in a crisis situation.
4. Try to rest effectively
Work cannot consume us to the point where we have to neglect our priorities, such as our health. Not being at full strength, unfortunately, will not take good care of our career. So health, including effective rest, should be a priority for us.
Let’s remember that our life is not only constant responsibilities. In order to have at least a moment for your passions, it is worth to delegate some household duties as well.
Plan your work carefully and don’t leave anything for the last minute. You will be stressed out and will probably have to work overtime. For the most effective rest after work, try to do your duties on time.
7. Learn to say no
A very important quality for any employee is the ability to say no. Some duties do not have to be our responsibilities and if we feel that our boss is pushing too hard to add new work to us, talk to him about it. You can always ask for an extra employee to be assigned to our team to help get the work done on time.
Work-life balance ensures that we can have both a fulfilling job and a successful personal life.
