People achieve success when they have the flexibility to meet the demands of their professional lives and also accomplish personal goals outside their offices. When a person focuses too much on one area at the expense of the other, then he risks putting the entire system in distress. Every individual, at some point in his career experiences an imbalance between his professional and personal lives. In most cases, work takes away the time meant for your loved ones. Thus, for an employee, balancing a challenging career with life outside work is a complex task.
Maintaining work-life balance is necessary because imbalance wrecks chaos in life. Increased pressure on one side will affect the other side too. We should remember that work life and personal life are the two sides of the same coin. To maintain a reasonable balance between both is a must. We shall see a few points which we can ponder upon that will help us to strike a balance:
Be honest: Explain honestly to yourself about how much time you spend at work and why. Check whether you are staying late to accomplish your tasks or to impress your boss, or simply because you are not managing your time well during the day? Once you identify the problem, you should admit it and work towards overcoming it. This will take some time.
Set your priorities: Work-life balance cannot be achieved without effective priority setting. Many people spend long hours at work without knowing the effective time they spend actually working. Set out priorities and arrange your time at the office according to that. When you are better organized, your efficiency increases. So when you are assigned new or additional tasks, revisit your daily schedule and action plan. Make a list of activities and prioritise them. This should be done on daily, weekly and monthly basis.
Find a friend at work: Stop burdening your partner with work-related issues; find a colleague for an informal discussion. Discussing your office-related issues with your friend or colleague will act as a great safety valve for you.
Draw a line between home and office: Information technology has reduced the boundary between work and home. This means after spending the whole day at work you can remain connected to office while you are at home also. This brings the work related stress home. It is better to leave your work at workplace. Show your loved ones at home that you care for them. Ask them how the day was spent, calling once during the day, helping them with their activities (When you are at home), and buying presents can do the magic. The point here is to assure your family and friends that you will not ‘forget’ or ‘ignore’, though you are busy. Thus by making a conscious effort to separate work time from personal time will be of great help to you.
Always remember that you are much more than your job: Don’t commit a mistake to relate yourself too closely to your work. Analyse what you want to achieve in life and define what you think of personal success. This should help you during the time when work gets difficult and the pressure becomes unbearable.
Take care and enjoy life: Pay attention to your health. A healthy body will have a healthy mind. Sleep adequately. Spend time on activities that can help beat fatigue. Allot time for physical exercises, yoga or sports. Enjoying small things on a daily basis such as – growing flowers in your garden, having a long walk, relishing your morning tea, reading a book to your child, taking out some time for yourself with your eyes closed – will help you remain relaxed at home and ready for the challenges of work. By doing this all, you stay healthy, happy and positive during stressful periods.
There are no standard rules for achieving work-life balance. More than achieving it, maintaining it is difficult. So be conscious about your state of mind and time you are spending on each aspect of your life. If there is deviation explore ways to deal with it. Life tends to get pretty complex, especially for people trying to balance so many demands. Lead a simple life, expect less and give more. No need to get awful about not being perfect. There is no balance without give and take. So be flexible when you can, and avoid guilt if you don’t match up to the expectations.
Always keep in mind that the best work-life balance is different for each of us because we all have different priorities and different lives. Thus you have to balance work and life to stay happy and successful.
S.SEKAR SEKRAS >>>>>> HIGH PERFORMANCE ALWAYS
Contact: sekrajc@yahoo.com
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