6 Tips to Achieve Work/Life Balance
If you’re working the traditional eight hours per day, 40 hours per week work schedule (and lots of people work more than this), that’s approximately 25% of your time spent working. When work starts to spill into other areas of your life, not only do you lose precious time to be with your family and do what you love, but your health starts to deteriorate. Stress and weight gain are very common in overworked individuals.
On the other side of the coin, work is healthy! You see more and more people retiring and then deciding after a few months or years to go back into part-time or contract work. Part of our human nature is that we want to contribute to something bigger than ourselves – and often that comes in the form of working or volunteering our time.
Balance is key. The days of “work hard, play hard” are long gone. Making time for self-care, healthy lifestyle practices, and building a career and life that suits your vision of your life, are the new norm.
Try some of the tips below to set boundaries between work and play, and increase your health and happiness:
- Move your body. Avoid the sedentary trap that comes with too much time sitting at a desk. Often after a long day’s work in the office, all we can bring ourselves to do is camp out on the couch, watching Netflix until we go to sleep. Try adding bursts of exercise throughout your day. Go for a walk at lunch. Take the stairs three times a day instead of the elevators. Talk to your employer about purchasing standing desks and stand while you work for a couple hours of each day.
- Meal prep on Sundays. Eating a balanced diet is key to performing optimally at work and in your personal life. By putting some time aside each week to plan your meals and cook portions of food for lunches, you are setting yourself up for success, and minimizing the chance that you’ll need to reach for fast food when you realize you’ve worked through lunch.
- Keep your weight down. When we are overweight and overeating, the body is being overworked and is in constant stress mode. Get your food intake, exercise levels, and amount of sleep in check in order to keep your body at a healthy weight. There are several resources online on how to lose weight. An emerging concept, that’s currently being brought into the mainstream by Naomi Whittel’s Glow15 program, is autophagy – the Nobel prize-winning science of cellular recycling that keeps weight down and cells youthful.
- Visit the supplement store. Keep your nutrient intake strong through whole foods and vitamin supplements in order to balance mood and have the clarity of mind to keep your boundaries between work and play intact. Vitamin C boosts immunity and prevents the common cold, which keeps you in your life, not on the couch and sick with a fever.
- Utilize technology. There are so many technological tools and programs literally at our fingertips. Rather than feel drained by them, make them work for you! Find a scheduling system (could be as straightforward as the iCal) and schedule your time. Choose your working time frame and don’t go past it. Talk to your boss about mobile working options. Could you use a laptop and work from home a few days per week? Flexible working solutions are becoming the norm, with more companies turning to using hot desks and employing mobile workers. What would suit you best and makes sense with your professional responsibilities? Get creative!
- Take time for yourself – both throughout the workday (for example you could grab a quiet room and do a 10 minute guided meditation) and also planned “me time” outside of work hours. Get clear on what recharges your batteries – is it a warm bath with candles? Making dinner with a small group of friends? Attending a rock concert at a busy venue? Notice what you enjoy and make the time for it. This is your life!
Employ these tips see your health and vitality boost. Let us know how it goes!