How to Improve Your Work-Life Balance

Maintaining balance between your professional and personal life can be an overwhelming struggle. At work, you may be faced with pressure to take on extra projects and responsibilities and work overtime, while your family may be waiting for you to spend time with them at home. You may also have less time to spend exercising, eating right or simply enjoying yourself. It is possible, however, to mediate work and personal life without completely sacrificing one for the other.

Instructions

• 1

  Eliminate activities that you feel are not essential to balancing work and personal life. This might mean skipping out on a holiday office party and staying in with your family, or spending less time gossiping with coworkers. Remove distractions from your work environment that might make you work less efficiently, such as social networking sites or online shopping. Getting your work done more quickly may allow you to leave work earlier, and spend extra time with friends and family.

• 2

  Schedule your downtime. Prioritize plans with people you care about, such as lunch with a close friend, a movie with your kids or a date night with your spouse. This will give you something to look forward to during an otherwise hectic work week, and may even motivate you to manage your time more efficiently. Learn to say no to any optional extra work that might interfere with your plans, and turn off your cell phone and laptop when you are with your loved ones.

• 3

  Find out if you have options at your job that might help you to balance work and personal life. Ask your boss if you might be able to work at home once a week, or if you might have flexible scheduling options such as a compressed work week, or working extra hours one day so that you might be able to leave earlier the next. Take advantage of vacation time if it is offered to you.

• 4

  Take care of yourself. Bring healthy foods for lunch and snacks at work, instead of going out for fast food. Get up early a few days a week to hit the gym before work, or come home and exercise instead of just sitting down in front of the TV. Sleeping 8 hours a night can also help minimize the effects of stress on your body. Make time occasionally to pursue hobbies you love on your own, even if they do not directly involve work or family members.