Life balance means having harmonious sync between your personal, professional, and social pursuits. Our ultra-modern lives demand juggling between numerous roles and responsibilities. However, it is important to balance all the facets of life so that we don’t live in constant internal conflict. If you are one such individual who struggling with maintaining this balance, we have a few tips and tricks to help you to get back on track and enjoy a fulfilling life.
What Is a Life Balance and Why Is It Important?
When each area of your life is precisely how it’s supposed to be, that’s when you can say that you have a perfect life balance. For example, when you can give ample time to your family or kids, have flexible work, find space to admire the beauty of nature, and maintain a sound mind and body. However, life balance also relates to the failure to maintain life balance. It occurs when your lifestyle showcases an inability to cope with stress, sleepless nights, poor nutrition, inadequate family time, or constant health issues. The important question is: why exactly should we bother having a life balance? If you respect your body, mind, and soul, you will want a synchronous life balance. Your mental and physical state stays healthy when you have a good life balance. You will sleep adequately, have enough time for friends and family, be more productive, and most importantly, be internally happy.[1] When you push yourself to the boundaries and try to be a people pleaser all the time, things start going south. Don’t overdo anything, period! It is okay to accept your limitation and live by the first step toward life balance: simplifying your life with a routine and lifestyle in sync with your capabilities and limitations.
The Mystery of Work-Life Balance
Those who are trying to maintain a work-life balance only by dividing their time by driving a sharp wedge between work mode and life mode are inadvertently dividing themselves. When people juxtapose ‘work’ and ‘life,’ they unconsciously think in terms of ‘work’ versus ‘life’ – and are constantly forced to choose one at the expense of the other. In this framework, a gain on one side is always a loss on the other side. And so, people start to see ‘work’ when they are not living. ‘Work’ is seen as a necessary evil they must suffer until it’s time to switch off. But if you encode everything related to work as negativity and suffering while your ‘life’ strains under unrealistic expectations of enjoyment, there is no balance. Rebalancing work and life are possible by seeking a new and enjoyable job to a certain extent. But no job is perfect. There are always going to be tedious aspects of any job. And before long, you’ll wind up on the same ‘life’ versus ‘work’ see-saw because you haven’t changed the old framework.
Signs That Your Life Might Be Out of Balance
Various tell-tale signs depict your life might be out of balance.
1. Your Health Is Depleting or Going Down the Drain
Studies show that 77% of employees have experience burnout at least once in their current jobs, and 72% look for work-life balance when choosing a job.[2] Trying to go beyond your physical and mental capacity to juggle your professional and personal life tends to affect your health. If you find yourself dealing with health issues like fluctuating blood pressure, upset stomach, anxiety, depression, etc., take that as a sign that your life might be out of balance.
2. You Prioritize Only One Aspect of Life
Life balance means having harmony in all aspects of life. Whether it’s your friends, family, or work life, you must find ample time for everything. When you observe that you are overcompensating on a particular facet seven days a week, your life is falling out of balance. For example, if you spend more time on work and are hardly left with any time for your kids or family, it might indicate an improper life balance. Or maybe, even at home, you prioritize answering work emails over spending time with your children.
3. Your Daily Routine Does Not Comprise of Healthy Foods
Unsynchronous life balance leads to poor nutrition. You would skip meals or consume unhealthy items even after you leave work. It might not be deliberate, but it indicates that you failed to prioritize your health over other things. When you find yourself not eating healthy foods for meals, then take it as a sure-shot sign that your life has fallen out of balance.
4. You Are Unhappy
Well, if all is good, why aren’t you happy? Something doesn’t feel right! Correct? Take it as a clue that you are not living a congruous life. It means you are out of sync, and your life balance is disturbed. Keeping life balanced would bring absolute happiness.
How to Achieve a Work Life Harmony
The true goal is to redistribute the positive (+) and negative (-) evenly across life. Most people try to make it all positive off work to compensate for the negativity at work like this:
If it’s all negative at work and all positive when the work mode is switched off, the work performance will suffer – creating even more negativity. People will lean heavily on their off-mode life for happiness, but they can’t truly achieve happiness because they are not facing problems at work. Conversely, some do strive to put positivity into their work life. Their work-life balance looks like this:
Unfortunately, if these people are still stuck in the old on/off framework, all the negativities will shift to their off-mode self, and their relationships and health will suffer. Gregory is one such example of these people. Gregory is the CEO of a startup company. He loves his work and puts his heart and soul into it. He expanded his business around a year ago, gaining more reputation and wealth. However, since almost all his energy was spent on his work, he had no time to take good care of himself. He couldn’t sleep well, often felt stressed, and suffered from back pain and continuous stomachache because of stress. These health issues even started to affect his work performance. He took our Life Assessment, and Gregory found that his focus was solely on his career. He simply neglected other aspects of his life, particularly his health. At that time, his body was warning him to change his routine. On the other hand, very few lucky people experience positivity on both sides of the equation. Their work-life balance looks like this:
Suppose you are one of those who experience positivity from both sides; lucky you! You are one of the less than 5% of the population. For the rest of the 95% of the population, here are the steps to achieving a realistic work-life balance.
Recover the Sense of a Unified Self
The solution is to recover the sense of a unified self. When you do, you’ll dismantle the competing work/life binary and stop unconsciously labeling work as ‘suffering’ and life as ‘enjoyment.’ Positive energy will begin to flow smoothly and effortlessly throughout your life. To recover the sense of a unified self, ask yourself: Why do I do what I do in life and work? Your answer to this question makes up your blueprint of a unified self, charged with meaning that relates directly to who you are and what you care about. Use your blueprint to examine your life at work, leisure time, and relationships, and see if they align with each other. The new framework is no longer ‘balance’ but ‘alignment.’ This will reveal to you several things: Crucially, you never need to use the on/off work model again because you’re constantly acting following what you truly value. As a result, you’ll find that your positive energy will not be subjected to draining or overflowing, off/on, but will instead flow consistently through all your states of being in a perpetual positive feedback loop. Going back to Gregory, after realizing how much he had to change his daily habits, he signed up for a program that could help him effectively. So he enrolled in our Full Life Framework Programme. With the Programme and the help of my team, Gregory started to understand the importance of leading a full life – that a life aspect that wasn’t taken care of carefully could bring down all other aspects. He first learned to reprioritize his demands in life and reorganize his schedule. He also ensured he had sufficient time dedicated to self-care and exercising. In addition, with the help of our Busy Yet Fit Programme, he began doing workouts at home to build back muscle to help relieve his back pain. Since he started learning to take good care of himself, even when he felt stressed at work, he knew how to handle this stress. He has since had a better sleep and a healthier body and mind! Eventually, Gregory can lead a realistic work-life balance like this:
Your renewed conceptualization from balance to alignment is an inner transformation that can empower you, whatever your current circumstances are. For example, it may reveal your suffering in your current job. But now, you can unroll your blueprint to identify the cause of the negativity (i.e., what isn’t aligning with what you value?) and either remind yourself why you’re doing what you’re doing, make a tweak, or change your job. Even in the latter, you can still be sustained by positivity until you find that new job. You may hate your everyday tasks, but you value being a good provider for your family – so you’re spurred on knowing that you’re doing that every day. Or, if you’re a workaholic, your blueprint may reveal that what you previously undervalued as ‘off-mode’ (relaxing, having fun, pursuing a passion, spending time with family and friends) actually contains a wealth of values that support – and even enhance – a well-rounded working life. If you want to find out how balanced your life is, take the Life Assessment here for free and get a customized report.
19 Quick Tips to Create a Healthy Life Balance
A fulfilling and synchronous work-life balance will help you maintain a positive energy flow and give you utter happiness in all aspects of life. You cannot unlock work-life harmony all of a sudden, but you do need to work hard to create a healthy balance. You can begin with the following steps:
1. Start Your Day Early
Becoming a morning person is probably the first thing you must do to bring back life balance. Getting up early allows you to think and plan before you begin your day. Rather than directly jumping into your daily activities, focus on planning each step of the day by getting up early.
2. Set Clear Priorities
Coming up with clear priorities for your life means that decisions are easier. You know who is most important to you and which values you want to focus on with your goals. Your priorities will shift and evolve. This is normal and good! For example, a newly minted lawyer in their mid-20s may accept working sixty hours per week to build experience while a senior professional often has the confidence, experience, and perspective to say no to create free time to focus on their family or hobbies. Setting clear priorities can help maximize your success and the success of your team. This will also help you remove old priorities and set a bigger picture for yourself.[3]
3. Don’t Forget to Prioritize Your Health
Your healthy might not be the first thing on your mind when you start your day. However, you must focus on your health to create a healthy life balance. It might mean eating healthy, exercising, meditating, etc. Create a healthy eating schedule that works best for your routine.
4. Focus on Results, Not Time Spent
Rather than thinking about working harder, focus your time and energy on achieving bigger results. By simplifying your focus areas, you free up more time to live a more joyful and balanced life. It’s easy to fall into the trap of doing countless activities that drain your energy and take you away from building momentum in moving your business forward. You are being pulled in multiple directions, don’t have enough time, and often take on too many projects. This can often leave you drained, worried, and uncommunicative at the end of the day. Remember, getting more things done means nothing when nothing great is done. By focusing on a smaller number of projects and delivering maximum impact, you have a greater sense of achievement, confidence, and motivation. Plus, you may have more time to stop work early and spend time with the people that matter.
5. Let Go of Fear
Many people, be it entrepreneurs, business owners, leaders, or managers, worry that if they’re not working or seen to be working every day, they may miss out on something important. The business may fail, or they may not get that desired promotion. There’s always something. There is a sense that something bad could happen if not enough time was invested or “I could always be working on something else.” But what if you start believing that you are good enough, are achieving and doing meaningful things, and that you matter? Once you have that belief and confidence, you can let go of the fear that there is ‘always more.’ You will feel more joyful, productive, and abundant and know that what you accomplished was good enough.[4] If you are unable to shake off irrational thoughts and fears, you can take help from this guide to succeed.
6. Know When to Say No
Being able to say “no” at work is an art you need to learn to maintain a perfect work-life harmony. If you constantly say no to the management, your reputation will gradually erode (and your chances for better opportunities and promotions will do the same). On the other hand, a thoughtful no demonstrates that you are thinking through your priorities. Say no to work only when you feel it’s necessary. This is a skill and one that develops over time. If you feel that you need some time to focus on coping with stress, don’t be afraid to say no to that extra weekend project your boss wants you to take on.
7. Understand That the Balance Changes Daily
When you think of work-life balance, you usually imagine an ideal world where you arrive home every weekday at 6 pm. Unfortunately, you may not be able to achieve these work hours every week. For example, corporate accounting professionals often experience long hours during the month-end process. If you know you will face long hours at certain times of the year, plan to meet those commitments. Of course, if you have just completed ten straight weeks of sixty-hour work, you probably need to reassess your work habits. The idea is to achieve balance as often as possible but not to stress out when one day feels a little off.
8. Don’t Measure Value With “Face Time”
Unless your workplace operates based on a billable hour model, simply logging more hours does not create more value. Parkinson’s Law suggests that adding time to your workday causes you to lose focus.[5] After all, you may think you can log in “just a few minutes” on Facebook because you can always make up the time later. Work experience, education, and specialization are critical factors in attaining a high income. Simply logging more hours at the office, regardless of value, does not matter. Make the most of your time at the office with good time management skills, and watch the value of your work increase.
9. Create a Chart
Creating a chart is an excellent way to help you envisage your day. You can pre-decide how much time you should focus on work, family, friends, etc. It would also help you untangle the areas in your routine that could use some time-blocking or breaks.
10. Start to Journal
One of the biggest things that have helped me in my personal growth and goal achievement is using my journal daily. This is the place to house my dreams. It is home to my creative thoughts and my thinking tools. It’s a place to escape to. It’s also a place to write down thoughts and notes on where I am right now — my thinking, my mindset, and my belief system. The habit of writing in my journal felt like a small step but has been transformative. It has become a routine that has affected other parts of my life. So, start keeping a journal. Commit to writing every day, even if it’s just for five minutes, and see where your imagination takes you.
11. Proactively Manage Energy
On a scale of 0 to 10, how would you rate your energy and effectiveness at 10 am? How does that compare to your energy rate at 4 pm? Many people find that their energy and ability to focus gradually declines throughout the day. This is often called the afternoon slump. If this happens, it may be time to learn how to manage your energy more. It’s normal to experience a lull in energy in the afternoon, but your energy should come back before you clock out. If not, you can try adjusting your diet, squeezing in an afternoon workout, or taking a short nap when you get home to stimulate your body’s energy reserves.
12. Work for a Company That Values Work-Life Balance
Some organizations have a better track record in the area of work-life balance than others. Instead of attempting to change the dysfunctional culture of a large organization by yourself, do yourself a favor and work for an organization that values work-life balance. Fortunately, more and more companies recognize the importance of work-life balance. If you’re looking for a new job, try to feel the company culture during your interview. You can even explicitly ask for the hiring manager’s thoughts on work-life balance.
13. Exercise Several Times a Week
Some people consider exercising a luxury to be enjoyed and pursued “sometime in the future.” If you are living a balanced life, you have understood the importance of getting exercise. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, an effective exercise week includes both aerobic activities (e.g., walking, running, cycling, swimming) and muscle-strengthening activities (e.g., lifting weights and bodyweight exercises)[6]. Without an effective exercise routine, your energy levels will decline, impacting your ability to work and enjoy life.
14. Create More Family Time
This area meant a lot to me and was one of the reasons I set up my coaching business in the first place. I have two young children, and I wanted to see more of them and spend more time with my family. I take them to school sometimes and am often home for ‘family dinner’ and bedtime stories. The freedom to do this is essential in how I run my business and help other entrepreneurs run their businesses. If you can create a bit of space to spend more time with the people that matter, you will see a massive difference. Here’s a guide on how to maximize family time and 17 family game night ideas to help bond with your kids.
15. Create One Hour a Day to Think and Relax
It’s amazing how much time we can spare in a day, especially when we try to make time. I hear the phrase “I don’t have time” constantly. How about you change that mindset and start dedicating one hour a day to yourself? We can all find time if it’s important to us. This one hour a day could help us become more creative and increase our energy and focus. Plus, you’ll increase your capabilities.
16. Do One Thing You Love to Do Every Day
As we get sucked into the whirlwind of every day, it’s all we can do just to get by. We often forget to do or enjoy the things that bring us the most joy. One of the best ways to bring healthy life balance is to recommit to doing the things that give you the most pleasure. If you don’t have anything, I suggest you find something you’re passionate about. This could be reading, walking, meditating, learning an instrument or a language, or becoming a better cook or gardener. As long as you get joy from experience, it doesn’t matter what it is. Try carving out time every day to do this one thing. Do it for 30 days, and it will become a habit. Plus, it will help you reconnect with what you care about.
17. Use Your Vacation Days to Relax
A 2019 study reported that “fifty-five percent of workers reported that they did not use all of their vacation days”[7]. Of those lost vacation days, “236 million were completely forfeited, which comes to $65.5 billion in lost benefits.” Your paid vacation time is part of your compensation, so failing to use it is like setting cash on fire. Use this time away from work to recuperate your energy and focus on your mental health.
18. Use Systems to Stay Focused
Do you have systems and habits to stay focused and productive? That’s one of the best ways to save time so that you leave the office on time every day. You can start by creating some professional assets to increase your effectiveness. You can also experiment with different ways (and different times) to commute to the office. In some organizations, you can achieve a great deal before 9 am because the office tends to be quiet early in the morning.
19. Express Gratitude for What You Have
Sometimes we are so busy working through and dealing with the day-to-day and having our minds on the future that we forget about the here and now, this present moment. I believe it’s essential to include proactive gratitude as part of everyday life, to look at everything in our lives and appreciate what we have. Many of us think of gratitude as reacting. Something happens, or someone does something, and you feel grateful. You say thank you, maybe send an email. But a more proactive strategy for creating and living an abundant life is actively finding things you appreciate. This affects your state of mind but also impacts others. You could send a handwritten card to the people you love or someone that means a lot to you. Try giving thanks for three things at the end of every day and see how this shifts your mood and mindset.
Final Thoughts
If you have already created a good work life balance, that’s great! If not, I hope that reading through this list has helped you realize that you’re missing a few pieces that you need to correct in life to unlock a healthy lifestyle. Find what helps you feel both productive and fulfilled to create a life you can be proud of. Featured photo credit: Cecilia Medina via unsplash.com
