Is it even possible to find and achieve the right balance between personal life and work? Or should life be seen only through objective priorities?
As one grows older, professional and personal responsibilities accumulate in life. But if we want to achieve something, we must also sacrifice something. But what is the right ratio?
Being successful doesn’t just mean that you make a lot of money. It means that you will achieve success in more aspects of life. Whether it’s getting a big client or being close to the people who are important to you. But keeping all aspects of life functioning is harder than you can ever imagine. Here are 4 ways to handle it.
Schedule under control
Plan every minute of your day. It’s truly miraculous. In fact, planning can be liberating. An organized schedule is a promise that you will meet the most pressing obligations. If you plan your day, you’ll avoid doing trivial work, so you can focus on bigger tasks.
One thing must not interfere with another
An unhealthy work schedule rarely starts out as unhealthy. Oh, and an unmanageable work day will gradually start to encroach on your personal time. Innocent one-off things like reading emails, checking accounts or contacting clients can become a work-life balance problem.
This doesn’t mean that working outside the office is a bad thing. In fact, it may be the most efficient way to accomplish tasks. But it is important to know when you are working and when you are not. If you’re always on the phone or ready to answer emails, you’re actually doing a telecommuting job from home. Keep yourself productive and happy by setting aside specific hours for work and rest.
It is important to know the schedules of the people around you
Arranging your own schedule is only half the battle. If you want to get the most out of your personal and professional time, you need to know what the people around you are doing. Otherwise, your schedule may conflict with those of your colleagues, friends or family members.
Work-life balance is not just about setting aside an ideal number of hours for specific activities. After all, you should be there for all the key moments. Working 50 hours a week means nothing if you miss a big meeting for it. And even an early return home from work isn’t valuable when you miss birthday parties or music recitals.
Think of more things than just time
Watching the hours you spend at work and at home can lead you to believe that balance in these two spheres is just a numbers game. But the truth is that physically being somewhere and being present are different things. You must have come home from work exhausted or, on the contrary, you arrived at work completely disoriented after a hard night’s work. If you want to achieve balance in your personal and professional life, you have to do it with your energy.
This problem may have a rather strange solution. Try, in short, to worry less about work. Career responsibility is a given. In your position, you do have to fulfil certain tasks and objectives. Personal responsibility is often looser. It doesn’t seem to be difficult to meet friends and relax. If you embrace career responsibilities and accomplishments, but devote more energy to personal responsibilities, you’d be surprised how many other things you could balance.
You will never be the best at your job if you are not happy with all aspects of your own life. Therefore, manage your professional and personal life wisely. There is no one-size-fits-all recipe that will guarantee you will achieve the same level of satisfaction at work and in private. Each one of us has different needs that we try to provide for, but also different set values in life. But we do have something in common: the desire to achieve the perfect work-life balance that would provide us with an endless source of happiness and satisfaction.
