Improve Work Life Balance - 6 Tips

Is it possible to improve your own work-life balance in a targeted manner? Pretty much everything in life - from your body to riding a bike - works best in one state: in balance. This applies above all to the balance between your work and your private life, which is known as work-life balance. While this term can be a bit misleading because it suggests that life and work are two different things (which they are not), it makes a lot of sense to maintain a balance between your personal life and your and work.

A good work-life balance can be a challenge for many of us now days. That is why in this article I am giving some tips to improve your work-life balance and to keep your life in a pleasant equilibrium.

Some of the tips for a better work-life balance

1. Draw Clear Lines

Nowadays, thanks to technology, it is becoming easier and easier to blur the lines between work and leisure: some people spend a not inconsiderable part of their working time sending personal messages or following the news feed on social media. On the other hand, if we added up the time that we spend outside of our work replying to work-related emails or messages, some would also end up with a considerable amount of time.

That can quickly lead to the fact that we never feel entirely at work and never entirely in our free time. It makes us feel guilty and stressed out easily. Ergo: Our work-life balance is affected. To counteract this and improve your work-life balance, make a conscious decision to strictly divide your day into working hours and free time.

When you are at work, concentrate fully on your work and save all other things for later. Stick to your schedule. Make sure that you do your daily workload so that you are no longer needed after work. After work, be 100% in your free time and allow yourself to enjoy it undisturbed. This way you will work much more focused and productive and can then plunge into your free time with a clear conscience.

2. Schedule Time For Yourself

Your work is an important part of your life, but not always. That is why you should also give the other important parts of your life a correspondingly high priority so that your work-life balance is at peace. When you set your weekly schedule, plan time with your family and friends and create time slots in which to pursue your hobbies.

Not only do you make sure that you give your private life enough space. You also have something extra to look forward to while you work. This gives you an incentive to do your work efficiently so that you don't have to cancel your appointments and plans.

3. Make Sure You Like Your Work

If you hate your work, it will be very difficult for you to maintain your work-life balance. Of course, you don't have to be passionate about every single part of your job. But if you dread your workday every morning after getting up, then your work-life balance is undoubtedly suffering as a result. If your work robs you of your strength and consumes you, something is going wrong. Then you may find yourself in a work environment that is harmful to you.

Your working colleagues or your supervisor may have negative influence on you. Or you do a job that doesn't suit you at all. In that case, you may want to consider looking for a new job.

4. Unlock

We live in a digitized world in which we can always be reached. To be always available puts us in a state of constant readiness. And while your constant availability has many advantages, in this state it is difficult to give your attention only to yourself. Because theoretically the next message, notification or call could arrive at any moment. Always being available can prevent other things that are more important from surfacing.

Therefore, it makes sense to switch off from your work and everything else from time to time.

These can be small breaks like going for a quarter of an hour without looking at your cell phone. In turn, some people experience it as a great relaxation and enrichment to meditate for 10 minutes a day with the mobile phone switched off. Maybe you just want to spend half a day off in the countryside and do nothing.

Such things clearly help you distance yourself, come down and recharge your physical and mental batteries. And who knows? Perhaps during such a break, you will come across the brilliant idea that you have been waiting for so long.

5. Move

Moving little according to today's average lifestyle does not correspond to our physical and psychological disposition. Such physical under load can lead to tiredness and listlessness and undermine our work-life balance. Conversely, an appropriate amount of movement only brings us to our optimal performance.

And even if it can be difficult to incorporate a sports unit or a trip to the gym into your packed work week: the positive effects on your energy level, your ability to concentrate, mood, health and sleep quality often bring it out again. Regular exercise is therefore highly recommended. Do several short units over the week rather than one long one? For example, it is better to jog for twenty minutes three times a week than to run for an hour once a week.

You can find additional information about this in the article on More Energy in Everyday Life.

6. Create A Daily Mini Happiness Ritual

Anticipation and gratitude are two huge supporters of a healthy work-life balance. Therefore, it makes a lot of sense to support these two supporters. And how?

Well, we all know that, our brain is a creature of habit. Everything it does on a regular basis makes it good. You can take advantage of this fact to perceive the inspiring feelings of anticipation and gratitude a lot more often and much more intensely.

To do this, you can use an exercise that is known in psychology as the "happiness diary". Every morning you take two minutes and write down three things that you look forward to that day. And that can be little things, such as "Today I am meeting a good friend", "Today I am working with a friendly employee" or just "Today the sun is shining and I am looking forward to seeing the blue sky”.

When you go to bed in the evening, you can write down three things for which you are grateful that day. And here, too, there can be tiny little things. Our emotions follow our attention and so even a “little thing” can bring us noticeable feelings of happiness. These can be experiences like “I worked productively today”, “I had a nice chat with an employee” or “The movement today was really good”.

For one or the other, it may seem superfluous to briefly write down such things. Perhaps according to the motto “I know that I'm going to meet a good friend today. But why should writing it down make me happier?” However, you only have to know and show it to you by writing down two pairs of shoes. As psychological studies show, such a happiness diary causes a continuous increase in your well-being and thus an improved work-life balance.

Tips To Improve The Work-Life Balance

In short, practically all of the advice I have given is aimed at ensuring that you take care of yourself and consciously shape your work-life balance. It is often easy to be tempted to work more and neglect ourselves. Or letting our work drift, but secretly feeling guilty about it. It is often the small changes in our everyday life that have a big impact.

With many of these small changes you can create a win / win situation in your work-life balance. Balancing your private life makes you more satisfied, which has a positive effect on your physical and mental health and thus also on your work performance. Balancing your work life allows you to enjoy your free time more.

Whether you divide your day strictly into working hours and free time, whether you regularly disconnect from everything or you incorporate short exercise units into your everyday life.

I hope my tips can help you. If you have any other suggestions for a successful work-life balance yourself, just write them in the comments.