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Until recently, social media users wanted to appear successful and productive, but now everyone’s talking about the importance of being in harmony with themselves. Should you follow the latest trend? Spoiler alert: yes, Work Life Balance is worth it.
What’s Work Life Balance?
Work Life Balance refers to the balance in all important areas of a person’s life: health, career, hobbies, friends, and others. Managing all these things brings harmony into your life. Thinking about one of all spheres of life and turning a blind eye to the remaining ones, a person doesn’t get proper satisfaction. Moreover, his or her general condition only worsens.
Why is it relevant today?
The term Work Life Balance came into use in the 1980s, but in the last few years, this concept has been talked about with great enthusiasm. The increasing popularity of Work Life Balance can be explained by two reasons:
1. Due to the pandemic, there are no boundaries between personal and professional life anymore. According to Study Finds research, people now sleep less and worse, and the time spent with the computer increased. Work Life Balance answers any question on how to find harmony in our stressful world.
2. The trend of being obsessed with being productive is fading. Only a few years ago, almost every blogger in the digital world talked about how many tasks he or she managed to do, shared work plans and daily results. However, in pursuit of success, it’s easy to forget about other areas and face professional burnout. That’s why Work Life Balance is important.
Basic principles to creating Work Life Balance
1. Personal boundaries and working schedule
Come up with a schedule that includes all aspects of your life, whether it’s studying or family gathering. If you plan all the events in advance, you’ll easily find your balance. Schedule everything you’re going to do — a daily workout or a movie night. It’ll help you stop procrastinating and take a breather away from work.
2. The 8 roles
Every day we have to face many social roles: a parent, employee, boss, spouse… If you want to take control of your life, you shouldn’t have more than 8 roles. Otherwise, you’ll get stressed and anxious.
3. Delegate and simplify
Yes, most likely you think it’s easier to do all tasks yourself, but you don’t have to be the one that does them. To save your time and concentrate on what matters, delegate responsibilities to other people. Simplify everything you can: daily errands and work tasks, and then you can spend your energy on important must-dos.
4. The Wheel of Life
The Wheel of Life is a tool for visualizing which areas of your life are important for you. Usually, the wheel is divided into several parts: career, family, health, friends, personal growth, recreation, money, and hobbies. You can brainstorm other aspects, but don’t forget that you should devote time to each of the areas to achieve a life balance.
5. Find a hobby
It’s important to have a hobby that feeds your soul. A hobby that you do only when you want to do it and practice it as long as you like. For example, you shouldn’t just have a workout and try to achieve a certain result, you should enjoy the process.
6. Pay attention to your health
In pursuit of great results, we often forget about our health. It’s a bad idea. Sometimes no amount of money can help fix what could’ve been prevented before. Don’t postpone a visit to a doctor just because you need to work, work and work. It’s better to see a specialist before an illness gets worse.
Maintain a healthy lifestyle. Simple habits (like a morning workout) have many benefits and increase your effectiveness.
7. Do a digital detox
Being connected and immersed in social media, having all-day work calls, or constant switching between tasks and scrolling the feed negatively affects not only our productivity but also our general mental state. It’s perfect to refrain from using tech devices on weekends (it’s even better to spend time outside). Build boundaries between personal life and work: for example, don’t respond to incoming work requests after 20:00.
Work Life Balance is probably one of the few useful trends on the Internet. Following simple rules will help you reduce the level of anxiety, understand what you really need and how much time you should spend on different areas of your life. Separate work and personal life and don’t forget to rest – you’ll be surprised how soon your life will change for the better.
