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Having a messed up work-life balance today seems to be about as prevalent as cavities (92% of adult population). However, unlike bad teeth, bad work-life balance can literally cost your life, say the studies reported in Forbes. This means that regaining control of your life and reassessing your priorities is a must if you want to stay healthy and enjoy yourself for many years to come.
4 Essential Steps You Need to Take to Restore Work-Life Balance
1. Leave Your Work at Work
There’s time for work, but there’s also time that shouldn’t be spent worrying about it, chatting to clients, or finishing up that one case that only needs 10 more minutes to wrap up. If you want to restore your work-life balance, the most important thing is to set a clear line between life and work and not let one encroach over the other.
To achieve this, you’ll need to plan your schedule wisely. Arrange your meetings, calls, and all work-related issues for working hours and literally schedule your downtime in your daily planner. Once you get there, stick to it as you do with your important meetings.
Create a list of work-related emergencies that you’ll have to respond to and don’t let yourself be swayed back to work for anything else than a true emergency. Learning how to say ‘No’ is an important skill you need to develop if you want to restore your work-life balance.
2. Reduce Your Stressors
Stress is the reason why a work-life imbalance is so dangerous for your health. While there’s no avoiding stress at work, you have the power to reduce its overall level by dealing with other issues that add to it.
One of the main stressors in modern society is being overweight. Starting a weight loss program that you can add to your schedule will definitely help. You should also use simple tricks to get a better control of your diet. For example, stock up on foods that serve as healthy snacks but are also effective appetite suppressants. Eating them instead of some junk food from a vending machine in your office will definitely help improve your disposition and achieve weight loss goals.
If your stressor is a person, be sure to deal with the matter right away. When facing harassment or bullying in the office, report to the human resources department immediately. If these issues occur in your personal life, get counseling and appropriate help.
Take your time to relax and assess your life closely. What are the issues that make you most anxious? These are your stressors and the things that must be dealt with fast. You might not get rid of them all right away, but removing them one by one will make you happier, healthier, and more in control of your life.
3. Prioritize
One of the most important things you need to understand when seeking to restore your work-life balance is that you can’t accomplish everything you want. There are only 24 hours in a day and with eight of them spent sleeping, you still need to set a few hours aside for relaxation and ‘life’. This means you need to set priorities for both work and personal tasks and ambitions.
Once you outline all the things you need to do and want to do, start rearranging the list based on your priorities. Be sure to be realistic about your ability to accomplish the goals you set yourself. Have a plan for a day, week, month, and year as this will help outline the road to your goals more clearly.
4. Delegate
Learn that you don’t have to tackle everything on your own. You work in a team, so let your team be responsible for their parts of the job. If they aren’t able and you end up doing more work than you should, change the team because your health and life are most important.
