Work-Life Balance
Work-Life Balance (WFB) is considered a phenomenon which is predominant in the current age. The expectations of the society and the culture of a global civilization have made many fold changes to the human life. Predominantly what has changed very drastically is our routine and priorities in life.
Here are few things to ponder on the work-life balance and to see what can be done to have a proper work-life balance.
First of all the 3 terms work, life and balance have to be understood in the right sense. Work relates to those activities that help us earn an income (eg: Career, Dream Projects etc), life in this context is not restricted to 'personal life', it refers to everything like family, inner self, personal aspirations and goals etc, and balance actually does not refer to a perfect balance 50-50 here. Balance is mostly misunderstood as managing both work and life at the same time. In our world, there is no perfect balance as such, so let us understand balance in the context of not overloading work and life with either of these at the same time. Hope this helps!.
Lets now look at few aspects that one has to nail down for a good work-life balance
Understand where the gap is, is it work or life?
The first thing one should do is to introspect and see which of the work or the life is dominating the other. Which is the one which is getting beaten to death? What are the situations where this balance is missing? What are the stress levels due to this imbalance? Is it due to too much work pressure that you are not able to spend healthy time in your life. Is it due to some issues on the personal front that is impacting your work too!. Identify the cause and the gap. Introspect!.
Once the gap is identified, analyze the causes for the gap. Have a discussion with your near and dear ones very openly and see if they can help you identify the gap. The discussion always helps.
Unwind
It is imperative that due to growing needs of the society and for the betterment of a comfortable lifestyle, both the life partners decide to work. It's part of the planning for the life. However, when stress gets over us, it impacts the balance. Learn to unwind, unplug from work when you are at home and vice-versa. Don't bring work home. Don't carry mobiles, laptops, tabs etc to places where your near and dear ones are there (home, play area etc). Don't discuss the office work at home with anyone, unless their decisions are required to be made for your work-related things. One more thing is to avoid working late long hours as well.
Define the boundaries of work and life
Sometimes situations demand us to work from home for a couple of days/weeks or for a couple of hours for a long duration of time. Likewise, at work, there could be some urgent issues related to the personal life that needs to be addressed. Define the boundaries of both work and personal life. How of much of each can you permit to influence your time when you are with the other.
For eg: How many phone calls/msgs from near or dear ones you would like to take in a busy day at work. What are the alternative arrangements that you can do at home so that your family doesn't need your support when you are at work? What is the kind of work items that you would like to do from home related to your work so that your family is not impacted etc.,
Healthy life and workouts
The most important one in the work-life balancing act is to maintain good health. Ensure to take the help of your colleagues, friends and everyone around you and inspire them to lead a stress-free life. These days there are many ways and means to adopt for a healthy life
WFB doesn't necessarily mean Working from home! and neither it means to balance stuff while you are in service alone. WFB is a cycle and what changes is the nature of your job or career or personal life, but what shouldn't change is the attitude to manage both properly!. Good Luck!.
