Everything you do impacts your health, and how you treat your work is no different. We spend a great deal of our time at work. In many cases, it’s our single largest time commitment. Between getting ready for work, commuting, working and eventually winding down from the workday, it can be hard to find time for the things we enjoy.
Work-life balance is creating harmony between commitment to work and engagement in our lives. Many of us struggle to do it, even though most of us know how important it is. Read on to find out how work-life balance affects you and what you can do about it.
Physical Health
When your work-life balance is off, it leads to stress. Stress builds up in the body, and it makes everything more difficult. You lose sleep, which leads to loss of energy and lack of motivation to live a healthy, productive life. In the long term, the lack of proper sleep, a balanced diet and consistent exercise can lead to health complications like heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
Mental Health
The most prevalent result of not having a work-life balance is burnout. When you feel burnt out, you are more likely to experience anxiety and depression. This can snowball into worse performance at work and less presence at home. That’s why we need to set firm boundaries and have intentional downtime outside of work.
Setting boundaries can mean not taking work calls after a certain hour each day or during lunch breaks. Downtime should be spent on activities you enjoy and with people you want to spend time with. Sometimes, that’s a happy hour with co-workers, but more often than not, it’s time with family and friends.
Social Wellbeing and Relationships
While a lack of work-life balance has clear impacts on your work, it can have more subtle effects on your relationships. You may end up missing important events or moments because you need to hop on a “quick work call” after hours. The stress of being overworked and burned out can cause you to lash out at those around you.
There may be times when you need to be on call, but when that’s not the case, do what you can to separate yourself from work when you’re at home. This can mean turning off work notifications or putting your phone on silent mode. It can look like not packing your laptop for a vacation, even though that would make it convenient for you if something came up. It’s important to keep things separate so you can be fully invested when you’re at work and when you’re taking time for yourself.
Tips for Improving Work-Life Balance
Improving your work-life balance can be easier said than done. Once we get into routines, breaking out of them can be hard, even if they’re not healthy for us. Here are a few tips for improving your work-life balance:
Maintaining work-life balance is essential for living a full, meaningful life. With these tips, you will be well on your way to a happier and healthier way of living. Remember: you’re working to live, not living to work!
