How to Understand Your Work-Life Balance

99-SECOND READ

Work-life balance effects every area of your life (see What Really is Work-Life Balance for details). It has a huge impact on our happiness and health; therefore it’s important to understand your work-life balance ad where it could be improved. It should be assessed regularly, as your work patterns, routines and responsibilities change.

Here are some wayt to get a better understanding of your work-life balance.

Don’t Compare

It’s important not to compare your lifestyle with anyone else’s.

We all have our own needs, motivations, drives, skills, careers, values, tendencies, personalities, interests, family lives and goals. Because of this, comparison is pointless.

Make Time for Self-Reflection

Instead, make time for self-reflection – listen to your thoughts & feelings.

What feels good about your lifestyle and your work, what could be better, what are you ignoring?

Examples of thoughts to listen to:

• I don’t have enough time for myself or the things I want to do
• I don’t enjoy my job, or it doesn’t feel meaningful
• I feel like I’m always working
• My job controls my lifestyle

Ask yourself: How much focus am I giving the 10 areas of life (see them here) and what role does work play in my life overall?

Look at the facts:

·        How many hours a week do you spend working and commuting?

·        How’s your sleep - if it isn’t good or you’re not getting enough of it, why not?

·        How much time do you have each month for yourself, your family and friends, R&R, hobbies?

Jot these facts down, think about them. How happy are you with what you see?

Reflecting on your work-life balance will increase your understanding of your personal circumstances and raise your awareness of how happy you feel overall.

Get Specific About What You Want

To make this insight productive, get specific about what you want to improve. Focus on what you would change in an ideal world. E.g:

·        You want to cycle to work

·        You want to finish work by 6

·        You want to get 8 hours sleep

·        You want to exercise 3 times a week

·        You want to stop working on the weekends

·        You want to have 2 hours to yourself / with your family every morning

Summary

Your goals, desires and needs are unique, the better you understand how they align with your current work-life balance, the more able you’ll be to cultivate a lifestyle that suits you.

The closer more your work-life balance suits you, the happier, healthier and you’ll feel. 

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