Today’s industries are usually fast-paced, and it’s easy to fall into the trap of becoming a workaholic. Successfully juggling work with your hobbies and social life seems to be so difficult these days that it could qualify as an Olympic sport.
Paradoxically, this obsession with work makes a person counter-productive. Studies suggest work-related depression and anxiety is on the rise, resulting in lower productivity levels. A survey about the British workforce revealed that 12.5 million business days were lost in 2017 due to work-related stress, depression, and anxiety, and burnout from workload was one of the main causes.
In other words, a lot of employees know how to work hard, but not all know how to work smart. Maintain your productivity with these tips and get your work-life balance in check.
1. Make sleep a priority
Most goal-getters would think getting enough sleep is expendable. In truth, however, performance soars when a person gets a good night’s sleep, and Leesa has listed the reasons why sleep is important: well-rested people are less stressed, more creative, and more likely to enjoy healthy habits like exercising.
Generally, people with sufficient sleep are happier; and happy people prove to be better workers. Media strategist Danielle Sabrina delved into the correlation between the positive emotion and productivity, stating that a happy organisation has mutual respect, support, and appreciation among its members. All of this results to a collaborative work culture.
2. Start the day right
A good start is the best way to a good finish. Taking control of the first few hours of the day carries out into how the rest of your day will go. Forbes revealed that the most successful people start their day with a personalised routine, motivating them for the day’s work and improving their mood even during the toughest of work days.
3. Stop trying to do everything in a day
A good way to plan the day is to identify and/or write the top tasks that must be accomplished and commit to completing them, with no excuses. By applying priority levels to your tasks, the mind can concentrate on what’s important without being frazzled by an overload of other lesser responsibilities, leading to more work is done in less time.
4. Do work at the workplace, and nowhere else
One of the most crucial rules for the best work-life balance is to not take work home. Separating professional from personal spaces gives you that much-needed room to breathe once out of the office. Simple habits like turning off all work notifications on devices after business hours, or removing all work-related items from a home space, keep you more relaxed. This way, you’re eliminating the unnecessary stress from the visual reminders of your job. It also helps you focus more on accomplishing work within the designated working hours, and ultimately prevents burnout.
5. Remember to invest in a social life
It’s important to have consistent reminders that there’s life outside of work. The Muse suggests scheduling recurring social activities, such as weekly dinner dates with friends, or a monthly book club. Planning a social life around work instead of the other way around provides a person with a source of enjoyment from something other than work-related success, and an avenue to blow off steam if the work week didn’t go as planned.
All things considered, achieving a good work-life balance has a lot to do with perspective. Things like adequate sleep, morning routines, and leisure spaces might be simple for some people, but the combined impact of these minute details can effectively boost work productivity. Ultimately, success in your profession not only lies in how much work you can accomplish in a day but also in how you improve yourself on a holistic level.
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