How To Improve Your Work-Life Balance

According to a recent study, around 66% of adults feel as though they have no control over their work-life balance. While for many, this is viewed as part and parcel of adult life, this simply isn’t the case. 

After all, a poor work-life balance often leaves individuals prone to burnout, stress and exhaustion while also negatively impacting their social life and relationships with those closest to them. 

As such, working to improve your work-life balance means that you can: 

• Take better care of your mental health and wellness 
• Live the healthiest possible life
• Get a better night’s sleep 
• Achieve your goals, both personal and professional 

With that in mind, here are some top tips that you can use to improve your work-life balance. 

Set boundaries at work.

Whether you’re a people-pleaser or simply want to impress your colleagues and superiors, it’s easy to take on more than you can handle at work. However, when you are continually overstretching yourself in this regard, your work-life balance will quickly become non-existent. After all, it means that you’re spending much more time at your desk than necessary while also putting yourself under considerable stress. As such, setting boundaries and sticking to your allocated working hours (aside from in exceptional circumstances) is key moving forward. 

Make sure your free time is actually free.

If you work long or unsociable hours, it’s crucial that your free time remains free. For example, instead of spending your time outside of work trying to clean your home from top to bottom, you may want to hire a professional cleaner instead. This way, you can keep your home in good order without having to sacrifice your free time to cleaning up. 

Ask for help when you need it.

While setting boundaries and learning to say no when important is crucial to building a healthy work-life balance, so is asking for help when you need it. Despite this, many people will not ask for help at work as they do not want to seem incompetent. If you feel a similar way, you need to change your mindset -and quickly. Asking for help is one of the easiest ways to lower stress and anxiety, and it can also help you become better at your job. After all, once somebody explains how to do something or how to resolve a specific issue, you won’t need to ask again and will be able to work more competently (and confidently) moving forward. 

Find a hobby you love, and dedicate time to it.

As adults, we tend to leave behind the idea of hobbies, often saying that we are too busy to do the things we enjoy. However, by finding a hobby that you actually enjoy, you’ll find it much easier to establish a healthy work-life balance, as you’ll have more things to do outside of work. In addition to this, you may also find that your hobby could become your career, which goes a long way to building the perfect work-life balance. After all, they say when you love what you do, you never work a day in your life!