What is Work-Life Balance?
- Know what it is so you know what to do
So, what is work-life balance, exactly? It’s an important question to ask, because... To have it, you need to know what it is. When you do, you can set about achieving it. In this context, ‘work’ boils down to the stuff you have to do; ‘life’ is the things you want to do. A useful definition: You have a healthy work-life balance when you feel you are giving the right amount of time, energy and effort to your work and your personal life. What isn’t work-life balance? In a word, common. Too many people feel they work too hard or too long. Time for fun, family and friends gets squeezed, particularly for people with high stress jobs. On the other hand, a lack of meaningful work can have an equally negative impact. Time and tasks soon get taken for granted when days, hours and minutes don’t matter so much. What is your work-life balance like? Do you feel you have the balance about right? Obviously things change; work flow peaks and troughs. Taking this into account, do you feel you're balanced? Rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 for the following, 10 being completely satisfied: - Current working hours
- Ability to say no
- Ability to delegate work
- Leaving work on time
- Overall efficiency at work
- Time for yourself
- Time for those you want to be with
- Ability to relax when you get the chance
- Overall feeling of balance
There are no magazine type answers to these questions. You know the ones? “If you scored less than 10 you’re stressed out!” Real life can’t be quantified like that. What they do give you is a snapshot of how you currently feel about your sense of balance. The lower your score, the greater the impact if you choose to improve it. Once you know what the issues are, you can do something about them. What is work-life balance? It’s an ongoing challenge that will continually test your ability to manage your time. But that’s only a skill, and all skills are learnable…
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