Last Updated on November 17, 2021 by Dayanand Kadella
In our daily life, work frequently takes precedence over all other aspects of life. Our desire to achieve success, professionally might cause us to put our personal well-being on the back burner. Creating a healthy work-life balance, or work-life integration is crucial these days, not only for our physical, emotional, and mental well-being but also for our professional success. However, work-life balance is affecting our life span, strongly. My 20 ideas for work-life balance can really help you to lead yourself to longevity.
Work-life balance keeps us healthy, not just physically, but has a great impact on our mental health. Therefore, it helps us live longer and happier.
Work-life balance and its significance.
In a nutshell, work-life balance is an equilibrium state in which a person equally prioritizes his or her professional responsibilities as well as personal. Here are some of the most prevalent causes of a bad work-life balance:
- Increase in Responsibilities at Work
- Longer work hours
- Increase in Responsibilities at Work
- Having children to take care
According to Chris Chancey, a career expert, and CEO of Amplio Recruiting company, a healthy work-life balance offers several benefits, including reduced stress, a decreased chance of fatigue, and a higher sense of well-being. This is advantageous to both employees and employers in terms of their productivity, in both cases, professionally and personally, which ultimately leads to longevity.
“Employers that are devoted to creating work-life balance for their workers can save money, have fewer incidences of absenteeism in their life, and have a more loyal and productive team,” said Chris Chancey.
Consider the best approach to creating balance at work and in your personal life while designing a timetable that works well for you. According to Chancey, having the flexibility to get things done in your professional and personal life while still having time and energy to enjoy it is more important than splitting hours of the day evenly between work and personal life doing multitasking.
Ella Legg, the founder of the copywriting consultancy; Ella Smith Communications, has direct personal experience of the difficulty of striking that balance in life.
Here are the top 20 ideas for striking and maintaining a healthy work-life balance that can lead you to longevity, life’s greatest achievement. They are listed below.
1. Use your strengths to lead
Test yourself. Take challenging tasks and be determined to complete them at a self-improving pace. Don’t strive to be everything to everyone in life. Concentrate on your strengths and outsource the rest to others. Instead of wasting time, outsourcing account sheets and typical graphic design if you aren’t a master at them.
2. Acquire the Ability to Prioritize Your Time
You may have a long to-do list with more than 50 items on it, so divide them into four categories and prioritize them.
They are as follows:
- Urgent and important
- Important but not urgent
- Urgent but not important
- Neither urgent nor important.
I can understand it’s tough to get the idea of where to start. But once you get started, you will follow the flow of being productive in such a way that results will soon be visible to you. Find tools on the internet like GroupMap, that can help you to classify your make them prioritize for you.
3. Recognize your ebbs and flows
Find your best time when you think yourself the most productive and information soaking. Ask yourself “Am I a morning person?”
If you are, schedule difficult activities that need a lot of focus in the mornings. Don’t put off difficult work till later in the day, -night, and vice versa.
And if you are a night person, then do your difficult tasks at night rather than in the morning. That will affect your productivity.
4. Make a schedule for yourself
It’s easy to immerse yourself in your work when personal difficulties emerge. Please don’t do that. Because you won’t have a business to return to if you don’t make time for your personal life – your “me” time, which includes your family and your health. Your goal is something mighty that can be achieved when you overcome those personal issues, which will become our key to a long and happy life.
5. Set a time and stick to it
You can’t deny the impact of time-blocking in your life. Make a schedule for yourself -professional and personal life, and do everything you can to keep to it. Otherwise, you’ll be working till midnight every night before you realize that you have made a mistake in not scheduling your life’s precious time.
6. Find some time for your Finances
Making money and managing it are two different things. It’s very crucial to feel secure about your finances, whether you work for yourself or not. It doesn’t matter, but you’ve got to find some time for your finances. To accomplish this, you’ll need to put some accounting software in place and start using it right away; from day one.
One of the most difficult issues that small businesses face is cash flow, throughout the start. You should begin utilizing accounting software as soon as possible so that you are aware of your financial situation from the outset.
7. Long-term time management
It’s pretty difficult to get stick with your schedule when too many things distract you all day. You can use certain computer applications, like Clockify, to assist you in this case, or you can create your own Excel spreadsheet or Word table. Make a schedule for your activities. Be more efficient with time usage.
Dates should go across the top, and events should go down the side. Dissect each task into its constituent parts.
Include family obligations – like holidays, birthday celebrations, and so on – so you don’t forget you’re out of the office on such days.
8. Make a pleasant workspace
The environment always affects our productivity rate. Working for yourself typically involves hard hours and little downtime, so invest in tools and instruments that will help you succeed in your work and workspace.
This means acquiring a comfortable chair for your back, an ergonomic keyboard for your fingers, and a laptop support stand, etc.
An ergonomic evaluation of your workstation is well worth every cent you own.
9. Go with technology
Use Cisco Webex or conferencing tools like GoToMeeting, Zoom, Skype for Business, ezTalks Meetings, Microsoft Teams, etc. instead of driving to a meeting. But don’t forget to turn them off. You must adapt to the changes that the world is undergoing and make full use of technology.
10. Make exercise a must-do rather than a nice-to-do
Exercise is a must-do activity in our life. It’s simple to skip the gym, an evening run, or a yoga session when a client needs something done yesterday.
Instead, make sure that exercising is as important as your clients and that money. Otherwise, you risk your health. A healthy body equals a fresh mind, which means you’ll be able to work your best productive mode and finish things faster.
11. Put in the effort to make it.
Make an investment in time-tracking software which will keep you on track. You may use a variety of tools to keep track of anything from meeting frequency and duration to chasing and converting leads that will help you to create some time. Although you cannot make a 24hour day more than that, you can manage your time so well with some time-tracking software that can’t be denied.
Time-tracking software can help you rapidly figure out how long a certain job takes to be completed.
You’ll be able to accurately predict how long your next work task will take this way, and you’ll plan in a better way to be more productive in that given time.
12. Know your network and Let it grow
Friends and relatives need your time to understand you well and get benefits from you. Prioritize network growth and set up a systematic lead-conversion strategy so you can measure the time and money it takes to expand your network.
Early on, establish benchmarks and absorb the lessons you learn.
13. Pursue your passions
I once heard Robert T. Kiyosaki say, “Do your job but mind your own business.” I’m sure he meant that whatever you are doing, give it your best, but don’t forget to find your dream job, what you love to do; your passion. It will invigorate and rejuvenate you, allowing you to cultivate the creative thinking that every company owner needs. You will feel a sense of ownership over whatever you love to do, whether or not it is under your own company.
14. Be realistic
Perform a brief self-evaluation and self-audit at the end of each working day of your life. Consider what went well today, what didn’t, what went wrong today, and how the problem may be resolved which occurred today.
Keep in mind that countless corporations, just like yours, are learning the same lessons on a daily basis in their businesses. Don’t forget to seek support from the great resources available to you — your peers.
15. Take a step forward
Working for yourself may be isolating, so arrange some phone conversations or coffee dates with other entrepreneurs to share ideas and give encouragement.
16. Hire a business consultant
Make a budget for a business coach. That way, you’ll be able to figure out how to break negative habits, like being spendthrift, and replace them with good ones sooner rather than later.
Here is a list of The 7 Steps To Finding An Expert Business Consultant, that can help you.
17. Meet clients on their terms; the halfway – literally
You shouldn’t always go to meet a customer at their place of business; office. Instead, meet somewhere in the middle, such as a café or restaurant on the way. This will save you priceless time and energy, as well as money on travel expenses. After all, you have to have a business talk.
18. Control your thoughts
When dread, self-doubt, or worry arises, engage in mental health activities such as meditation or reading a business book. Other interesting; comic stories can also make you more calm and relaxed.
Spend time with someone who will encourage and support you, rather than someone who criticizes and drains your energy.
For more on this, you can read this article: AN ACTIVE MIND LEADS TO LONGEVITY.
19. Take a breather
Keep in mind that you should take breaks throughout the long working day.
Some activities are easier than others you think, so if you have an hour on your hands, think about whether you can “afford” to take a break to recharge yourself.
Even if you don’t have time to sit and “be” every day, make an effort to take a lunch break at least.
Make it a habit to stand up and stretch every 15 minutes at work. It will help you become more focused, clear, and productive. It will also affect your health, both mentally and physically.
20. Find fun and vacations
You need a long break now. For all that, you’ve got to make time for a vacation and schedule breaks at least once a quarter. Even a long weekend at some picnic places every three months is preferable to nothing. This will be a life-energy booster, I bet.
But don’t forget to give your clients and consumers as much information as is necessary because you are going to enjoy vacations with their support too.
Also Read: ACTIVE LISTENING | HOW TO BECOME AN ACTIVE LISTENER