How to: The Work-Life Balance

Have you ever found yourself struggling to switch off? Waking up in the middle of the night thinking about work? Found yourself still thinking about that work problem when you should be relaxing?

You’re definitely not alone. According to the Mental Health Foundation, nearly 70% of people say that sometimes work has a negative effect on their personal life including their relationships and mental health. This is hardly a surprise. At a time where technology means we’re always reachable, and increasing workloads make it hard for people to leave on time - it’s no wonder we’re struggling to switch off.

However, it’s important that we do learn to switch off and that work isn’t everything – we need to have a good balance between work and the rest of our lives. Here are some of our top tips on what you can do to create a better work-life balance for yourself.

1. Look after yourself! It can be easy to stay up later than you should and order a takeaway one too many times because you’re too tired to cook. It’s important to take care of yourself and build a good foundation for a happy life. This includes good sleep, nutritious food and plenty of water among many other things.

2. Turn that phone off! Where your role allows, switch off your work phone when you get home for the evening, or at least put it somewhere out of sight. It can be tempting to reply to that email quickly, or just make that last call but doing this stops your brain from switching off. Remember, whilst it might seem important at the time it’s likely that these can wait until the morning when you’re refreshed.

3. Work smarter! If you’ve got a heavy workload, put time into prioritising and scheduling your work. Set yourself deadlines so you know how much time your schedule allows, and then try to stick to them. This can be helped by trying not to get caught up in less productive things such as long, unstructured meetings.

4. Go home! Often, people work late because they feel that it is expected of them – not because they have essential work to do. Obviously, there are times where this may be necessary or unavoidable. However, being more productive during contracted hours and leaving on time is ok too.

5. Know your limits! Take responsibility for ensuring your workload is not too heavy and speak up when work expectations and demands are too much. Of course, it’s natural to be busy at work but ultimately employers need to be aware of problems to address them - they might not realise how much stuff you have going on.

6. RELAX! We know it’s easier said than done, but when you leave work try to forget about it. Instead, focus your time on things that are important to your quality of life. This could be exercise, catching up with your favourite shows, chatting with friends or visiting family – whatever works for you!

We hope you find these tips useful! If you want to find out more about why a healthy Work-Life is so important, here's a great article from Mind - https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/work-life-balance.htm.