How to create a real work-life balance & what can actually help you achieve it
Amelia Jean Hershman-Jones
Wellness
Reading time: 6 minutes
Finding a happy medium between personal & professional lives can be tricky, but it can boost your wellbeing. We ask an expert for practical tips to help you balance work & life
Working 9 to 5? Forget it, Ms Parton! With post-Covid hybrid working now in full swing, the lines between work and home life are more blurred than ever and it’s having a real effect on the nation’s wellbeing.
In fact, 52% of UK employees admit that their work regularly eats into their personal life, with the country ranking 11th out of 37 countries for maintaining a work-life balance. It comes as no surprise then, that searches for ‘work-life balance’ are up by 15% over the past 12 months, according to Glimpse’s Google Trends, as the population looks to recalibrate their working weeks.
How do I know if my work-life balance is unhealthy?
A good work-life balance can mean different things to different people. It’s about finding a ratio that works for you and your priorities.
However, common signs that you may have an unhealthy work-life balance include: long working hours, being unable to meet deadlines because of your workload, not having time for socialising and hobbies, disruption to your family life and trouble switching off in your downtime.
Why do many of us have a poor work-life balance?
Finding out how to create a work-life balance is a quest many of us start, but few complete.
It can feel like a continual challenge and so to start with, it’s time to take ‘balance’ out of the equation as it can cause problems.
“Creating and maintaining balance is unsustainable,” explains Subira Jones, life coach and corporate burnout prevention consultant, aka ‘The Corporate Hippie’.
“Like living life on a tightrope, it’s exhausting and causes burnout. Burnout is the result of chronic exposure to stress, whether in your personal or professional life.”
The International Classification of Diseases, officially recognised ‘burnout’ as a diagnosis for the first time in 2019.
“Only focusing on workplace-related stress can cause you to overlook the factors in your personal life that may be the root cause of burnout,” Subira suggests. “Simply being exhausted, ie ‘rundown’, after a difficult, but finite period of time, isn’t the same as being burnt out.”
How can we tell the difference? “Rundown is like a laptop that needs charging to begin working again. Burnout is like a laptop that, no matter how much you charge it, is unable to function optimally,” explains Subira.
The unpredictability and instability over the past few years could also be fuelling our increased work-life disconnect. “During lockdown, the activities that people usually do to blow off steam or distract from the dissatisfaction they may be experiencing in life were removed, forcing them to be confronted with the reality that they were unhappy and/or unfulfilled,” Subira highlights.
“For many, the reintroduction of the outside world may no longer be enough to act as distraction, causing greater fraction and more burnout.
So, to help avoid burnout, don’t pile more pressure on yourself by trying to balance your professional and personal lives perfectly. “Aiming to create work-life harmony is a much better use of energy,” Subira recommends. “This puts the focus on creating peace and alignment between your working life and personal life, so the two can co-exist harmoniously and simultaneously.”
How to improve your work-life balance
1. Set boundaries
While the purpose of boundaries is essentially personal, they’re your opportunity to retain your personal power – a set of guidelines on how you expect to be treated.
“Think about the type of life you want to live and the type of person you would like to be,” suggests Subira as a starting point.
“Boundaries at work are set to help you work in a way that allows you to perform at full potential. So, be honest with yourself about how best you work. Don’t be afraid to communicate this in your email signature or take control of your calendar with time blocking.”
2. Schedule time
You don’t think twice about blocking out time to meet with others during your day, why not block time out in your calendar for your own needs?
Put your own time first. “Don’t start the day heading straight into a meeting. Give yourself and colleagues breathing room by booking meetings to start five minutes after the hour,” suggests Subira.
Another top tip? “Block the first 15 to 30 minutes of the day planning your day ahead and prioritising tasks, and don’t book meetings during your lunch hour,” she warns, as it’s a slippery slope.
“Use these time boundaries to communicate clearly and effectively if you aren’t able to take on and complete a piece of work within the given time frame.”
3. Cut out procrastination
Use the 80/20 Pareto principle (which states that for many outcomes, roughly 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes) approach to the working day to help maximise your input-to-output ratio for increased productivity. “Focus on the most important 20% of tasks that move the needle and have the biggest impact,” advises Subira.
“If you’re most productive and disciplined in the morning, do the 20% of high importance tasks in the morning and the 80% throughout the day and flip that if you work better in the afternoon.”
Struggling? “Understand if you need a particular environment or equipment to eliminate the obstacles and excuses stopping and distracting you.
“Give purpose to the work you’re doing by reminding yourself of the ‘why’ and how the piece of work ‘fits the bigger picture’. Give yourself micro breaks throughout the day, time-blocking your calendar, as well as rewarding yourself for accomplishing tasks.”
4. Communication
“Cut out unnecessary noise and keep your outcome and compassion in mind when you communicate with colleagues,” suggests Subira.
“What’s the intention behind your communication? Are you looking to gain clarity, understanding, resolution or conclusion? By compassionately communicating your message, people tend to be more responsive.
“Keeping your outcome in mind decreases the likelihood of you reacting to provocation or triggers. Remember that if you’re met with resistance, it’s often not personal – people tend to project their own fragility and fears when faced with a situation they’re not comfortable or certain with.”
5. Set goals
“Whether your goals are personal or professional, align them to your core values and what you’d like to experience in life, the type of life you would like to live and the impact you want to make in the world around you,” says Subira.
“For example: ‘I’m working on this project so I can gain a promotion, the promotion will increase my financial flexibility to support my family and move out of my parents’ house’.”
6. Make development plans
Make a vision board – no, seriously. “I’m a big believer in framed vision boards,” enthuses Subira.
“Creating a board of the things you want to achieve and experience in life provides you with a visual reminder of why you’re working so hard or being particularly disciplined and helps increase your sense of motivation on days where it may wane.”
7. Know what gives you energy
This is more important than you might realise. “Being able to rest actively and passively helps you recover from being rundown after a long period of working hard and intensely,” Subira explains.
“Resting helps keep your proverbial cup full – but as mentioned, being rundown is not the same as being burnt out.
“If you’re constantly running on empty, it can eventually cause you to lose your sense of agency, purpose and direction, which is the start of a slippery slope to beginning a cycle of burnout.
“However, it’s hard to rest when you're incredibly stressed, so to effectively rest requires you to eliminate stressful situations in your life, so you can move out of survival mode and relax.”
& finally: is ‘quiet quitting’ a good idea?
‘Quiet quitting’ was the buzz term of 2022 and is all about doing the bare minimum for a paycheck, without emotionally or intellectually engaging. However, Subira suggests this probably isn’t a good idea.
“It can have an adverse effect on the self-esteem of people who are already anxious that their performance is struggling,” she says.
“Quiet quitting can decrease your motivation to work, because it indicates your sense of purpose is decreasing, which can be the start of burnout.
“A better option than quiet quitting is to reinstate a sense of purpose behind the work you’re doing and fall back in love with your career. If it’s a capacity issue, then effectively communicating that with management to get the right level of support may be a better long-term solution.”
