The 3 pillars for a healthy work-life balance. This is how I check and work on them
Recognizing an imbalance between your professional and personal lives is challenging. Although we feel our world is falling apart, little tweaks may put us on track again. These are the steps I follow in such situations.
The main difficulty with managing our work-life balance is that it silently deteriorates until we realize we are entirely off-road.
When that realization comes, everything looks so bad that we don’t know where to start. This overwhelmingness often freezes us, making our situation worse until we don’t have alternatives other than quitting everything we do.
We must be alert and react to the first deviation signals to avoid this negative spiral. But how can these signals be read?
Understanding what work-life balance means to you is a great start.
When my balance is threatened, It feels like I only live for work. We automatically think of long working hours, which is a potential reason, but not the only one.
The explanation is often one (or more) of the three pillars that keep me moving forward in my personal and professional lives: Time, Energy, and Focus.
This is how you can check where you fall short:
Time
Track your time to see how much you effectively have at your disposal. If it is short, you should identify where it is going (commuting, work, chores, compromises, etc.).
Consider reducing your shift, prioritizing better, hiring someone, saying “no” more often, changing your job, moving, etc.)
Some years ago, I stopped going to the gym at some point because I couldn’t leave my job in time. After becoming aware (and accepting) that difficulty, I solved it by going to the gym before work. That simple tweak gave me “more life.”
However, after tracking your time, you may find that time is not the real issue. You have enough hours at your disposal, but you don’t administer them correctly. That takes us to the next point.
Energy
More often than not, we think we don’t have time. But actually, we have some time. The problem is that we spend it “doing nothing.”
You finish your shift and arrive home “early,” but you can only lie on the couch to watch TV. Maybe you lack energy. It’s possible that your job consumes you or you are under stress for another reason.
In that case, I recommend assessing what turns you on and off at work. Try to do more of the former and less of the latter. If you can’t find a way out, this is the point to seek professional help.
Focus
Focus is related to the quality of time we spend doing what we want. If I’m thinking of my job while having dinner with my family or can’t sleep because I know tomorrow will be a hard day, then I don’t enjoy that time.
That sensation often affects me when I feel I can’t do what I had planned. I’m always chasing topics, and my to-do list gets bigger daily.
I overcome it by setting expectations and prioritizing. I know I can’t do everything, so I must live with it. Understanding what is under my control at any given time is extremely helpful. I know I won’t do anything about it right now, so why keep it coming to mind?
Conclusion
The best approach in these situations is to gain awareness and directly attack what is causing that feeling.
Changing our jobs is always an alternative. A different environment could help us to administer our time better and change our mindset.