Today, more than ever, employees are finding it increasingly complicated to balance their work and their personal lives simultaneously. With 50+ hours a week becoming the norm in most agencies and fast-paced environments, it can be difficult to make sure you’re taking care of yourself at the same time. While working hard to succeed in your career is admirable, balancing work and life is essential to your long-term success. If you continuously overwork yourself and ignore your stress and personal life, it’s possible you’ll be burned out before you’re halfway through your career. This doesn’t mean you have to stop working hard and caring about work, but simply implementing a few strategies can assist in a better work-life balance.
Schedule downtime
If you know you’re going to have an abnormally busy week, make sure you plan ahead and schedule downtime. Make it a point to plan a dinner with your family/friends or plan a night where you’re going to focus solely on yourself and relax. This downtime is incredibly important and you should proactively schedule this time so that it doesn’t get cut out by other responsibilities.
Manage your time
Time management can be one of the biggest factors in managing work and life well. If you are overloaded at work, plan out your schedule and how you’re going to complete all of your work in time and stay on schedule. Outside of work, be conscious of the way that you spend your time. If you feel overwhelmed in your personal life, look at how you’re spending your time outside of work and try to reassess.
Take control
Everyone handles stress and being overworked differently. It isn’t 100% your manager’s responsibility to make sure that you have a proper work/life balance, a lot of that is up to you. Setting boundaries between work and home life is an important step to ensure any sort of balance. Turning off your phone or computer, when possible, after work is a great way to take control of the stress you may feel and helps to create balance.
Cut the waste
Evaluate what matters at work and at home. What parts of work and what parts of your life could you do without? If you’ve been volunteering time to help on several projects at work that aren’t your responsibility, maybe cut down the time you spend on those things. Are you spending too much time watching TV and feeling lazy at home? Interact with the people that matter most. Eliminating what doesn’t add value to your life can create a decent balance that you might be missing.
Start using these tips today and create your ideal work/life balance. If you’re ready for a new career, check out our current openings in marketing, creative and interactive!
