21 Oct Achieve a better work life…
In today’s world, we a have poorer work / life balance than ever before. A higher percentage of us are working longer hours, doing extra shifts to make ends meet and even checking emails in the evening – with all of this, when does work stop for the day?
With all of this to contend with, how do you switch off and manage to achieve a better work / life balance?
Get rid of the monkeys from your shoulders – Stop saying yes!
You always have that one colleague that asks you to do a ‘favour’, that ‘favour’ turns into hours worth of work, or a manager that comes to you to help with a task to get finished because no one else will. These favours can get heavy on your shoulders and equate to lots of hours over a week or month. You should learn to start saying no and removing the monkeys from your shoulders. It doesn’t mean that you have to stop helping your colleagues, however you should think about the things you say yes to and evaluate what effect saying yes will have and how it will impact your working day.
Move away from the emails
Smartphones, tablets, laptops are constantly helping us keep switched on and one of the worst culprits for constantly beeping at us, is always having access to our emails – when do we ever switch off from them?
Take a step back for a moment and consider your role – would it really make a difference if you didn’t check your emails when you left the office for the evening and instead just dealt with them when you got back to the office the next morning?
Why not try it for a little while and see the difference it makes on your wellbeing – leaving work at the office, instead of taking it home with you. Giving you chance to shut off and relax.
Work smarter, not harder…
During your working day, try and be more productive to avoid you working late…
We’re not trying to be condescending here, what you might not realise is that the tasks you are spending a long time doing could be done in half the time and being honest with yourself they are possibly not as high a priority as you think.
Learn how to prioritise your tasks, give some thought to how long that task will take and set a time limit. Teaching yourself to work this way, helps you stay focussed on that particular task and will help you complete it on time.
If you can finish the day, knowing that you have completed all of your tasks and ticked them off your to-do list, there’ll be no need to check your emails in the evening or have that impending thought of doom that you have left something half-finished.
The key to achieving a better work / life balance is being able to learn how to separate your work from your personal life. Try to avoid taking work home with you – leave it all behind when you finish for the day and stay off your emails if you can. Remember work smarter, not harder…