Work life balance describes the relationship between your work and the commitments in the rest of your life, and how they impact on one another.
Employers, employees and government want to maximise participation in the workforce. However, in our demanding lives many people struggle to balance work and the responsibilities of caring for children, family members with a disability or elderly parents.
For other workers it’s often difficult to find time outside work for study, volunteering, taking care of their own health or participating in sport and recreation.
There is no ideal work life balance; everyone is different and the ‘right’ balance may alter over time as families grow older and personal commitments change.
Here are few great ideas to implement to help to get the balancing act right.
1.Conduct an Audit
Start by keeping a daily Activity Checklist; this will help you track how you use your time at work and at home. You could be surprised by how you spend your time, if you may find that you’re taking longer than you expected on certain tasks, dealing with minor issues, or in unproductive meetings. If you limit these activities, you may find more time in your day for other things.
The same is true in your personal life: you might watch far more TV than you think. By reducing your television time, you could free up your schedule to include activities that you find more rewarding.
Apply the Action Priority Matrix to your personal and work lives to take stock of what’s important to you.
2. Improve Efficiency at Work
The more efficient and productive you are at work, the easier it is for you to go home at a reasonable time.
First, try to limit distractions during the day. When you can focus on a task, you will be more productive over a shorter period of time than if you are frequently interrupted. Next, make sure that you’re working on valuable tasks that help you make a real impact with your work.
3. Add Flexibility
Flexibility is an important part of maintaining a good work-life balance. Most people who believe they have flexible jobs look more favourably on their work-life balance than those with the same workload but with no perceived flexibility. It also found that team members who think their jobs are flexible do longer hours before their workload has a negative effect on them. Job sharing, when two people split the responsibilities of one role, is another popular option.
4. Feel More Rewarded
You may not be able to do much about your workload or schedule, but you can make changes and improve your job satisfaction. When you feel engaged in your job, the hours pass quickly and you leave work feeling happy and satisfied at the end of the day.
The trick to getting this right is to learn to concentrate on the job itself. Explore ways of doing it better and take pride in doing it excellently. By so doing you will allow the job to come alive and become something that provides its own reward.