Work or Life? How About Both?

Finding the elusive balance between work and life

How often do you hear someone cribbing about the lack of work-life balance in their jobs? Quite often if recent evidence is anything to go by. Increasingly, you hear of people who have quit their jobs to pursue their passions or because they want to take a break and re-evaluate their priorities.

What makes someone want to leave their bread-and-butter earning job for the uncertainties of starting something new? What can cause you to feel like you cannot go on without a hiatus from work? And, is there no other option than to leave your job if you want to give rein to your interests?

The answers to these questions may lie in what you are doing at work, and how you are doing it, rather than the things you do outside of work. Work and life need not be mutually exclusive and treating them as such might only be adding to the feeling of imbalance within you.

Practicing these tips at work can help you ensure that you don’t reach a point where you feel forced to choose between either of work or life:

Work smarter, not harder: Don’t confuse being an effective worker with being a perpetually busy worker. Take plenty of breaks in between stretches of work. A spot of reading or listening to your favorite tunes will only help you refresh your brain and make it more productive where needed.

It is impossible for anyone to maintain the same levels of productivity throughout a workday. While companies might have fixed work hours per day, stretching your work to fill every minute of those will lead you to burn out and serve nobody’s purpose, least of all yours.

Say no when it suits you: Don’t think twice about saying no when you know that your boss or a colleague is trying to take advantage of you by palming off some extra work to you. While an odd favor here or there won’t harm you, if you think that making it a practice will keep you on your boss’ good side and help you during your appraisals, chances are that you will be wrong. In all likelihood, the extra work will never be accounted for and you will be seen as easy prey for more such ‘favors’. Of course, diplomacy matters when you are saying no.

Leisure is not all for the weekend: Don’t burn the midnight oil by telling yourself that you will make up for it by relaxing on the weekend. Don’t deny yourself much-needed downtime on weekdays. A little time spent catching up on your favorite TV shows or with your friends or family will help you relieve the stress of a workday and keep you fresh to tackle a new day. Fun need not be a word associated only with weekends.

Switch it off in your head: Learn to leave behind the worries of work when you go home. While you might have to answer a call or send an email on occasion, having work on your mind when you’re chatting with your partner or playing with your kids is fair neither on them or you. You get paid to work at the office, not to worry about it at home.

Bond with colleagues: An average employee spends more waking hours with their colleagues than they do with family and friends. They are the best support system you can have when it comes to understanding and addressing the stresses of work. Finding shared interests and bonding with your colleagues can go a long way in making even uninspiring work and workplaces more bearable. You might also end up making some friends for life.