How To Get Your Work Life Balance Right

These days, the lines between personal and professional life can often become blurred, especially when throwing in life admin, socialising and exercise into the mix. This is heightened as working from home becomes more popular. It can become incredibly difficult to balance everything in a suitably appropriate manner to make sure that you have a healthy work life balance. There are, however, some actions we can take in order to separate and get the most out of our work and personal lives. Here are a few strategies to help take a step towards that mythical work-life balance!

Restrict your access to work emails

If you have access to work emails on your personal smartphone or tablet, you should think about putting this out of reach when it’s not work hours. Your mind should be focussed on things that interest you, relax you and help you. This may involve partaking in a hobby, spending time with loved ones or relaxing on the sofa. 

Temptation to look at your emails can be spurred on by anxiety over a certain project or boredom. By detaching yourself from that access you won’t even consider it a possibility. Whilst this isn’t always possible around busy periods it should be avoided in general day-to-day working life!

Organisation and priorities

If you find yourself working past normal hours frequently then perhaps your workload or work ethic might need to be questioned. If you feel you are overworked then you need to sit down with your boss to discuss resources and staff. If however, you are capable of the workload but not sure how to manage it, you might need some help to organise and prioritise your tasks a little better to get everything finished. There are several methods to help you methodise your workload including prioritising. 

Prioritising is key. Prioritise your list of to-dos with the most in-demand and time-sensitive tasks at the top with the less important and ongoing tasks at the bottom. One thing to keep in mind is that you’re only paid for the hours you work, so try and be strict with yourself and don’t let work breach this timeframe. Prioritise your personal time in the same way that you would your work – time spent relaxing with your family and friends is valuable to your health and well-being.

If you do find yourself in stressful situations at work frequently then you should consider making use of these everyday mindfulness techniques to keep yourself balanced – it’s easy to perform at work, on your commute or at home.

Have a word with you inner perfectionist

In most cases there could always be more work to do on a project or task – a thought that our inner-perfectionist clings on to. In times like these you need to teach yourself to leave your work in the best state you can get it to with your available time. Perfectionism can cause unnecessary stress due to its potentially never ending pursuit for satisfaction.  If you’ve done your best, be kind to yourself and move on and allow yourself to relax.

Lay down the ground rules early on

When we start new jobs, we are naturally eager to please – this can pull management and colleagues into a false impression of your work output and lead to you overworked and thus over exhausted. Obviously this rests on your passions but be sure not to overwork in those initial weeks to the point where the expectation surrounding you is far greater than your capabilities. This can pull you into a cycle where both you and the other party are left disappointed. If you are carrying out your passions but do need an extra boost of energy to help you achieve them, our new TREK Power bar range is dedicated to providing you with all the natural energy you need to help you get over the line. Find our new flavours here.

Don’t be a ‘yes’ person 24/7

None of us are superhuman and we can’t do absolutely everything. If you get asked to do a task when at work whilst you’re already juggling several others don’t feel obliged to say ‘yes’ straight away without question. It’s great to help out your boss and colleagues but if you feel your work is going to suffer as a result then ‘no’ isn’t a bad thing. There are busy periods in many lines of work and sometimes you are required to do more than usual but if every weekend is getting taken up by those extra “yes” tasks then you need to put yourself first once again and create more of a balance between your work and personal time. There should always be time for yourself so you can unwind and release.

No matter if you’re at home or at the office, TREK bars are the perfect snacks to keep by your side – ideal for a casual bite at home or as a filling addition to your lunch at work! We have a range of bars no matter what you are in the mood for, including our flapjack and nut bars. Buy a TREK bar now!