Only few people can afford not to work. You probably have a busy professional life that takes a lot of your time, energy, and mental resources. So how can you find the best way to balance the demands of a job with the personal life you also need to have? Let’s take a look at some ideas.
The first thing to consider is that you will never hit that spot when things will just become fixed and stay fixed forever. Some days, your workplace will have an emergency. On others, your home and family will need extra care. You will be negotiating this balance, and that’s normal. Nobody has it together and perfectly balanced all the time.
The second step is setting a good boundary between work and leisure. Nothing messes up this balance more than bringing one into the other, usually work into your personal life, but it can be the other way around. Depending on the work you do, you can negotiate when you are online and when you won’t be answering messages. Put away the work for the weekend or set specific rituals that help you exit one space and enter the other, like changing your clothes, taking a shower, or shutting off your phone.
Another useful strategy is to create a sustainable pace at work. You might be able to do occasional overtime, but it’s not generally a good idea to do this every day. Work is more likely to exhaust you, so try to keep a steady pace.
Something important is to find the joy in both areas of your life and value them. If you dread going home, you won’t prioritize going home (and maybe need to make a few changes). If you hate work, it becomes hard to give it its place.
Finding balance involves learning to say no, on both sides of the equation. Just make sure that you are not always saying no to work or viceversa. This will help you avoid putting too much time on each side of the scales and tip them over. It’s also important to remind yourself to say yes sometimes. Take new opportunities and new chances, it might lead you to unexpected results.
Finally, allow yourself to accept that some days will be harder than others. Don’t expect you can keep things 50/50; that’s the ideal, not the norm.
