You Must Establish Work Life Balance

The American work ethic drives us to work constantly such that the lack of work life balance is rewarded with self-respect in the workplace .The use of the Internet and technology such as Smart Phones allow us to take our work anywhere and work at anytime.Achieving balance with work and life is harder with these technological conveniences.Even when spouses evenly split the chores, your half may amount to several more hours of work at home.

Todays extended work hours makes the days of working nine to five a part of history.It is not uncommon for more ambitious work settings to demand more of your time regardless of the personal sacrifice to you.

For those who do not have this burden of bringing work home, they still face the demands of maintaining order in your personal life.  These requirements may be tasks such as laundry, paying bills, cooking, helping children with homework, etc. These are tasks that make up the usual responsibilities of life, but nevertheless can drain us just like our daytime occupation.

Many are familiar with the saying “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. “   In addition to becoming dull, lack of work life balance can make one irritable, tired, hopeless and much more.  We require down time to maintain a sense of mental well-being.This need is easily disregarded resulting in over-extending yourself.  The result is an over- stimulated mind and mental meltdowns.

The solution to this has to be more than simply doing less office work at home.  If one comes home and transitions to domestic work, you are still not getting the mental down time necessary to feel fulfilled in your personal life.

Therefore we have to carve out time engaged in leisure, pleasurable activity amounting to as little as 30 minutes in the evening.

Many people are unable to control how much they are able to reduce their workload.However you have control over how much personal “work” you do at home.  Some life modifications can include:

• Get someone to clean your home (this will incur a cost, but your time has monetary value)
• Make several meals for the week and freeze them for easy reheating
• Decline more voluteer opportunities
• Plan ahead your work attire for the entire week
• Reduce extraneous items in your home (this increases your organization and eliminated wasted time searching for items)

You must evaluate your situation to determine the best way to create mental downtime.  Sometimes it will require a sacrifice to achieve the end result of establishing a work life balance.  In this case, you will have to start with your extended workday at home in order to have quality leisure time that recharges you and enables you to fully enjoy your life outside of work.