Tips to help your work-life balance …
The daily grind can be overwhelming. Work might seem never-ending and at any given moment you feel like you want to run screaming in the opposite direction. Stress, headaches, tension, weight gain, and depression are all signs of a work-life balance that is out of sorts. Sound familiar?
It’s really important to your physical and mental health to make the most of your downtime and keep balance in your life. So, here are some tips for improving your everyday work-life balance…
- Take some ‘offline time’. For many people, the working day is spent in a flurry of emails, tweets, teams, zoom, phone calls and texts. If this sounds like you, you should make sure that you take some offline time. When you have finished work for the day, turn off the computer, turn off your smartphone, and ignore your emails. Concentrate on relaxing, and come back to the messages the next day with a clear head. As an employer early intervention is incredibly important; If this is an issue in your business, having an absence management tool can really help to your team keep on right track
- Take time off. The value of time off really cannot be overstated. You can’t hope to be productive if you‘re constantly working – and, perhaps more importantly, it can be bad for your mental and physical health. Make sure that you schedule time off, and that you stick to it. This includes taking time in the evenings, and making sure that you get a proper holiday.
- Remember to exercise. Daily exercise is vitally important. Regular exercise will boost your mood and help you get in shape. Find at least 30 minutes a day to get up and move around. Half an hour walking round a park can be enough to get the oxygen flowing, and make sure that you’re able to focus. It will help minimise stress, boost your energy and allow you time to recharge while not staring at a computer screen! Proper cardiovascular exercise can also help you to sleep better – as well as helping you to keep fit. Mental exercise is just as important as physical, feel free to take a look at our Mental Fitness App for further details.
- Learn to delegate. Many people find it difficult to delegate. This is completely understandable; you want to maintain control over your activities. But you need to learn how and when to delegate. By identifying the tasks that can reasonably be given to someone else, you can free up your own time and get on with the important tasks.
- Prioritise your tasks. Take a look at your to-do list (if you don’t have one, make one), take a pencil and start trimming your task list. Separate your weekly tasks into must-dos and want-to-dos. Must-dos are things you absolutely have to get done. Want-to-dos are things you can work on later. Shave off the extras you don’t really need to be doing to give yourself some breathing space.
- Remember your achievements. In the struggle to get everything done, it’s very easy to forget what it is that you’ve already achieved. Set aside some time, perhaps once a month, to go back over your accomplishments. Remind yourself of the good things that have happened, rather than constantly focusing on the problems.
Feeling stressed, then you can call your Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) in-confidence, anytime day or night. Simply call the Freephone number given to you by your Employer, refer to your EAP leaflet for details.
Further details
For those Employers’ that do not currently have an EAP in-place and considering implementing one for your employees, please do reach out to our friendly team by phone on 0808 164 3941 Prefer to email? Send a message to service@lifeandprogress.co.uk
