Being an adult can make things complicated.
When you’re a kid, you have less responsibility. Becoming an adult means that, except for the lucky few, you have to work to earn a living.
Work can be tiring and time-consuming. Taking enough time out of work to recharge is important for yourself and those around you.
Let’s find out what it takes to achieve the right work-life balance.
The Work-life Balance Definition
The best place to begin when trying to understand something is to define it.
Wikipedia defines work-life balance as the right prioritization of work and lifestyle. In this definition, work means your career and any ambition you may have with this. Lifestyle implies health, leisure, and family.
While this term was invented in the late 1800’s, it wasn’t formally adopted by the United States until 1986. To conclude on the definition, a work-life balance describes the equilibrium between your work and personal life.
As the world advances, separating your work life from home life is getting increasingly difficult. According to Vivian Giang of Fast Company, technology is now enabling us to work around the clock if we so desire. This can make it hard to separate work and life.
However, the line doesn’t have to be too bold to achieve this. Vivian refers to Brian Halligan, CEO of HubSpot for his interpretation of work-life balance. Brian says that deliberately turning off his emails and taking time to think when he isn’t at work is important when separating the two.
However, once he has had time enough to think and clear his mind, he may take time while still away from work to catch up on those emails.
Five Work-life Balance Tips
Now that you know the definition of work-life balance, you can understand a bit better what it takes to have this.
Everyone is different, which means that you will have a different set of requirements to make this balance work for you than the next person. However, there are some essential tools you can begin with to help get you started:
- Focus on Your Strengths: Roche recommends not being all things to all people. Nobody is great at everything. Instead, focus on what you’re good at, and outsource the rest.
- Get Good at Time Management: having proper time management can save you time otherwise wasted in the long run. Divide your to-do list into categories, from urgent and important, to neither urgent nor important.
- Set Your Work Hours: setting your work hours is important, but sticking to them is even more so. If you stay within these boundaries for work, you won’t risk it running into your recreational time.
- Do What You Love: find something that you’re passionate about outside of work, and make time for it. If you’re committed to something, you’re more likely to make time for it.
- Take Breaks: Roche says that just because you’re at work doesn’t mean you have to be chained to the desk. Taking breaks will help you be more focused and productive.
The Best Work-life Balance Jobs
Applying practical tips to balance work and life is a good start. The next step is to find a job that is going to enable you to fulfill this. Let’s take a look at the best work-life balance jobs:
- Substitute Teacher: Forbes includes a substitute teacher on their list of the best work-life balance jobs. Substitute teachers don’t have to work as much as regular teachers, freeing up their home time to pursue other priorities.
- Web Developer: next up is a web developer. This job fits the bill because it enables you to work remotely, which means it’s easier to take time out and prioritize home life.
- Data Analyst: this is another job that allows you to work remotely. Analyzing data is straightforward, predictable work. This enables you to plane your work hours stringently so you know when you’ll be off.
- Retail Manager: the beauty of retail is that it has a closing time. You can plan your home life around your work hours because they are based on when the business is open.
Fulfilling a Work-life Balance
No matter what vocation you are in, setting time aside to relax and clear your mind is important.
One of the most significant challenges of adulthood is achieving this balancing act.
With a clear-cut work-life balance, you’ll be more satisfied in the areas of your life that matter the most.