Enjoy this guest post, written by Avery Phillips. – Kimberly
Phones and laptops make us constantly available to work. This makes it easy to lose the clock-off time of 5 p.m. and find yourself working long into the nights and weekends. When your work-life balance gets off-kilter, you lose many valuable things, including your time, attention, and maybe even your health.
Overworking is known to lead to mistakes, stress, and overall deterioration of your wellness. In this article, we’re going to talk about the struggles to maintain a healthy work-life balance while balancing family and personal needs. We’ll also cover what you can do about it.
Balancing Work and Family
With the growing costs of having a baby, many families find it impossible to stay at home even in the first stages of their child’s life. It can be stressful managing bills, a day job, possibly a side gig, and then trying to put it all away when you’re home so you can focus on your family.
Many parents struggle to let go of the day’s tasks even though it’s important for your health and happiness. But small changes can make a big difference. Here are some things you can do to help achieve work-life balance:
- Eat together at the dining table.
- Create a bedtime routine you enjoy.
- Schedule one night a week for a special family activity.
- Take the first 10 minutes at home for yourself (and relax).
Dealing With a Toxic Work Environment
Sometimes the lack of a healthy work-life balance isn’t because parents can’t leave their work at the office. When your workplace is toxic and inflexible, work-life balance can feel impossible. Here are some tips to consider if you’re dealing with a toxic workplace:
- Apply for jobs in different companies.
- Consider self-employment.
- Rally your like-minded colleagues and find healthy ways to vent.
- Tune it out and focus on maintaining your work-life balance.
Money and Happiness
More money sure can make things easier, but it doesn’t guarantee happiness. At some point in your life, you might find yourself at a fork in the road where you’re forced to choose between a job with a high-salary or a job that truly makes you happy. That’s not to say the job with the high salary can’t make you happy, it just depends on the specifics of the job and your life priorities.
Oftentimes, high-salary jobs will keep you away from your family, working late nights and weekends or maybe away on business travel while adding a load of stress onto your back. Jobs that provide people with a sense of purpose along with the flexibility for family and personal time will often pay far less than the high-demand positions. If you find yourself choosing between money vs. happiness, think of these things first:
- Will the job you want earn you enough income to be happy?
- Is there a way to negotiate more flexibility with the high-demand position?
- What are your top life priorities, and which position could fulfill them the best?
If in the end you decide the high-demand, high-salaried job is right for you, keep in mind that work-life balance will be more difficult to achieve and just that much more important to work toward.
A healthy work-life balance is essential to a healthy and happy life. We hope, through this article, you’ve found some tips and resources to help you achieve it. Let us know how you balance work and life responsibilities in a comment below.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Avery Taylor Phillips – Avery is a freelance human being with too much to say. She loves nature and examining human interactions with the world. Comment or tweet her @a_taylorian with any questions or suggestions. Check out her blog on https://www.equities.com/user/AveryTaylorPhillips
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