June 06, 2018 | 5 min read
4 Ways To Improve Your Work-Life Balance

Catherine

Did you resolve to improve your work-life balance this year? If so, you aren’t alone! 90% of professionals make an active effort to maintain a healthy work-life balance, and even employers are doing their part in ensuring employees are taking the appropriate measures to reach this goal.

Now that we’ve reached the middle of the year, it’s the perfect time to assess your progress. If you ultimately feel that you have not been as successful as you had hoped to be, use this time to come up with a strategy for you to improve your work-life balance.

If you’re looking to establish a healthy work-life balance that better suits your needs, here are 4 best practices to follow:

Reassess Your Goals

By establishing a better work-life balance for yourself, what are you hoping to achieve? Sometimes, due to upticks in work or other unforeseen circumstances, it can be easy to lose track of your goals. In this case, take a step back to reassess and restrategize. Whether it’s more time spent with family or a better sleep schedule, recognize what it is you’re looking for, and map out how you are going to improve your work-life balance from there.

Prioritize Your Responsibilities

Assessing your priorities is a great way to improve your work-life balance. Start by establishing a set time where you plan to arrive and leave the office every day. From there, map out your priorities and decide on what is of highest and least importance. Additionally, be sure to cut out any distractions that may be keeping you in the office longer than you need to be. For example, if you find that social media is damaging your productivity, put your phone out of sight and block access to sites like Twitter and Facebook from your work computer.

Set Boundaries For Yourself

When your job’s busy season hits, you may be tempted to take your work home with you in order to get as much done as possible. However, if you are going to do this and improve your work-life balance, it’s critical that you set boundaries for yourself. Start by establishing what tasks you can do outside of the office that cause you the least amount of stress, such as answering emails or completing independent tasks. Once you have identified those, set up a time where you’ll take care of them, such as in the morning during your commute or the hour before you go to bed. While it can be difficult to get into a routine at first, establishing these boundaries can go a long way in making you happier and more productive!

Trust Your Coworkers To Help You

Consistently working over your capacity can ultimately throw the harmony you’ve established between your personal and professional life off-balance. If you realize this is happening to you, don’t be afraid to ask your colleagues for help! People work better and more productively when they know they have a strong support system around them, so asking for help on a big project or on a tight deadline could lead to a better outcome overall. Just be sure that if a coworker also finds themselves in this situation, you’re as willing to help them as they were to help you!

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