Workaholics out there might be happy to spend all their daylight hours working. But for most of us, however, we need more from life.
Workaholics are the type of people that thrive when their entire day is spent doing whatever they do. As the name says it is all about work, work, and in most cases a very hard work for that matter. Surveys conducted into working life show that 77% of respondents experience burnout in their careers. This is a severe problem that most workaholics take for granted. Being heavily and constantly invested in something means that you are harming your health and swiftly working toward an early retirement that will be conditioned with the said burnout.
If you’re struggling to find the right balance, here are five essential tips you should follow.
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1. Prioritize Your Time
Source: al.com
Prioritizing your time is the first step towards achieving a healthy work/life balance.
Besides this, making priorities in your life is very important for every other aspect of it. It only aids further when it comes to workaholics.
For this, a good to-do list can work wonders. Set out your tasks in order of importance, that way you won’t forget something vital while you’re busy completing a job that really could have waited.
If you have trouble pacing yourself, then it is also a good thing to write down next to that to-do list what is truly important and what is not that much. What requires your immediate attention and what is just some side thing you will do because that is who you are. Explain yourself simply that you need to do something and that you don’t need to do other things because you need time for rest and yourself.
Sure, you might need a pint of milk, but check that you don’t need to pick the kids up from school first!
2. Distance Learning
Source: viewsonic.com
Furthering your education can be a powerful draw. It’s an excellent way to not only better yourself, but to progress in your career too.
Unfortunately, returning to university to relive your student years doesn’t suit everyone’s lifestyles as the class schedules of the traditional university setting often conflict with work and family responsibilities.
Distance learning institutions such as Anglia Ruskin University (see here) are suitable for all lifestyles, allowing you the flexibility to study wherever and whenever suits you.
3. Stick to Set Work Hours
Source: inc.com
When you leave the office, you need to make sure that you leave the office. You’ll never achieve a healthy work/life balance if you keep letting the work portion interrupt the life portion.
This is harder to do now that many of us are hybrid working, so be sure to set boundaries when working from home. Close your office door at the end of the working day, and keep your work laptop turned off outside work hours.
Numerous people had and still have issues in proved life because they tend to overwork themselves and still carry their work home. Several studies confirmed that if you step way back from a job that you can’t do, you will have more luck the next day or two. Your brain needs a rest and a reset from time to time to be fully operational and at full capacity. Draining batteries till the end will leave you at a constant loop of more work that can’t be done, and you stressing about it.
4. Take Plenty of Breaks
Source: realbusiness.co.uk
Don’t be break-shy during the day. It’s important that you get away from your desk at regular intervals, even if that’s just to go and make yourself a coffee.
On those nicer days, take a quick walk around the block. Not only will the fresh air do you the world of good, but keeping on our feet is great for our physical health too.
If you didn’t know, Japanese people have what is called a workout break. Their employees will have to take a mandatory break that includes going outside and working out in fresh air. This is the way that these incredible people are managing to maintain a very healthy workday, some very satisfied workers, but most importantly, some very efficient workers. Overworking and working while exhausted never brought anything good to anybody.
5. Don’t Skimp on Sleep
Source: firstbeat.com
Sleep is one of the most important things we can do to keep ourselves happy and healthy. However, many of us feel like we need to work harder rather than smarter – usually, this involves training ourselves to survive on minimal sleep.
However, sleep is far too vital to our physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing to be treated as a throwaway or non-essential. When you get plenty of sleep, you’ll see a vast improvement in your productivity and concentration. Not only that, but it will leave you looking healthier – after all, beauty sleep might be a cliché, but there’s a lot to be said for it!
Everyone is writing about this, and doctors are urging people to try and get as much healthy sleep as possible. Sleeping for a few hours at a night or falling asleep after a few coffees in the evening after a long day and night of constant gazing at the phone or computer screen doesn’t constitute a good night’s of sleep. There is a study that states that blue light coming from our phones and computers, as well as a sip of coffee after 4 PM, is significantly influencing our sleep and destroying its quality. You are sleeping, but you aren’t sleeping the way that your entire body sees its benefits.
Maintaining a healthy work/life balance is one of the best things we can do to keep ourselves from burning out. Thinking about your health and the way to maintain it at the highest level is the way to stay a hardworking and efficient person, so think about that as well. If you are a workaholic and if you strive from hard and long work, try and pacer yourself to be the best you can be and to be like that for a longer period.
How do you achieve balance in your life? Tell us all about it in the comments below!
