Contrary to the yesteryears, a working individual doesn’t just have a regular nine to five job anymore. Even if you are a high-strung corporate person, you have to play a role and manage the identity of yourself apart from being a professional. Working men and women are in all areas of life. Whether they are working from home, flexible hours, shuttling between work and home, or in transit between different cities, they are always expected to deliver.
In today’s day and age, every person, young or old, fresher or experienced, is usually struggling to juggle between their work life and personal life. They have expectations to fulfill at home, and service levels and KRAs to achieve at work. As a working individual, we all are expected to execute their duties flawlessly in all verticals of life.
Have we ever stopped and wondered what about the balance between work and personal life? Our health, stress levels, eating habits, and daily routine. How juggling so many balls of duties at the same time affects our health and mental sanctity. As a growing individual, there are many aspects of your health that you should take into consideration. You; being the well-oiled machine that operates everyone’s lives, it cannot break down. It is also imperial that with the growing stress points in our life, we must seek to create the right balance. Balance is the key to a happy and healthy outcome. It not only divides your time well but also allows you to prioritize important aspects of your life equally, so you do enough justice.
There are a few simple yet useful tips that we can offer which incorporate or amend your life with some healthy lifestyle habits.
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Arrange your priorities
Instead of working haphazardly and inviting stress and anxiety, always arrange your priorities and to-do lists for the next day. Close your eyes, visualize your next-day tasks, and pen them down. It doesn’t matter whether they are official or personal. Creating a priority list ensures you don’t forget essential chores, duties, and follow up points. Whether it is paying bill or school fees, doctors or salon appointments, travel regime, or social engagements, everything will be well within your sight once punched in a calendar. This will reduce your stress levels; you will find yourself enjoying healthy lifestyle habits. Unplanned execution leads to chaos, and chaos leads to stress.
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Exercise to enjoy yourself
When it comes to exercise, people usually jump on the trend bandwagon. Whether it is Pilates, weight training, cult training, etc., the list is endless. Your workout doesn’t have to be something that matches an ongoing trend. Choose a workout or exercise routine or playing a sport that you enjoy. Take a walk, jogging, taking a swim, or floor home workouts. You will be able to sustain an exercise only when you enjoy and love doing it and incorporate healthy lifestyle habits.
A workout is an essential aspect of having the right work-life balance because it is directly related to our health. Most times, people land up, saying they don’t have time for workouts because they are busy. Make time. Exercise relieves the body of lethargy and keeps you light and on your toes. When you exercise, you release a chemical called endorphin. Endorphins make you happy and healthy, which is imperial for the right balance in life.
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Minimum contact with the cell phone
Mobile phones are running our lives in terms of time and energy. Don’t bring your office home just because you can be connected to the mobile phone. Aside from the harmful radiation of the continued use of phones, it is not a healthy lifestyle. Keep phone interactions to a minimum when you are at home. Read papers, journals, and books to help your professional and personal development instead of wasting time on social media. Try to disconnect and switch off.
Today, we see that conference calls replace dinner conversations while eating. People find it refreshing to show that you are so busy. But are we so busy that we cannot take time off our digital dependencies for fifteen-twenty minutes to feed ourselves? Disconnect. Discipline yourself. Don’t use your phone or be on office calls when you are with family and friends. Live a little off your work as well. We are not saying it’s essential, but don’t make it so important that you miss the valued things in life.
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Adequate sleep and rest
A person’s body after it has accomplished mammoth tasks for the day needs enough rest. Sleep is designed to make the body heal and become rejuvenated and replenished again to take on another day. Sleep is a way of the body’s healing process. An average suggests that 6-8 hours of healthy lifestyle habits, which not many people follow. Work is essential to life, but so is your sleep. When we sleep, our body takes its time to recuperate with the losses and start the next day anew.
A sound mind in a sound body is a sign of good health. If your health is good, maneuvering through the everyday tasks and managing them efficiently becomes easier.
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Set expectations at the workplace clearly
Often, when we join a new job or want to prove a point in the old one, we tend to overdo our work. We feel it is vital to prove ourselves, and we must compromise on other aspects of life. This is not true. Be honest with your workplace expectations.
Whether it is with your seniors or colleagues or team members, always keep clear and accurate communication as to how you want to go about your routine. Keep a specific time for work to end and avoid work calls after a particular time unless emergent.
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Let passions drive your hobbies.
Hobbies and passions do not always need to be linked to financial gain. Many times, we tend to overcomplicate and monetize things. When we monetize something, we unlink the creative increase we receive from that hobby due to the financial aspect of it. Don’t turn your hobbies into another workplace, which give you an income. Keep your hobbies for rejuvenation of the mind.
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Be realistic
Don’t overburden yourself with the expectations of others. Don’t try too hard that you ruin your peace of mind and personal life. Some things will work out accordingly to what you planned, and some may not. Don’t take mishaps too personally. There is more to life than a missed appraisal, a forgone promotion, or being the boss’s favorite. Always remember, your work is a part of your life.
Don’t let it rule every conversation, every discussion, and every happy moment because of dissatisfaction at the workplace. All your decisions do not need to be work-centric.
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Take that holiday
Don’t avoid having fun. We work not just to survive but to enjoy life as well. Don’t make your life just about earning money and saving. Saving is essential, no doubt, but not to an extent where you avoid living and catching a break. Take that vacation with your loved ones, spend time with your parents and children. When we disconnect ourselves for a while to enjoy ourselves, it actually makes us more productive.
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Take a break from work
When we are working, we do not realize that we fail to take breaks when necessary in the flow of things. Even at the office, take small breathers. Take a break for a coffee, stretch your legs, and talk to a colleague about something apart from work. Small little activities make a huge difference in your overall day. When you stop and restart your work, you go back to it with fresh eyes. A breakthrough that you may have been wanting or an idea may come up that may make you a star at work.
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Track your time
Often, we do not realize how much time we take for each activity we do throughout the day. What if we tracked the time we took for each one? It would be much more efficient to realize what business takes maximum time during the day. Maybe we could work around a process to make it better, so it takes less time. Analyzing our schedules and bettering them makes us gain more control over the day’s routine. For all your activities, make an activity board. Every event must be a part of your calendar. Not just work-related but personal appointments and activities as well. If your work has priority in your career, so does your life and your loved ones.
Conclusion
When you are managing a mountain of workload yourself, it can become very overwhelming. Some things may get missed out on or done incorrectly. If you experience too much workload at home and office and are unable to manage it, ask for help. Ask your partner or spouse to share that workload to pull some stress from you.
Stress being a deterrent to a good healthy life, it is better to keep it at bay. Most mental illnesses are also caused by stress and are not healthy lifestyle habits that we endorse.