This post is the final in a series looking at Work Life Balance. We are going to recap and summarise ensuring you have everything you need to begin bringing balance between work and life.
Are you struggling with work life balance
The first article in the series – Are you struggling with work life balance?
In this we set the scene. Accepting that in today’s busy world, juggling the demands of your career and personal life is an ongoing challenge as is the need to reduce stress and maintain balance in key areas of your life. Often you feel overwhelmed with all the demands you face, whether from your job or personal life, probably working harder today than ever before, yet you are getting less satisfaction and enjoyment from what you do. Before you can put things right you first have to accept where they are wrong.
What is work life balance
The second article in the series – What is work life balance?
We looked at various definitions, including:
It’s a measure of how satisfied we are with life! Work-life balance is the equilibrium between an individual’s priorities at work and their priorities in other aspects of life.
We also discounted the argument that work life balance is based on a 50:50 split.
Then considered the benefits of a work life balance, including:
- Improved health, including lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels
- Less stress
- More happiness
- More energy
- Improved quality of life
- Better relationships
- Improved concentration
- More free time
- Potentially longer lifespan
- Sustainable health
- Simplicity in your life
You’ve learnt not just what work-life balance is, but you also seen how important it is. Hopefully it has given you both the motivation and commitment to ensure you work on improving your work-life balance.
Signs of an unhealthy work life balance
The third article in the series – Signs of an unhealthy work-life balance.
We went through the most commons signs of a work life imbalance, including:
- You’re in physical pain
- You’re exhausted
- You have a short temper
- You haven’t enjoyed yourself in a long time
- Your personal relationships are under strain with your family and friends.
- Your environment is messy
- Your phone is always on
- You don’t know where your priorities lie
- Perfection is everything to you
- Your self-care routine has gone out the window
Also, from the businesses perspective we saw how widespread and damaging this problem is.
- Higher rates of absenteeism
- Reduced productivity
- Decreased job satisfaction
- Rising healthcare costs
- Lower levels of organisational commitment and loyalty
- All leading to Poor customer service
We looked at statistics supporting the magnitude of the work life problem both to the individual and organisations.
How easily we get it wrong
The forth article in the series – How easily we get work/life balance wrong
We read the story of the Fisherman and the Banker. Well it’s more like a parable. A parable which involves two characters. There’s the City Banker and the Fisherman. One has a great life, where everything is completely balanced. The other wealthy financially, probably able to afford anything, but is he happy? He certainly doesn’t have a life in balance. Which would you rather be? I know many of you will struggle to make the choice? Even more so to make the right choice.
Analyse your life balance
The fifth article in the series – Analyse your work/life balance
In today’s busy high pressure world, its common to have a poor work-life balance resulting in unhealthy levels of stress, unhappiness, and even reduced productivity. But what about in your personal situation? Do you know whether you have a good balance or do you need to take a good look at your work-life balance and the behaviors that are affecting it. Striking a balance between your personal life and work life can be difficult but its best to know where you’re getting it wrong and how badly you are doing it.
Here you went through a process of evaluation (Life Evaluation questionnaire) to determine your level of balance. Across 10 key areas of life you measured your satisfaction with each. Then you created a visual representation of how this looked using the Wheel of Life.
The 10 key areas are:
- Physical Environment
- Love and Intimate Connection
- Passion. Purpose and meaning
- Secondary Relationships
- Physical Health & Wellness
- Mental Health
- Primary Relationship
- Finance & Money
- Professional identity
- Recreation and Relaxation and Personal Enrichment
You then scored how important it is that you commit to establishing a good work life balance. This showed whether you are motivated enough to go through the trials and tribulations that would undoubtedly appear as you try and find your work life balance.
Strategies to achieving a work life balance
The sixth article in the series – Key strategies to achieving a work-life balance
This is where you are presented with the solutions. They are not all going to be relevant to you, but in amongst them are the things you need to do to bring about balance.
- Determine your priorities
- Set specific goals
- Write a “to-do” list for the day before you leave.
- Structure your week
- Reduce your wasted time at work…including the energy drains
- Establish boundaries
- Make time for you … insert a downtime on your daily schedule
- Make time for your loved ones
- Leave work at work … respect your private time
- Delegate when possible
- Take care of your health
- Get adequate sleep.
- Relaxation (stress management)
- Good diet
- Get plenty of exercise
- Reduce vices
- Turn off routes of communication to work when you get home.
- Eliminate clutter
- Slow down – make each moment matter
- Make room for spontaneity
- Get control of your thoughts
- Learn how to say ‘no’
- Take personal responsibility
- Have that holiday.
- Get back to nature
- Aim for satisfaction
- Keep growing
- A work life balance corporate policy
- Empowered by your purpose & meaning
- Self assessment – evaluate your work life balance on a regular basis
With these you now have the strategies and tactics necessary to achieve the balance you desire. It’s the ultimate equation: get the right work-life balance and you can build a successful career while enjoying things like spending time with loved ones or developing your hobbies.
You now have to begin implementing them into your life.
Find the right balance that works for you, but remember:
Life is a process .. and so is striving for balance in your life. There’s no single formula that delivers the perfect work-life balance for everyone – what’s best for you will depend on your individual lifestyle. However, making small changes, can make a big difference.
Help if you need it
At the very outset I explained how as a executive life coach, as well previously as a Gym owner I worked with many people whose difficulties were worsened by their responsibilities for bringing up their children and looking after ageing parents, together with full time jobs and the need to look after themselves. How could they possibly juggle so many responsibilities? Could they have got balance on their own, probably not. We all need advice and support at times.
In addition to the help I have provided through this series of articles, I can offer support in two more ways.
The Single Page Plan System
The first is through my Single Page Plan Training Program. A series of videos and tools to help you build your life around a big vision of your future, together with the short term goals that will set you on the road and an action plan that will get you there.
The Single Page Plan provides an incredibly powerful tool to help you not just achieve a good work-life balance but it also ensures that your life is driven by a vision that you have created of your future, the way you truly want life to work out. You’ll be driven to achieve big goals but always ensuring you have a good, balanced life.
You will go through a process and by answering questions you will build a plan for your life, providing you with your what, where, why and how, all of which will be visible on a single page so keeping you focused on what needs to be done.
You can check out the Single Page Plan.
Join 1210 people (and counting) and see for yourself how great this is!
Now the second is by working with me on a 1-2-1 basis as a executive life coach.
An executive Life Coach by your side
Working with me as your life coach, we will deeply explore your life and strip it all back and you’ll be really honest with yourself about what it is you really want and how you are going to make steps towards getting it. I’m not a magician (more’s the pity). I don’t promise to help you achieve your goals overnight or give you a potion that’ll mean you wake up and life is perfect. With coaching, you are going to make the magic happen!
I will champion each step you take towards your goal. I also promise to hold you accountable. Because if I make sure you’re actually taking baby steps, someday soon you’ll be able to look back and see what a great distance you’ve travelled. But at all times we will make a work-life balance a priority.
Through your coaching, we’ll dive deep into what is going on to find the root cause of your poor work life balance. I’ll help you identify what has really stopped you from achieving lasting changes to your work life balance so far, and help you to work out how to make changes to what you do, and to how you think about and approach things, so you can release the stress and guilt and create a happier, more successful work life balance. Yet at the same time achieving your BIG goals.
It comes at a cost, but one that will pay itself many times over. Working with a coach, even for only a few months, can really help you begin transforming your life. They will leave you the tools to continue using well after your time together has finished.
If you want to find out more you can either look at my life coaching page or just set up a FREE discovery session, where we can work together for an hour, and you decide whether you can see the worth in investing in more time for us to spend together.
Check out One To One Professional Life Coaching or our Work-Life Balance Coaching
“May you find the balance of life, time for work but also time for play. Too much of one thing ends up creating stress that no one needs in their life.”Catherine Pulsifer
Remember, striking a healthy work-life balance isn’t a one-shot deal. Creating a work-life balance is a continuous process as your family, interests and work life change. Periodically examine your priorities — and make changes, if necessary — to make sure you’re keeping on track.
Living a balanced life is an ongoing and dynamic process.
Best of luck with it!
