Creating a work-life balance is one key to happiness. The choices you consistently make determine how satisfied you are with your job and life. For this reason, if you aren’t feeling fulfilled in your work and personal life, you need to make changes in what you focus your time and attention on while still meeting your responsibilities.
Here are four suggestions to take control of your work-life balance.
Consider the Impact of Your Choices
Think about how your decisions enhance or detract from your work-life balance. For instance, if you include work email on your phone, you’ll have alerts pop up every time a message comes in. This interrupts time spent with your family. Either put away your phone at night or silence your work message notifications so you can focus on your family. Or, if you commit to unrealistic deadlines or don’t enforce boundaries at work, you could end up going to the office early, staying late, and working through lunch. Instead, talk with your boss if you can’t reasonably expect to finish a project by a tight deadline. Stay “no” or offer alternative plans and timelines if asked to do something you can’t commit to.
Know Your Values
Determine which choices will enhance your experience and commit to them. Rather than expecting an even split of work-life balance, figure out how to integrate different parts of your professional and personal experiences that most satisfy you. For instance, write down on a sheet of paper the things most important to you. Examples include your family, friends, career, spirituality, exercise, free time, and travel. When you’re done, choose your top three most important things. These are what you want to start working on to integrate into your experience immediately. Then, think about why each priority is important to you and the benefits it provides. Consider what’s preventing you from making this a bigger part of your experience. Determine what you need to limit or give up to honor that value.
Experiment with Small Changes
Start making small adjustments to find your version of the work-life balance. For instance, if you need to set new boundaries, spend a week not checking your work email at night. At the end of the week, determine how things turned out. You most likely will have worked more efficiently to make the best use of your time. If so, you’ll have worked fewer hours and gotten more done.
Find a Job You Love
Work should serve you both financially and emotionally. When you love what you do, you feel happier, more engaged, and fulfilled. When your work is exciting, you don’t mind going to the office every day. Putting in a satisfying day and coming home to enjoy personal interests improves your overall lifestyle.
Talk with The Nagler Group
To find a job that provides work-life balance, talk with The Nagler Group. We help you find an HR, legal, or administrative job you’ll love. See which jobs are available today.
About The Nagler Group
The Nagler Group is the leading provider of human resources, legal, and administrative staffing and recruiting services across Greater Boston and New Hampshire. Since 2008, The Nagler Group has provided qualified and talented professionals, on a temporary and direct-hire basis, to thousands of organizations throughout the local market.
Learn more and search jobs at https://www.naglergroup.com