How to balance work and personal life

Find balance in your life and be happier and more successful!

Whether you are in love with your job and your carrier, or you have to work long hours, in order to keep your job, or you may even have two jobs, in order to make ends meet, one thing is sure. Your work sucks up all your energy and most of your time, leaving your personal life behind. You feel like you don’t have enough time for you or for your family. Well, it’s about time you changed that! You need to find a good balance between your work and your personal life and you need to take better advantage of your free time, or you will have to deal with depression and a possible burnout. Here are some useful tips that can practically save your life!

1. Unplug from work

Easier said than done, but it’s very important to be able to focus on your personal life, when you are not working. So, stop checking your emails every couple of minutes. Silence your smartphone or hide it away, if your job doesn’t demand of you to be available 24/7 – and most of the times it doesn’t. Set rules for yourself and your family. Schedule certain times when smartphones, tablets, laptops go away. Also, stop talking about work all the time. If you need to share your workday with your friends or your family, keep it short. Change the subject the soonest possible. Focus on other subjects. If you keep on thinking about work, then you end up losing even the little personal time you may have. Make the most of your personal time. Be there, be focused!

2. Organize your errands or your chores better

Think of ways that can save you time, especially when your free time is limited due to long hours at work. Have your dry-cleaned clothes or your groceries delivered. Buy things on line and have them delivered at home or at work. Pay bills on line.

3. Reevaluate your activities

Take a step back and think of all the things you do on your free time. Cancel all activities that consume your energy and your time and give you nothing in return. Learn to say “no”. You don’t have to accept every invitation, set your priorities. You should also reevaluate the time you spend at your work. Is it time well spent, is your job schedule well organized? You may find out that you can actually leave work earlier, if you focus on how to be more productive and get things done faster. So, think of how you can find more free time for you in your life. You are your number one priority.

4. Plan something fun or relaxing

We often are so caught up in our busy schedule that we forget to have fun. So, make sure to plan something you enjoy at least once a week. It may be something that you share with your family or with your friends, or it may be some alone time. Whatever may help you to relax and to have fun.  Make sure not to cancel. Consider it to be of the same importance as your work. After all, you can be more productive and successful at your work, if your mind and your body are healthy.

5. Stop feeling guilty

Guilt is our number one enemy. You cannot enjoy anything if you are feeling guilty about not working more, about not being able to spend more time with your family, about your house not being so clean, about….about…. Well, stop feeling guilty! Make peace with yourself and with the idea that you can do only so much. No one can have it all and no one can manage to do everything perfect. There is no perfect! So, manage your time smart and accept the fact that some things will not get done. Set your priorities and cut yourself some slack. You are only human!

6. Ask for help

You are not alone on this planet, so look around you and see how other people can help you. It’s ok to ask for help, it doesn’t mean that you have failed. So, if you are having a hard time at finishing a project at work, think who can help you. Share some of your errands or your chores with your family or your friends. Or hire a professional to help you. For instance, if you are too busy this month and you have to work late, hire someone to clean your house. It’s always good to have someone you can count on when you need help, whether it’s family or friends. Of course, make no mistake; you have to be there when they need you, as well.

Finding a good balance between your work and your personal life will reduce your stress levels and it will help you be happier.

How do you manage your work and your personal life?

 

33 thoughts on “How to balance work and personal life”

  1. I so agree with this. It becomes very difficult to manage personal and work life. but i try to keep work in office and enjoy family time at home. so, thats how i balance.

    1. That’s the best way. We need to be focused at work, when we are working, and focused on our personal life and our family, when we are at home.

  2. This is a great list! Our household does all of these things and they truly make a difference. Especially #1 and #3. Those are big for us. Disconnecting from electronics and saying “no” to certain things has lifted so much off our shoulders. Thank you for the reminder 🙂

    1. I am so glad that you practise all those things in your life! Thank you! 🙂

  3. I needed this. I suck at making time for myself when I have a to-do list that’s a mile long. When or if I do take some time for myself the guilt is strong!

    1. That maybe the hardest thing to do: to get rid of the guilt. But we surely deserve some personal time and we should enjoy it! Work and chores are never done, but we have to take some time for ourselves.

  4. It is always important to try to balance all aspects of your life, especially work and personal life. It is even more important to try to make that balance work if you work from home since those of us who work from home tend to work ALL of the time! We need to remember that getting away from our work is just as important as our work is!

    1. Working from home can be tricky, since you are living in your workplace. You have to set some rules and you should always schedule some personal time.

  5. Really true advices. After having troubles with feeling guilty about saying no and that the house wasn’t always so clean, I felt so much better when I stopped doing that. I would say to everyone; “just” follow these tips above and you will start to feel better. http://www.sofarsosabine.com

    1. Guilt is hard to fight, we all have been there. But once you’ve made peace with yourself and started letting things go, you start enjoying life. Who cares if your home isn’t clean enough or if you didn’t attend a boring event. If you’ve spent that time doing something you enjoyed, everything is great!

  6. This article is so helpful. i am really bad to balance my life. I work many hours, run a blog and a youtube channel and also do my second bachelor at the moment. So as you can imagine I have no life. I will try your tips and let’s see if I manage to change my life a little bit.

    1. You definitely need to schedule some personal time in your busy life. It will help you manage better all your other activities.

  7. This is definitely some great advice!!! I have a hard time balancing the two. I feel I let work take over sometimes and it’s not a good thing….

    1. We should take better care of ourselves. You can see it as an investement, if it’s easier for you. You will be more productive at your work, if you take better care of yourself. So, you definitely need some personal time in your life.

  8. This is something that has been a struggle at times in my life. I need to remember to delegate more often instead of taking it all on myself.

    1. Most of us have been there. We allow ourselves to get so involved with our work, that we forget that we have a personal life.

  9. Great advice! I have set up most of my bills to be paid automatically now. I know they’ll be on time and I don’t have to spend time or mental energy on them. Also, to truly unplug, for some, it may require a job change.

    1. Yes, I agree. If our job is too much for us, we should consider changing it. There are always other ways, other solutions.

  10. I completely agree from this list. I think unplugging is super important because as long as you are plugged in, you can’t concentrate on anything else. At least I can’t! 🙂

    1. If we are unable to unplug from work, then we can’t really enjoy anything else in our lives.

  11. I think people often feel guilty for relaxing or indulging in activities that aren’t “productive” – however, those are the activities we need most in life otherwise we’d never unwind! Great tips 🙂

    1. I completely agree. We need all those other activities, in order to relax and then we can perform better at our work too.

  12. Separating work and play is that hardest thing for me! My dad makes fun of me all the time – “Little ADHD Working Girl” is what he calls me. I can’t set anything down, so I have to get better at the separation if I ever want to get out of the office! 🙂 Great tips.

    1. It’s not easy to unplug from work, I’ve been there. But you need to try harder to get out of the office!

  13. To be honest, some days I could do with a bit more energy to do some more things just for me. I have already saved 2 evenings a week just for me, when I close my computer and go to the gym to relax. Also, I try to get out of the house during the weekend and go for a walk for a couple of hours. Unfortunately, the rest of the time is taken by my blog. 🙂

    1. It’s a good thing that you have scheduled some personal time in your busy life.

  14. Before I became a freelancer makeup artist, it was very hard for me to balance my work and my personal life. I was always very stressed and couldn’t enjoy the time I spent with my friends and family. The company I worked for closed, so I decided to change my career and do something that I loved. Now I try to use my time more wisely. I work specific hours and when I am with family and friends I don’t use mobile phones, tablets etc and we talk about several subjects except our work. Great blog post Rodanthi, keep informing us!

    1. I am so happy for you! You are doing something you love and you are also enjoying your personal life. Sometimes we need a little push in our lives. I beleive that some “bad” things happen for good reasons. If the company you were working at hadn’t closed, you may never had decided to go after your dream and start working on something you love. 🙂

  15. Excellent points, its so important to balance work and personal life but off late people seem to be more invested in one or the other. I would say being able to switch off and not worry about work and check emails every hour needs to be the number one priority.
    xx, Kusum | http://www.sveeteskapes.com

    1. Unpluging from work, when you are leaving your workplace is important. Thank you.

  16. Management is one of the keys. Might be challenging but it’s not impossible to do so. Keep the balance. 🙂

  17. Good points! I actually suck at managing everything, sometimes. Guilt kicks in, mostly. (Oh, I should actually equate college with work, because I am not working currently. Still scared of when I’ll have to do that. ><)

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