If you ever feel like your job is taking over your whole life, you are not alone. The fact is, it is very common for jobs to occasionally spill into spare time. But it is important to try and draw the line between work hours and time spent outside work. Basically, it all comes down to better time management. Below are some ways to improving your productivity, and at the same time, enhancing your work life balance.
Establish Your Priorities.
Make a list of everything you have going on in your life and rank those tasks and responsibilities, in order, from most to least important. This will include your business, your friends and family, hobbies, etc. Be 100 percent honest with yourself when ranking your priorities. Ranking your priorities in order from highest to lowest makes it much easier to ensure you are allocating time to the most important things in your business, as well as your personal life.
Create Deadlines for Yourself
You can’t always keep to tight schedules at work, but giving yourself some daily, weekly and monthly deadlines can help you be more productive and leave on time each day. Use your phone, email or calendar to set yourself reminders. This will lead to less wasted time.
Schedule Your Social Life Too
The same way you schedule your work meetings in your calendar, apply that to your home life. Putting work meetings in your calendar helps keep you on track during those busy work hours, same with your home life. If you give your social commitments some ‘structure’, you’re more likely to keep to them. When meeting a casual friend, allocate time for this by putting a concrete date in both your calendars.
Making the most of your weekend can also be tricky if you don’t have plans in place, you might find yourself on Monday morning in the office thinking, “Where did the weekend go?” So, always schedule your weekends and your home life to make the most from it
Delegate Tasks at Work and at Home
This is one of the ways to minimize the time you spend doing things you don’t really want to be doing. At work, talk to your manager about your current workload if they are much. There may be other people in your team or wider department who would like additional responsibilities that you could share tasks with. Be sure to keep your manager in the loop with everything you’re working on so they’re always aware of how much you’ve got on.
In the same way, flip home tasks with friends and family. Also, if you’re not on a budget, consider hiring someone to do the tasks that needs to be delegated.
Feel Free to Say ‘No.’
Some people have a hard time saying “no,” but trying to please everyone can result in a major time trap, cutting into your time away from work. Don’t be afraid to decline last-minute meetings or send an unscheduled call to voicemail. Don’t do things out of guilt; instead, focus your time on your top priorities. This might seem difficult at first, but you will soon feel comfortable saying “no,” especially when you notice how it improves your productivity and has a direct impact on your work-life balance.
Be Mindful for Every Minute of Your Day.
Sometimes, you go online to check social media or watch a YouTube video, only to look at the time and wonder where the past hour went. It happens to everyone. Time flies, and when you don’t account for every minute of your day, it’s easy to waste it.
However, when you account for every minute of your day, your productivity will increase, allowing you to get your work tasks completed yet still leave time for personal and family time. Some entrepreneurs stay in their offices until late evening; but if they improved their productivity by keeping a tight schedule, they would be closing earlier every day.
Leave Work When It’s Family/Personal Time.
When you are away from work, either engaging in an activity you enjoy or spending time with your family, try to completely unplug from work. That’s not always possible to do, and that potential impossibility is something you sign up for when you become an entrepreneur. But when it is possible, take full advantage. The quality of time, not necessarily the amount, will play a bigger role than you expect in improving your work-life balance.
Finally, maintaining a work/life balance is essential because they help each other. If you have a great relationship with your family and friends, you will likely be productive at work. And when you are productive at work, you will likely relate well with friends and family.
My name is Chigozie Japhet. I am a content writer, and a brand strategist. I like writing, reading, researching and watching football, especially my team, Man United. i believe in working hard, and also in relaxation as all work without play, makes Chigozie a dull boy.
