Our fast-paced world may cause us great stress because of high expectations. Sometimes we create these expectations on our own, and sometimes others create them for us, but either way, fulfilling these expectations requires a great amount of effort. While this can motivate us to explore our potential, it can also be detrimental to our mental health. Our lives are made up of different environments and settings, whether it be home, work, school, etc. If we focus only on one environment, then we can lose touch with the others.
For many of us, our work environment is the most demanding. It’s where we make a living, where our intelligence is put to the test, and where we experience success and failure on a daily basis. Our work environment has the potential to build our character, but we must be careful because it can also consume our lives. Other areas of our lives, such as our relationships, leisure time, and our overall well-being may begin to decline if we overwork ourselves. It is important to find a healthy balance so we can enjoy our lives at work and outside of work.
Below is some advice on how to find balance between your time at work and your time away from work.
Never forget to factor in sleep. One of the main things we tend to forget when we overwork ourselves is sleep. We sleep less because we work more and don’t sleep as good because we’re stressed. It’s important we don’t prioritize work over sleep, because in the long run a lack of sleep can greatly affect our physical and emotional health. If you’re working late at night and you start to feel tired, find a good stopping point, go to sleep, and then wake up in the morning with a fresh mind.
Make a schedule. Create a plan for your day that leaves time for focusing and relaxing. The plan can include your short term goals, meetings, break times, and more. Try it! A schedule promotes balance, and if it ends up working for you, you can get into the habit of making a schedule everyday. Remember, once you create the schedule, it’s important that you stick to it.
Extra tip: Make the schedule look nice and pretty! It can be fun and relaxing to plan out your day in a creative way.
Rethink how you manage your time. We save ourselves time when we work smarter instead of harder. For example, if you’re writing an article, before actually sitting down to write it, think about how you’re going to do it. If we just sit down and write, we may find ourselves scribbling down nonsense for hours. Get organized and write an outline first. Maybe discuss your ideas with a coworker. Allow your brain to decompress and your body to relax by setting break times for yourself. In order to complete work in a timely manner, we need put a great deal of thought into planning. The quality of our work will also benefit from thinking through and planning our actions.
Be present wherever you are. When you are at work, focus on work. But when you leave the building after a long day, leave your work brain there too. Mindfulness helps with centering your focus. If you had a bad day, treat yourself! If you had a good day, celebrate! Use the time away from work to focus on your relationships and hobbies. Explore your passions, try something new, or simply go to bed and fall asleep. No matter what you decide to do outside of work, devote your self entirely to it so that you can experience it fully.
Working hard is very important, but we shouldn’t let it belittle other aspects of our lives. When deciding where to focus our time and effort, we need to be more sensible and realistic, because balance is the key to a healthier life. If you feel like you need specialized help to achieve this balance, psychologists are there to help you.
