What is Work-Life Balance?
There isn’t a technical definition for work-life balance, but in broad terms, it’s a separation of your professional and personal lives. Poor work-life balance zaps your energy and can increase your stress and decrease your job satisfaction. There are steps you can take to maintain a healthy work-life balance, such as leaving your work at work, avoiding work emails at home and being intentional with your time.
Your Body on Stress
Everyone experiences stress at some point in their lives. A little bit of stress can even be beneficial, such as adrenaline spikes that help you concentrate in dangerous situations. However, when you have chronic stress, it can negatively impact your body. Chronic stress can cause muscle pain, tension and headaches. Stress can also trigger asthma and panic attacks, cause weight gain and inflammation and increase feelings of anxiety.
Stress increases your risk for:
- Depression
- Diabetes
- Heart disease
- High blood pressure
- Issues with your skin, such as acne and eczema
- Obesity
Some signs that you are too stressed out include stomach issues (such as diarrhea or constipation), stomach pain, trouble sleeping, fatigue, lack of energy or focus, and forgetfulness.
Balancing Energy at Work
Here are some tips to keep your energy up and take care of your mental health while you are at work:
- Ask your manager about an employee assistance program (EAP). EAPs are workplace wellness programs that exist to support employees. Most programs offer access to free counseling and financial and legal services. Some EAPs also offer educational resources and access to seminars that cover a broad range of topics, such as parenting, budgeting, relationship challenges and more. Ask your manager or the human resources department if an EAP exists in your workplace and how to contact them.
- Ask for help. If you are overloaded at work, it’s okay to ask your coworkers or your manager for help. Chances are, if you’re overextending yourself, you won’t be able to put in your best effort, which means your job performance may suffer.
- Learn to say no. If you have too much on your plate already, it’s okay to say no to taking on a new project or task. Just like above, if you take on too much, you likely won’t be able to perform very well.
- Take breaks. Some people might feel guilty taking breaks during the workday, but breaks can actually boost your productivity and focus, increase your job satisfaction and help relieve some of your stress.
- Make good use of your breaks. How do you spend your time when you’re on a break? Research suggests that people who spend their breaks walking or doing some sort of exercise return to work with renewed vigor and have increased productivity. People who spend their breaks participating in some form of relaxation, such as mindfulness and meditation, also experience a boost in productivity. However, people who spend their breaks at their desk don’t experience as big of an increase in energy. The next time you take a break from work, try going for a quick walk or closing your eyes for some meditation.
- Pay attention to how you spend your time. Procrastination increases your stress and can make you feel overwhelmed. To avoid procrastination, make a to-do list every morning and prioritize how you spend your time. Limit the number of times you check your email every day, so you don’t get sidetracked. You can also try setting a timer for your tasks so you can stay on schedule.
Keeping Your Home Life Personal
For a good work-life balance, don’t let your professional life bleed into your personal life. Here are some tips to maintain your health and energy and to make sure your personal time stays personal.
- Eat a healthy diet. It can be so tempting to grab some fast food on the way home for dinner or heat up a frozen pizza. However, a poor diet can lead to weight gain, increased inflammation and increased risk for chronic health issues. Unhealthy eating can also impact your brain function. To clean up your diet, make sure you’re eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, fat-free or low-fat dairy, whole grains and lean proteins, such as poultry, fish, eggs or plant-based proteins. Try to avoid added sugars and saturated and trans fats.
- Get enough exercise. Some people may feel too tired after work to fit in physical activity. If you fall into this boat, try to push yourself to at least get in a 30-minute walk. Apart from the numerous health benefits, exercise helps decrease stress, anxiety and depression. For good health, the American Heart Association recommends 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity per week, 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity per week, or a combination of the two. Aerobic activity is anything that increases your heart rate. Try to also fit in at least two days of strength training.
- Set communication boundaries. Don’t check your work email when you’re not on the clock. Checking emails in the evening, on weekends or on vacations can lead to burnout and is not a good balance of work and life. This can be difficult to adhere to when you work from home because you might feel tempted to take a minute to quickly check your email. Try your best to resist. Unless your job requires you to be on call 24 hours a day, your email can wait for the next workday.
- Take a mental health day. It’s okay to take a day off for mental health. Mental health days make for employees who are less stressed and more focused and productive when they return to work. Because mental well-being makes for healthy employees, some companies even provide mental health days. However, if your company doesn’t provide mental health days, plan to use a day of sick time or paid time off. Since you don’t have to specify what you’re taking your time off for, no one but you needs to know.
- Take some alone time. If you feel like you have too much on your plate already, it’s okay to tell your friends and family “no” in favor of some quality alone time. Take some time to disconnect and recharge. Turn your phone off and spend some time doing something that relaxes you, such as a bubble bath, reading, drawing, etc.
- Talk to a professional if you need to. If you’re having trouble maintaining a healthy work-life balance and it’s impacting your mental health, seek out mental health services from a licensed provider.
Take a Breath
Try this quick and simple meditation whenever you need to take a break.
- Find a spot in a quiet and comfortable spot where you can focus and close your eyes.
- Inhale through your nose and pay attention to how the air fills your lungs.
- Exhale and focus on the sensation of the air leaving your body.
- Repeat steps 2 and 3, doing your best to keep your mind from wandering.
- When you feel relaxed, open your eyes and resume your daily activities.
Medically reviewed by Jennifer Redding, LCSW-C.
