Work-life balance! A burning phenomena in current corporate scenario in lieu of helping employees of the organization to deal with job related stress and at the same time keeping their wellbeing intact. Wellbeing is a term that incorporates all positive and healthy aspects of one’s physical, mental and psychological state. In order to understand the phenomena of work-life balance it is important to know what exactly this phenomena belongs to. “Work-life balance is all about achieving and maintaining a state of equilibrium between your work place and personal life”. A healthy balance between one’s personal and professional life is important and should be on priority for everyone. Now, WHY it is important to achieve work-life balance? Literature suggests that people who are able to achieve and maintain work-life balance have better life satisfaction, have intact wellbeing, and are able to efficiently work in provided job role as compared to those who are unable to maintain this equilibrium. Overall, if employees are able to coordinate effectively between work and personal life it significantly improves their performance and it further contributes to the organization’s success.

Now, it is important to know that how to identify the impact of poor work-life balance, what are the major signs to look for, and what to do about it further? Following are some signs that can be alarming and indicate poor work life balance:

• Decreased attention/concentration
• Inability to utilize efficiency at work
• Inability to achieve deadlines or targets
• Increased health issues
• Increased sick leaves
• Increased absenteeism
• Low self-confidence/self-esteem
• Increased interpersonal conflicts
• Extra expenditure on medical/other health care services
• Increased conflicts between employee and employer
• Conflicting family environment

If you notice these signs it’s important to start dealing with them. Following are some strategies that can help to achieve the state of equilibrium between work and personal life:

• Manage Your Time:Time management is very important in order to maintain work-life balance. Make a time table for work and personal activities and try to stick to that as much as possible. Slight modification in time table is fine once in a while but make sure that the scheduled activities are done every day. If some of the tasks remain unfinished, makeup for them the very next day rather than piling up them for later.
• Manage Yourself:Take out some time for yourself and schedule activities like exercise, yoga, meditation, exploring hobbies etc. in your daily routine. In order to have a balance between work and family one need to have a balanced self. People who have extremely demanding job roles where time is a constraint; it is much needed for them. It might be difficult to find time for self but it’s actually not about the time, it’s more about the motivation and intent to do it.
• Set Targets & Prioritize Work:One needs to know that what is urgent and what is important. Make a list of all your tasks and divide them on the basis of urgent and important. Tasks that come out to be higher in hierarchy need to be addressed first and subsequently other things can be targeted. Give yourself a deadline for every task and make your best efforts to finish them on time. If you meet your own deadlines, meeting your organizational deadlines will be easier.
• Use Technology & External Aids:These days everyone is technology friendly and every person working in either private or government sectors knows how to operate a computer or a smart phone. If not, one can always make a “list to do” in their personal diaries. Sometimes we forget our important matters due to our over committed work schedules. In that case computer, smart phone or personal diaries can be helpful to remind about your commitments.
• Make Hectic Things Enjoyable:Taking small breaks, having a brief light discussion with someone, having a cup of tea or coffee, taking a quick walk, all these things are applicable in both family and work environment. These small activities’ can light up the environment and make your hectic tasks enjoyable and easily achievable as well.
• Always Mind the Thin Line between Personal & Professional Life:Our family and work are equally important and setting boundaries is much needed to not cross the line. It is indeed difficult to not think about your personal issues at work, and be absolutely free from work stress at home. In such a case, deciding a “worry time” should help where you have a fixed time to worry about the matters that bother you. If any stressful event keeps running into your thoughts, remind yourself that you have a specific devoted time for that. This may take time, but with practice it’s not that difficult. It is natural to lose concentration sometimes when you are too much stressed about something, but this strategy will help to refocus and will immediately get you back on your task.
• Understand Difference Between Commitment & Over-Commitment:We all have certain commitments towards our work and family; however, there is a thin line between being committed and over-committed. Make commitment based on your efficiency and given timeline. Emergencies are exceptional and should be considered but this should not be a regular pattern either for your work or for your personal life.
• Learn To Say NO:We sometimes say yes to others with an assumption that they might feel bad if we say no. It is just an assumption that others might feel bad; however, there is a possibility that they may not feel the way we are thinking. Also, learning to be assertive is always a good thing. It helps you to not feel burdened and avoid negative outcomes of the work you do under pressure or against your wish.
• Watch Your Eating Habits:Eating habits are an important part of work-life balance. It’s quite common for people to not eat anything for long hours just because they could not find enough time, and then indulge in over eating. Eating something light and healthy on regular intervals will prevent binge eating behavior. Find few healthy, on the go snacks that can be taken quickly without consuming much time such as fruits, dry fruits, fresh juices, etc. When at home, avoid eating in front of TV. If your work schedule does not give you the liberty of having complete balanced meals three times a day, try to balance nutritional value of your food by adding appropriate snacks.
• Watch out Your Health:Having regular health checkups for self and family prevents from emergency conditions and also alarms for future health problems. Sound health is important for maintaining work-life balance.

Let’s have a look of benefits of achieving and maintaining work-life balance:

• Reduces stress and prevents from burnout
• Has positive impact on work efficiency
• Improves physical as well as mental health
• Prevents from absenteeism and increased sick leaves
• Improves job satisfaction
• Improves family environment and resolves conflicts
• Makes work environment healthier
• Improves confidence and enhances self esteem
• Prevents from financial losses/burden caused by health issues

Organizations are now providing EAP (Employee Assistance Program) to their employees so that they can learn how to achieve and maintain work-life balance. This concept has proven its efficacy by improving employee mental health and their work efficiency resulting in organizational success. Another thing which is important to mention here is achieving work life balance is more an “individual choice” than “necessity”. Those who make a “choice” to achieve it will surely make an effort to find out the equilibrium and continue to maintain that. Those who feel it’s a necessity when they are overloaded with work will start the things temporarily and after sometime they will stop making efforts. For such people, it will be a vicious cycle of being stressed, working towards work life balance, achieving some results, feeling that they are balancing the things well now, stop making efforts & following schedule, and being stressed again. Life will always come with challenges and the severity will not be the same every time. When we talk about handling challenges, we don’t talk about eliminating them, we talk about effectively dealing with them. We can’t alter or change the situation, but we can alter and change our actions to fight with them without losing our “SELF” and without losing work life balance. Its not about making temporary changes, its about learning, experimenting, succeeding, failing, and keep trying. To see permanent changes, efforts too need to be permanent and adapted in lifestyle.

If you have any queries related to this article or any other mental health issue feel free to get in touch with me on WhatsApp (8457967552) or write me back at info@talktocure.com

Neelam Verma, Clinical Psychologist