How to Obtain a Healthy Work Life Balance.

In today’s career landscape, establishing a solid work life balance can, at times, feel impossible to achieve. With the advancements in technology and social media, staying in contact with friends, family, colleagues and clients is inevitably always at our finger tips. While being able to work from a variety of platforms can increase productivity and efficiency, it can also make it extremely difficult to disengage from your professional duties and focus on your personal well being. According to Forbes.com, here are some tips to help you come to terms with establishing a healthier work life balance.

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  1. No one is perfect so stop trying to be. This is a simple but very important tip to always keep in the back of your mind. Everyone wants to do their best in life in general but most of the time perfection is not attainable and trying to achieve it can cause physical and psychological damage. As you climb the professional ladder, responsibilities and duties increase and life can get more complicated. Rather than seeking perfection in what you do, strive for excellence.
  2. Put your electronic devices down and slowly walk away. This is some advice we could all use, not only in our professional lives but in our personal lives as well. Whether you’re at work responding to emails or scrolling through social media in your spare time, we are constantly bombarded with screen time. This is not just hard on our eyes but can become overwhelming mentally. If unplugging all together seems daunting, try baby steps. Try not responding to emails while hanging out with family or friends and instead of scrolling social media during your child’s sporting event, sit back and enjoy. Remember, that it is okay to live your life in the moment and not feel the need to have constant updates and interruptions.
  3. Exercise is important for not just your physical health but your mental health as well. Exercise, in any form, is a proven method to reduce stress. When trying to juggle a career with growing responsibilities at home, it seems that exercise is always the first thing to go out the window. This may be doing more harm than good. Exercise can include going for a walk with your family after work or even participating in meditation or yoga when you’re able. These less intensive methods of exercise can have some of the same stress reducing benefits as going for a run or visiting your local gym. In any way you are able, try to incorporate exercise and being active back into your lifestyle.
  4. Focus on activities and people that benefit you. Finding yourself mindlessly scrolling Facebook or Instagram when you could be getting chores done around the house? Try and limit the time wasting activities to save room for things on your to do list. It may not seem like fun at the time but you’d be surprised at how good it feels to get items marked off. Continually getting cornered by the office talker in the morning? Politely excuse yourself so you can return to your desk and begin your day. This may sound selfish but it really isn’t. You can only be a good friend, co-worker, parent, etc. when you are feeling confident and organized throughout your day.
  5. Consider re-organizing your life schedule and structure, switch things up! Where there is comfort in the predictability and knowing what to expect out of your day, sometimes this can actually add undue stress. As you grow in your career and personal responsibilities change, it can become difficult to keep up with old routines. If making dinner every night is causing undue stress, try planning out meals ahead of time or prepare freezer meals. If your daily trip to the gym in the morning is becoming too much a burden, try going after work or during your lunch. No one’s daily, weekly or monthly routine is necessarily set in stone. Simple, small changes can make a huge difference in your overall stress level at home and work.
  6. Don’t over do it! As they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day so don’t expect to improve your work life balance overnight. The key here is to take small steps in an effort to make the change more feasible. You want to start exercising again? While it sounds like a good idea to set a goal of going for a walk everyday after work, it will be much easier to obtain a smaller goal of walking 1-2 nights a week. You can always build on your goals when you start to see success.

Striving to have a healthier work life balance is something that all working professionals should aim for. Today, it is estimated that 94% of working professionals are working more than 50 hours per week and almost half are working 65 hours or more. The hope is that these tips will help to remind you that regardless of what it means to you to have a solid work life balance, it can be attainable with small, incremental changes.

The Trillium brand of companies is privately owned by René Poch and provides more than 30 years of industry leading recruitment and staffing services through its divisions including: Trillium Staffing, Trillium Construction Services, Trillium Driver Solutions, Trillium Marine, Trillium Technical, Trillium Environmental, and Trillium Techs. With approximately 90 offices nationwide and nearly 400 internal recruitment professionals, the Trillium brand is proud to be recognized by Staffing Industry Analysts as a Top 25 Largest Industrial Staffing Firm in the U.S., a Top 100 Largest Staffing Firm in the U.S., a Top 100 Fastest Growing Staffing Firm in the U.S., and a 2015 winner of National Best and Brightest Companies to Work For. For more information please visit www.trilliumstaffing.com.

Author Bio

Carmen Hoover

Carmen Hoover has written 115 post(s) for Trillium Staffing.

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