The Importance of Work-Life Balance
When the workday is over, it really should be over. This is for all of you workaholics out there with endless deadlines and for those tied up in a constant spiral of to do lists. It’s so easy to get caught up and overwhelmed with day-to-day tasks at work and life catches up with you fast. For those of us who have a family or pets at home, and even those without, you deserve to separate yourself from your day job and realize it is not your identity. Being able to balance the two is key to ensuring your health, sanity, general wellbeing, and mental health stay in tip-top shape.
With 40+ hour work weeks, work is a big part of our lives. It is crucial that you also make time for the things that keep you happy and healthy. Done are the days of putting yourself on the back burner. Chronic stress, burn out, physical, and mental exhaustion, as well as overall unhappiness are just a few of the negative impacts of improper work-life balance. Not to mention the strain it can put on coworker relationships. Overall high stress and resentment from lack of a break can hurt workplace rapport and hurt relationships long term.
One way to make this easier to achieve is by setting an 8-hour schedule for each workday and sticking to it. Whether it be 9:00-5:00 or 10:00-6:00, whatever it looks like, you must stick with it- don’t go over. I know that not every day is full of productivity but all you can do is your best. Your mental health will start to deteriorate if you neglect it, no one should go home so burnt out at the end of the day or work week that they can’t enjoy the things they love.
To counter this, employers need to make sure to honor and respect their employee’s well-being and mental health by allowing them to leave work at work; after hours emails can wait until tomorrow. In a world of instant gratification, it is difficult but important that employees establish boundaries of work hours and be able to fully unplug and enjoy their families and personal life. In turn, productivity will increase at the hours they are supposed to be working, and they may even become longer-term employees.
In case you’re not hearing me- a fool proof way to separate your work and personal life is leaving ALL of your work things at work. Separate your personal environment from your work environment, even if you love your job, you shouldn’t be bringing it home. I understand that this might not always be possible or even a goal for some business owners, but your brain and your families will thank you for it. Long term, you will realize that all the time you spend endlessly working to meet deadlines (that may not have been reasonable to begin with) will age you so fast and before you know it you will be missing out on so much that life has to offer.
Vacation and PTO are perks of full-time employment for a reason. They should be encouraged to be used and there should be enough resources available to the company for the employee to fully disconnect and be able to enjoy leisure time away from the workplace. Way too often, we see PTO days wasted due to the incapability of companies to provide adequate coverage. You can imagine the frustration and disappointment this must place on the employee who wants to use their hard-earned paid time off. It’s unacceptable and there needs to be a change. Even if your PTO day looks like you sleeping in and lounging all day, you deserve a break. In many most countries aside from the US, there is a much stronger emphasis on work life balance, and they also implement a 4 day work week, in addition to 1-2 hour mid-day breaks in order to help their employees better balance their lives. They have found a higher level of productivity and employee satisfaction in return. “Perhaps unsurprisingly, employees are largely enthusiastic about both types of 4-day workweeks, with about 80% of Work in America survey respondents saying they believe they would be happier and just as effective with 4 days at work.” -https://www.apa.org/monitor/2025/01/rise-of-4-day-workweek
Some friendly advice and (maybe a challenge?) Create boundaries that allow you to be just a human with a life instead of always being a manager of a company, or a business owner, or wherever you fit. On the other hand, maybe fight the urge to give out your personal contact information and respect those who do, by only contacting them in emergencies!
Your identity is so much more than your job title (Click here for some good food for thought on this concept). Life is way too short to put yourself at the bottom of the list of things that matter. I encourage you to make time for the things that matter to you, enjoy your life away from work, reach out to someone who you are comfortable speaking to about it if you are already experiencing burn out, so that you can start to enjoy your life again!
