Managing Work Life Balance

Trying to achieve a work life balance, when both your career and family mean a lot to you, usually put you in a stressful and taxing situation and you will feel out of control.

You want to excel in your job. Your aim is to advance in your career and keep moving up the corporate ladder. This means the normal five day and forty hours work week aren't sufficient.

You find yourself in a dilemma because you also have a family and kids at home who need you. If you put too much time at work, you'll neglect your role as a parent and a spouse. Your relationship with your partner and your kid will suffer because you aren't spending quality time with them.

So how do you go about balancing work and family? There are too many things to do and you don't have enough time to do them.

Distinguish which is more important.

To be able to balance work life and home life, you must distinguish which is more important. The best way is to sit down with a pen and paper and write down your family and career goals based on your personal values. What's more important to you? If you were given an ultimatum to choose between your career and your family, which would you choose? If you lose your job, you can find another. But if you lose your family, would your job matter anymore? Think about it.

Are you working hard or working smart?

There are people who bring their work home because there's too much to get done and they have to meet the deadlines. Smart people however, have as much work but they delegate. These are the people who make successful leaders and have a good work life balance. They spend as much time having fun and enjoying life as they put in their careers.

You must start trusting others and share the workload. Spend some time training your subordinates and delegate the work. They will help lessen your burden and you create better relationship with them because of your willingness to teach and share your knowledge and experiences.

Find something passionate outside work.

If you are single because you are a workaholic or the other way around, find something like a hobby that will divert your attention from work. Sometimes, people use work as an excuse to hide their loneliness and boredom. Some people have not found anything that they are passionate about that will take their mind from work.

Push yourself to get a life, meet new people and date. What's the point of putting yourself with the long hours at work and stress to earn the extra income if you don't spend it or share it with someone?

Read the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and First Things First by Stephen R. Covey's are two of the best books that talk about managing your professional and personal responsibilities and setting priorities. He put forth the idea that you should organize and balance your life around your roles in life and to differentiate which tasks are important, urgent, not important and not urgent. There are techniques and strategies that if you apply at least one or two will make a difference to your work life balance.

Once you've set priorities and reorganize your life, you'll reap the benefits of work life balance. You'll feel more in control of your life, less stressful, healthier and will enjoy more life and living.

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