Do you ever feel stressed, overworked, or spread too thin? You’re not alone in feeling this way. Many professionals are in your same boat and are searching for a way to be successful in all aspects of their lives.
Creating a work-life balance can definitely be a challenge at times, but by achieving a good balance in life is key to one’s happiness and overall health. Separating our professional lives from our personal lives is becoming more difficult, thanks to technology and the need for immediate communication.
At SearchWide Global we believe it needs to be a top priority, as poor work-life balance can produce high levels of stress which can lead to health issues, unhappiness and reduced production at work. Nobody wants that!
Here are 9 tips that you can use now to create a more balanced life:
1. Rise and shine – Wake up an hour earlier. It may be tough in the beginning but easing into your morning instead of rushing will produce a more peaceful day. You’ll often hear this as a common denominator among CEO’s and entrepreneurs offering advice on being successful. Do whatever you want with the time, some ideas would be to; get some work done while you have uninterrupted time, have coffee in quiet, prepare a healthy meal for the day, exercise, or read.
2. Build downtime into your schedule – looking ahead, schedule time with family and friends. This way, even when work life is busy, you can manage your time around your already scheduled downtime like you would any meeting on your calendar.
3. Eliminate activities that don’t serve you– limit time wasted on social media sites, gossiping with colleagues and other mindless activities. Take stock of activities that don’t enhance your career or personal life, and reduce the time you spend on them.
4. Exercise – exercise is essential to physical and mental health. We know there are countless studies that show a direct correlation between health, productivity, and energy levels and exercise, yet it is still a challenge to squeeze it in a busy schedule. Find an exercise you enjoy and a time in the day that works for you, before work and before your household wakes, at your lunch hour, or in the evenings perhaps. Then commit to that time throughout the week.
At SearchWide Global we use FitBit’s to track activity and motivate regular exercise; this is also great for team building.
5. Meditate – Meditation is not just for the zen, and has huge benefits when it comes to reducing stress and becoming more aware. Anyone can do it, and anyone can benefit from it. Learn to become more mindful in the present moment (even when you are a busy professional). The Headspace app offers an introduction to medication. Just use the app to walk you through it, at just 10 minutes a day.
6. Relax – take some quiet time for yourself to reflect and make time to do things you enjoy. There is an art about literally, doing nothing. That means no phone, social media, tv, etc. It’s shown to create calmness and create space in your mind for new ideas. But, if your idea of relaxing is watching some tv shows, go ahead. Just try not to fall asleep to it as research shows that can negative effects on your sleep.
7. Volunteer – Giving back and volunteering your time in your community provides stress relief and gives you a sense of accomplishment while helping others. It’s also a great way to offer your skills and learn key leadership attributes. At SearchWide Global, staff is encouraged to take one volunteer day a year during work hours. So if finding the time is an issue, talk to your boss about implementing a similar program.
8. Turn off your phone – You can’t be in 2 places at the same time. If you’re enjoying dinner with your family yet looking down at your phone, the perception is you would rather be with your phone. Make yourself fully available when spending quality time with family and friends.
9. Get back to nature – Evidence shows that spending time in nature can provide a restore your mental well-being, relieve stress, boost your creative juices, and more. Even though a trip to a national forest would be nice, any green space, park, community garden or similar will do.
10. Plan an annual vacation – Okay, actually it’s 10! Consider it a bonus, because this one can be life-changing on its own. Take a vacation (or vacations if possible) throughout the year. The Dalai Lama said,
“Once a year go someplace you’ve never been before”.
The memories and experiences that you gain from taking a vacation are truly priceless. If you have a hard time getting away, plan ahead. This helps you stay committed to the dates you plan to travel and gives you time to save funds for the trip.
For on-going encouragement, a great resource is Project Time Off.
“Project: Time Off aims to shift culture so that using personal time off is not considered frivolous, but essential to strengthening families and improving personal health, a business investment with proven returns, and an economic necessity.” (www.projecttimeoff.com).
Start today by trying a few of these tips and you will begin to experience a better balance at work and home. Here’s to a more balanced you!
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SearchWide Global is a full service executive search firm primarily for companies in the travel, tourism, hospitality, convention, trade association, venue management and experiential marketing industries. We specialize in C-Level and Director level executive searches for companies ranging in size from Fortune 500 corporations to mid-sized public and private companies and associations. Headquartered in St. Paul, MN, USA and several regional offices, we’re able to serve clients and candidates nationwide. Founded in 1999, we have remained focused on our four core values for almost two decades: INTEGRITY, ETHICS, PASSION and RESPECT.