It is pretty common to find that, work takes pre-eminence in our lives. And more often than not, it takes a toll on our mental well being, and in some cases our physical well being as well. Sit back, relax and let this 5 minute read lend you some food for thought and a couple of conversation starters for your friends & peers.
Having a tuneful work-life balance not only helps you tackle getting overburdened or disorganized, it is also an essential part of career building.
What is Work-Life balance?
Work-Life balance is the art of (almost) reaching the state of equilibrium where a person can optimally prioritise work and life goals respectively.
Why is it important to maintain work-life balance?
A good work-life balance has numerous positive effects, including less stress, a lower risk of burnout and a greater sense of well-being. This not only benefits employees but employers, too. More importantly, some argue that it is in fact the key to productivity.
Reasons for Poor Work-Life balance
To begin with, the reason can be just pure negligence, from both sides of the equation - The employer and employee.
Over-burdening employees with work on weekends, or not giving them much needed leaves and breaks can lead to an employee dealing with poor work-life balance leading to high stress levels. Setting astronomical targets and rude behaviour also leads to employees losing control of their work-life balance.
It is important to know that work life balance is as important for an employee as the organisation. Employee satisfaction is one of the most prominent reasons for an organisation's growth.
Employees themselves, more often than not, are the reason for poor maintenance of work life balance. Not having a fixed sleeping schedule, handling side hustles and businesses, taking more responsibilities at home generally leads to a decrease in productivity and of course, even lower work-life balance.
Benefits of having a proper work-life balance
Live Healthy
Well, if you lead a stress free and an organised life, take care of your body, mind and soul, obviously you’ll be ensured of good health. As obvious as this seems, it is definitely the biggest take away of having a balanced life.
Plan Ahead
Looking forward to what's ahead, goals and aspirations. It becomes quite easy as you strike the balance between work and life, if you have your present sorted, you can always plan the future with a clear mind.
Dream Bigger
If taking out a weekend to go out to a nearby restaurant with your friends seems difficult, there is no way you can think about taking trips to exotic locations. With time in your hand for your personal endeavours, you can definitely sail this one through.
But, is there any real life example?
In conversation with Kartik Srivastava, Senior Manager - Product and Operations at PlanetSpark wanted to work for a start-up in order to contribute to the success of a company. Working in a start-up comes with lots of responsibilities and (sometimes) pressure, since you're more independent as mentioned by Wajahat Mir and Jobel George here!
Kartik has not only contributed in substance at work but has been quite successful in maintaining a perfect work-life balance. He is quite particular about his as well as his team’s working hours. He doesn’t encourage working late at night in order to protect the mental well being of his team members.
Kartik further added “It makes me very happy to see that my teammates very passionately follow their hobbies. I motivate them to relax and focus on things they love apart from their professional lives.”
As Kartik mentioned further, employees with a healthy work-life balance are happy and this further helps in creating a fun loving working atmosphere. Team members tend to share their hobbies and passion along with working together which leads to a strong team bonding.
How extra-curricular activities clubbed with work add to one’s overall development
At PlanetSpark, we are focusing on developing a child’s extra-curricular growth. Along with our children it is important to make sure our employees are indulging in personal development as well. Kartik further adds “A person’s hobbies is what makes them grow in each and every aspect of life. It is essential to try out new hobbies and allow yourself to learn something new every single day.”
Kartik on maintaining work-life balance
- Accept the fact that there is no ‘perfect’ work-life balance
Yes, having a perfect balance between work and life is a myth. Sometimes life takes precedence over and vice-versa. If you have an extremely disorganised schedule, rather start prioritising what matters, instead of working in thin air.
- Take vacations
Imagine you’ve been working all year long, and you really feel like unplugging yourself from work. Taking a long weekend off and completely ‘unplugging’ might be a great idea to restore work life balance.
- Find a job that you love
If you find the work that you do menial, there is no way you will ever be able to even get close to achieving satisfactory work life balance. If your job is draining you, it is not the best for you and your organisation as well.
In such a situation, switching job role might be a good idea.
Wrapping up!
The rise of globalization, portability, 24*7 connectivity and remote working has made the idea of a 'balance between 'work-life' obsolete. Individuals working with customers of various time region face significant difficulties in keeping up with balance between work and life.
The desire for better living standards and senior positions make individuals work more diligently and in any event, for expanded hours, which brings about a helpless balance between work and life.
Scared of being unemployed and in order to maintain a stable bank balance, individuals tend to take multiple jobs that ultimately end up disrupting their personal lives. All of the things mentioned above keep adding up making work-life balance sound like a myth!
But don’t worry, it can be achieved. By scheduling regular breaks throughout your day and holding yourself accountable to those rest times by putting them in your calendar along with prioritizing what makes you happy, whether it is spending time with your loved ones or focusing on your hobbies. Just with this, you will be able to achieve it.
Regularly, work outweighs all the other things in our lives. Our craving to succeed can shove us to put aside our own prosperity. Striking the right balance between work and life is essential, not just for our physical, emotional and mental well-being, but it's also important for our career.
