Working And Productivity Tips To Get A Better Work Life Balance

Sometimes it feels like you have to choose between bossing your working life or living a happy outside of work life. If we work too hard, or too many hours we’re told to look after ourselves. But if we spend too much time relaxing we get told to get a side hustle, or learn a new skill. Having a good work life balance is tough. Especially as more of us have been working from home during the pandemic making it harder to switch off. It’s one thing having a designated workspace you can walk away from, but so many people don’t have that luxury and work from places you’d usually relax in.

Striking the right balance is hard but here are some productivity tips to get a better work life balance.

Plan your day

To get a good work life balance you want to feel productive during your working hours. This way when you clock off you’ll feel like you’ve achieved all you need to and not feel like you need to carry on working. Time management is so important, especially when you’re working from home and there are more distractions.

Work out all the tasks you need to do and prioritise the order they need to be finished in. When new tasks come in you can look at your list and work out where it sits compared to everything else. Then try and work out how long it should take, or how long you should dedicate to this task so you can plan your diary.

Then divide your work into:

• Small tasks – Things that will take less than 10 minutes)
• Tasks – Things that will take up to an hour max
• Projects – Longer term things that may run over weeks or months.

By planning your day effectively you’ll finish your day feeling productive which will give you a better work life balance.

Get a better work life balance by blocking out your diary

Once you have your priority list you can set about dividing out your diary through ‘time blocking‘. This means you’ll have dedicated time in your diary for each task. For example the first hour of your day might be responding to emails and ticking off two or three small tasks. Then the rest of your day may be broken into 30-90 minute chunks around meetings for tasks and project work.

Remember to not overdo it and have everything back to back. I like to have 10 minutes between all meetings and tasks to have a break, grab a drink and look away from the computer.

By doing this you’ll have dedicated time for certain tasks and you should be able to concentrate better rather than staring aimlessly at your to-do list.

Eliminate distractions

I’m sure most of us have had those days where everything is a distraction and your to-do list barely gets looked at. Perhaps you’re in the office and your work bestie comes back from her holiday and you have to catch up. Or you’re working from home and start scrolling on Instagram, then before you know it an hour has past. There’s rarely a time when we can eliminate tech because most of us need it for our jobs. But try to use it in a productive way such as:

• Set times you’re allowed to use social media and block it outside of these times
• Turn off email notifications while you’re working on bigger or meatier tasks and projects
• Don’t have social media open on your laptop
• Use focus-enhancing apps like Forest where you grow a virtual tree for a set period of time and you can’t go on your phone during that time

Whatever works best for you to help you beat the distractions. By making yourself work more affectively you’ll get a better work life balance.

Get a better work life balance by setting office hours

Almost all of us will have ‘working hours’, maybe it’s 8-430pm, or 9-6pm. Most of the time these hours are set in your contract, or at least the number of hours you need to work each day. Set yourself these office hours and stick to them, this is especially important when you’re working from home. It’s so easy to say you’ll work for an extra ten minutes, then that turns into an hour. And unless it’s business critical stick to it. This includes not accepting meeting requests outside of your normal working times, again unless business critical.

You’ll have a much better work life balance by setting these boundaries. You’ll be much more productive at work if you’ve had enough time to decompress, relax, sleep and enjoy life.

Take your lunch break and use it for you

At some point in our working lives I’m sure we’ve all worked through a lunch break. You get deep into some work, or you just have too much on.  But it’s really important to take your breaks and step away from work or your laptop. To get a good work life balance don’t let work flow in to your non-work time.

I like to do things that make me happy during my lunch breaks. Some days this might be reading a book or watching a TV show, other days it might be working out or going for a walk. For some people it might simply be doing nothing. Perhaps you need to do nothing to stop yourself from burning out. Whatever you do take the breaks you’re owed and your work life balance will be better for it.

What tips do you have for a better work life balance?

Pin It