5 Steps to work life balance

Maya is perpetually tired dealing with all her office work combined with caregiving responsibilities at home, and wishes she could get some time just for herself.

Rohan routinely carries work home after a grueling 50 hour work week and feels guilty about sneaking to work while the kids are playing in the garden, waiting for him to join them.

If you are either Maya or Rohan, dissatisfied with what life is like currently and often wonder how long you can continue this overstressed and overworked life, this article is for you.

What you lack in life is work life balance which is playing havoc with your physical as well as mental health and well-being.

You do realize that there is a way out of this rut but you do not know where to start and how.

Well, worry not, this is exactly what we are going to unpack in this article — how to optimize your life with work life balance.

At the onset you must clearly understand that work life balance is not a goal that you achieve once and you are done. It is more like a cycle where you must keep working the same steps again and again to ensure you are where you want to be.

Basically, from the work life imbalance hamster wheel you need to transition to a work life balance hamster wheel.

Use of hamster wheel sounds so negative but I prefer calling a spade a spade.

I am not the one to sugarcoat anything because nothing is to be gained out of it. Till there is life, you need to keep working towards a work life balance.

Let us dive straight away to the steps we must take to do this.

Step 1. Take a step back and observe your current situation (like a fly on the wall)

When the only thing you do is work, work and then some more work, you forget to be aware of yourself and your activities.

You need to take a step back and like a fly on the wall observe what you are doing and why. If you are a paper and pencil person like me, take note of your most important responsibilities that take up most of your day.

And while you are at it do note down the recurring tasks that seem to sap most of your time during the day.

Step 2. Explore how you are feeling towards the different responsibilities assigned to you

Once you know where the time sinks, you need to explore how you feel towards these responsibilities. To make the whole exercise more tangible, you can think in terms of tasks that make you happy, neutral, cringy and positively unhappy.

You will observe that there is no running away from some of these responsibilities. Like mentoring your team members, onboarding new team members, caregiving responsibilities for ailing parents or picking up your kid from football practice. Make a note of such tasks.

Step 3. What are your alternatives?

Yes, now that your emotions are clear, it’s time to think of alternatives.

Before you throw your hands up saying that most of these are things you must do, I want to remind you of a fundamental time management tenet.

You do not need to do everything yourself. If you outsource it and ensure that the task gets done well and in time, it is still good enough.

While you are rejoicing at the thought of ticking off some of the tasks without actually doing them, there is something else for you to consider.

You need to look for alternatives even for those tasks you enjoy.

Why?

Because my guess is, you are spending an inordinately disproportionate amount of time on such tasks simply because you enjoy doing them!

Remember that we want a balance!

Step 4. Implement the changes

Once you have explored the alternatives, it’s time to implement the changes. That is, start outsourcing.

There will be initial hiccups but you can set the stage by denormalising working long hours.

Those around you have got so used to seeing you slog it out without a complaint. When you start making these changes they will be surprised and may resent it as well.

It is a good practice to onboard your colleagues, boss and family members because they are the ones immediately affected.

Thankfully, work life balance conversations are mainstream now and it is that much easier for you to initiate them.

Step 5. Rinse and repeat whenever you start feeling overwhelmed or overworked

As I reminded you at the beginning of this article, work life balance is not a one time goal to be achieved. It is more like a cycle where you must keep rolling continuously.

So every time you feel overwhelmed with your responsibilities, it’s time to start with step 1 again.

Because knowingly or unknowingly you are again biting more than you can handle.

Wrapping up

To recap, here is the five-step framework we discussed:

1. Observe what you are busy in, like a fly on the wall
2. Explore your feelings towards your responsibilities
3. Are there alternatives for outsourcing some tasks
4. Implement the changes
5. Rinse and repeat

So, all set to optimize work life balance in your life? Let me know in the comments if you get stuck.

Do you know, my Mondays and Fridays are devoted only to my passion projects, aka building relationships with my tribe? So never ever hesitate in dropping in my DMs or comments or inbox.