10 secrets to a better work-life balance

Work-life balance is seen by many to be the Holy Grail. We have so much that we need to pack in to seemingly less and less hours. So here are some ideas that might prompt us to make things easier for ourselves.

By Simon North

How many of the elements of our life are right?

When you break down all of the things that we do, both personally and professionally, there are a huge number each day, each week and each month.

If you are minded to, you can categorise these tasks and work out which ones are absolutely in the right place, which ones are clearly not and which could be better if only certain things changed. We’re definitely going to see an improvement in work life balance if we adjust those elements that are out of kilter.
How interesting are we making our life?

Sometimes we are full on but actually find that it is very routine and very samey. What we are driving at here is that you’ll find it useful to focus on what you do, what you read and what you think.

In other words, is it possible that you can become more interested and more interesting if you proactively seek variety in these areas of your life? 'I haven’t got time to read!' I hear you say. If you’re reading the right things for you, you don’t have to spend many minutes in any day to trigger new thinking and new ideas.
Your organisation and your boss

Whether you’re working part time or full time, the likelihood is you’re giving more emotional time and energy than the amount of hours that you’re being paid for. That is not a bad thing, by the way, so long as it’s healthy for you.

But you may want to reflect on where you are professionally. What are you doing, who are the organisation and the team you’re doing it for and with and who is your leader? If these components are fine, your work life balance is likely to be in a good place. Quite often though, these elements need slight adjustments, if not a full blown transition, to get them into a better space.
Your fitness

At different stages of our life, our work life balance shifts and resettles in a different place. This could be as a result of moving house or flat, changing jobs, embarking on a new relationship or having children. One of the secrets to getting a better work life balance in any of these scenarios is to be fit.

This is not about the kind of fitness that helps you run marathons; this is about being fit for where you are at this stage and how much energy you need to be able to perform without regularly making yourself exhausted. If you crave more time in bed in the morning because you’re exhausted, this is going to be partly to do with your work and life being out of balance. If you address the fitness issue both in terms of nutrition and exercise, it’s going to help.
Wake up your schedule

Many of us love routine. If we have routine and structure and stability in our daily schedule, our work and our life are generally in balance. This is certainly true for many people. But sometimes it is a good idea to break up this schedule, even if only for a short time, so that you can be engaged with different routines.

Doing so brings a freshness and an energy that was not there before.
Control

The more control that we have over our life, the better. Sometimes we feel that things can get out of control. This sometimes happens with other people in our personal life, perhaps where one of our kids gets into a situation that’s less than ideal. Those sort of ad hoc events do occur, but more often our lack of control is over our work and over our travel.

If it’s to do with our work, we must address it by renegotiating or re-contracting with our boss. The issue of travel can be harder. Where it is possible to travel less, particularly if we’re flying around aerospace, do so. There are also going to be times where you might want to negotiate spending your time differently, for example, working from home rather than being at the beck and call of motorways and trains.
Feedback and growth

Feedback on how we’re doing is a fundamental requirement of a happy, well built person. We are not always in the lucky position where we get feedback spontaneously or indeed regularly, either personally or professionally.

You want to be bolder in asking for feedback more regularly, not just to know that you’re OK but also to identity where you can grow. 'What can I do in my life and in my work that will make things better, that will allow me to be more effective? How should I spend my time?' These are the questions that you should be able to ask of your boss periodically, not just once a year at the annual appraisal.
Friends and colleagues

Good friends and trusted colleagues are a prerequisite to good work life balance. These will be people that you trust, people that you can lean on in difficult times, people who will pick up the slack when you need that type of support. None of us is an island.
Have security and a plan B

We all hope that we’re in a secure climate. That security of tenure, particularly in an economic downturn, is so important for retaining balance in our lives. The predictability of the labour situation is not as it used to be and more and more areas of employment are becoming less secure.

Have a plan B. if your current appointment was to finish, what are you going to do? It’s not a question we ask ourselves often and it’s not an answer that is easy for us to give ourselves, but give an answer we must.
Work and non-work

If you enjoy your work to such a degree that you don’t see the boundaries clearly between when you’re actually doing work and when you’re not, the likelihood is that you’re already engaged in the secret of work life balance.

The flipside of this is that your work is becoming too much of an intrusion and that is causing you stress and anxiety. That clearly is not a good thing. If you have the former state of affairs, then you’ve probably got good work life balance already.

Simon North is the Founder of Position Ignition, one of the UK’s leading career consultancy companies
Next Up: 10 reasons to develop a career plan
It is no longer for any of us to predict how our careers will turn out.