It has become quite easy to mix working and personal life together to the point where it becomes very difficult to separate them. This can cause real problems when you have family to be with and take care of so that your work does not interfere.

“Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance and order and rhythm and harmony.” –  Thomas Merton

Setting limits to your work is very important so that you can enjoy more of your personal time. The good news is that you can achieve this goal by setting up limits to how work affects your personal life. It may not be easy at first, but once you put these measures into place you’ll immediately notice the difference and the peace of mind that it brings.

Turn Away from Your Email

Emails and to a lesser extent social media posts have become one of the primary forms of communication between employers and employees because they are simple and can be sent at all hours of the day or night. You will need to set a time where you are not going to check work-related emails so that you can recapture your personal time. For example, if you set a time of 6pm as when you check your emails for the rest of the day, you can provide your phone number to your supervisor in case something truly urgent arises.

Be Gradual with Making Changes

Do not try to change everything at once in terms of how you do your work. Instead, make one change and let it take hold, then do another. For example, you can start with setting a time to ignoring work-related emails and let that stick. Then, you can implement another action such as pulling back on distractions. The goal is to make the changes gradually so they become good habits in your life.

Improve Work Productivity

Basically, this means that it is best to get everything accomplished within a time frame during the day rather than trying to work all day. There was a theory that people should work longer hours and try to get less sleep as compensation. However, that is something which for almost all people does not work. It is far better to do your work in a shorter period of time and allow your body to properly rest and recover afterwards.

No One is Perfect

It’s interesting that so many people embrace the idea that they are not perfect, yet many of them try to be perfect when it comes to their work. While trying to do things right is a powerful part of your work ethic, trying to be perfect in every result means you are spending far more time on activities than you should. Instead, you should get the work done as well as possible within a set time frame and let the little things go. You’ll get more accomplished and take away a lot of stress as a result.

Communicate Clearly

In order for this to work everyone has to be on-board. This means that you will need to communicate with your co-workers and management that there will be times when you will be unavailable. You can help appease any concern by setting up an emergency number for truly urgent business matters.

Identify & Remove Distractions

Keep a journal for a few days just to see how you are spending your time at work. You may find that a lot of time is taking up by distractions such as engaging in social media, surfing the web, or doing other things that take your mind away from work which results in being less productive. It’s quite difficult to remove all personal distractions from your work life, but you can reduce them significantly if you identify them and set times for taking breaks.

Get Away from All Work during Your Private Time

If you can separate your work as much as possible from your home life. This means using separate communications and devices if possible so that you do not mix one with the other. By keeping things separate, you are pulling away from your work and getting more into your personal life. This can be most helpful when you are trying to focus on your family or the personal tasks that you need to get done. By setting up times when work ends, it helps if you can put it away for the evening.

“Balance in your life between work and your personal life is very important. Without balance, you eventually burn out, negatively affecting your performance at work.” – Byron Pulsifer

Meditation

Around the world, millions of people find a few minutes for personal mediation which may consists of closing your eyes and focusing on your breathing. Also, yoga is an excellent form of meditation and exercise that helps you break away from the work mindset so you can embrace what matters to you in your personal life. Set a time in the afternoon or evening when you have returned from work to meditate for just a few minutes which will help you break away from work.

“Balance is the perfect state of still water. Let that be our model. It remains quiet within and is not disturbed on the surface.” – Confucius

Exercise

If you want to improve your physical health, reduce your stress, and engage in a popular form of meditation along the way to get work out of your mind, then exercise is a great way to accomplish that goal. The beauty of exercise is that it can be a form of meditation that allows you to relax and focus on other matters such as your health. The better physical condition you are in, the better you can handle the stress and anxiety that work places on your mind. Plus, you can do different exercises that are low impact, yet offer excellent results such as walking, riding a bike, or even dancing to really help you get away from work.

Set Life Goals

Most people do not think about retirement even when they are a short distance from it. How you can set proper life goals is by looking over what you want to accomplish at work and setting an end date. After all, life is to be enjoyed so if you can set yourself up for retirement or to become financially independent at a certain point, it can really help you focus on your daily efforts.

Getting work out of your private life will not only ease the stress, but it will also help you enjoy your time with family and friends even more. Life is too short and truly a gift to be cherished. Live life, enjoy life and be happy!

“The Gift of Balance in Your Life – May you find the balance of life, time for work but also time for play. Too much of one thing ends up creating stress that no one needs in their life.” – Catherine Pulsifer

 

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