How to balance your Work life and your Personal life- Tips from a pro

1. Make sure you make time to have a personal life

Take time for yourself. IF you are constantly working you will eventually burn yourself out.

Plan at LEAST one activity during the week that is enjoyable. Doing this breaks up your week and prevents you from feeling like a Weekend Warrior.

Look for activities you can incorporate work into, whether it’s having dinner with your favorite coworker or a networking event. This way you kill two birds with one stone. But, don’t feel bad if your activity doesn’t fit into both categories.

Another idea is to plan a reoccurring activity such as trivia night with friends or a book club meeting once a month. If you have a set activity to look forward to, something you can plan your professional life around, it will help you feel like you have more control.

2. Household chores

Instead of saving your chores for your precious weekend time, make some time during the week to get these small necessity’s out of the way. Try to make it more enjoyable by catching up on your favorite TV shows or Podcasts.

Taking care of your least favorite chore at the beginning of the week will free you of the burden throughout the rest of your week. Feeling burnt out will only increase during the week, if you frontload your week with your least favorite task, you can reserve the more enjoyable activities for the end of the week.

3. Personal Time

Having a “Personal Life” consists of making use of your social life and personal time. People often forget the latter. Just because you have free time on a Thursday night doesn’t mean you have to commit that time to an event.

It is important to take time to do something totally for yourself. Whether it’s taking a hot bath, doing yoga or going shopping, these activities are good methods to help calm your marathon running mind.

Don’t feel obligated to use your ‘you time’ to run errands or make calls. Take advantage of this time. Even if you are busy, taking time away from your work is energizing and important to your overall mental health.

4. Work management

No boss in their right mind will object to you working in your off hours, however, that same boss will be just as impressed if you can do the work in less time. It’s all about efficiency. Making the most of your time in the office is key.

Pick a time to leave the office and do it. If you start mentioning to co-workers that you need to leave by a certain time, you’ll be more likely to do it. Eventually, this will become the norm for you and your coworkers. Following this method also helps you prioritize your day. If you know you have to leave at 5:30 you will automatically start planning things that NEED to be done instead of scrambling to get it done later in the day.

Use the last 20 minutes to tie up loose ends. This can mean sending this ‘one last email’ or reflecting on your day. Identify tools that will make your day easier tomorrow. Whether its an extra bit of technology or an oil diffuser. Figure out what can help you, and incorporate it into your day to day life.