How to manage your work/life balance?

Even after 25 years in leaderships roles, I still have times when I am overwhelmed with workload and my work/life balance is out of sync.  When it happens you stop doing the things you love and work longer hours. The cost is your health and relationships, it is never worth it. You are also very unproductive and not good to be around.

Tips for a better work life balance:

1. Ensure you schedule time in your calendar for your daily fitness. Make sure it’s visible to others so they can respect that you need that time to look after yourself. Talk to others about what you do and inspire your teams, peers and bosses to take care of themselves.

2. Book regular time off.  I take a minimum of a long weekend 2 days plus weekend 4 times a year, so I know every 12 weeks I have a break to recharge and spend time with my Husband and Friends.  First time last year headed to a health retreat for a week. Great way to reset your life and get back to healthy living and exercise.

3. Review how you spend your time: Are you the right person to take on the task? Do you have someone who could do this? Who could take on the task/project as a stretch, to help with their development?

4. Consider sharing with your boss your challenges and asking his/her advice about what he/she has done. Being vulnerable is a great approach as they can then help you with the solution.

5. Using the words no I cannot take this on, I am to busy: the only advice I can give here is that do that too often and you are seen as difficult, what I do is say currently these are my top 3 priorities A, B and C are you ok to get to this in a weeks time? negotiate is significantly better than saying No.

How to manage your work/life balance?