Work-life balance to me is like a never ending game of chess. Just when you think you’ve got it right, you decide to make a different move to accommodate a slightly different perspective.
It’s human nature to change our preferences. The nuances of work-life balance, as something that impacts our everyday routines and habits, can be quite fluid in its structure.
Any given day we could be thinking:
- I want to see the kids more.
- Screw this spreadsheet, I’m going to the pub.
- If I put in a few extra hours at work I might get that promotion.
- It’s ok to watch Frasier at 2pm on a Monday.
- I’d rather iron those socks than join this meeting.
Depending on how we’re feeling, where our motivation is coming from, how others are making us feel, whether we got a good night’s sleep. So many factors come into play when determining how we feel about what we want to devote our time to.
Ultimately it’s your life and as much as we strive for the perfect ‘work-life balance’ it’s not attainable.
There’ll never be perfect balance, balance implies perfect forces on opposing sides, but there can be harmony…
What Does Work-Life Balance Mean?
In simple terms:
Work-life balance refers to the equilibrium individuals have or desire between their professional and personal lives.
As we only have so much energy to get us through the day, we tend to strike a compromise as to where we assert it.
If I had to boil my Monday to Friday energy into a pie chart, it would look something like this:
Does this mean I have good balance between the two? I don’t know. I think it’s subjective for every individual.
A healthy work-life balance for a lot of people involves setting boundaries, and allocating your energy to what matters to you. For most, that’s a healthy balance between friends, family, health, leisure and personal/career development.
Acknowledging that there will be times when you devote more energy to one of those areas over the other is a good mindset to have. The fluidity of life and everything it throws up needs to be accounted for in a harmonious work-life structure.
Moreover, the concept of work-life balance varies for each individual and can be influenced by factors such as personal values, job responsibilities, and lifestyle preferences.
Work-Life Balance Statistics
Courtesy of Clockify, here are some of the most interesting work-life balance statistics:
- 94% of employees think work-life balance is important.
- 78% of people believe they have a good work-life balance.
- 61% of workers wouldn’t accept a job that disrupts their work-life equilibrium.
- 56% of people claim no amount of money would make them sacrifice their work-life balance.
- 87% of US employees believe remote working arrangements contributed to their improved work-life balance.
Stats 3 & 4 shows how much work-life balance is valued by the majority of people.
For me, number 5 is so true. Before Covid I’d say I hardly had any work-life balance as Monday to Friday was all commuting and working (I really miss those days!).
The rise of remote work during and after the pandemic reframed our outlook on what’s important in life and, for the better part, has hopefully enabled people to spend more time doing the things that matter the most to them.
Importance Of Work-Life Balance
For me a good work-life balance is important to help me keep a focus on what matters to me in life. Family, friends, staying healthy and having time to invest in projects and hobbies gives me a better sense of overall wellbeing.
For others it might be different, but here are my top 5 benefits of work-life balance:
Reduced Stress
I used to get up at 7am, spend over 2 hours commuting back and forth on a packed train to go to a busy office where everyone was rushing around like the world was on fire.
Nowadays, I’m able to manage my stress levels a lot better. I get up at my own pace, make a coffee, put together a (fairly) healthy breakfast and either workout or spend time investing in one of my hobbies (sometimes writing this blog).
I was so much more stressed and wound up like a tight spring before I had the benefits of work-life balance that remote work gave me, and I’m very grateful for it.
Improved Mental Health
The knock on effect of saying adios to the rat race was that I felt more relaxed in myself. I think years of busy offices, busy trains and no time to unwind in between had taken its toll a bit.
I’m definitely less anxious with a better work-life synergy. I even have a bit of time to spend on stretching and the odd bit of yoga, which I wouldn’t have dreamt of before.
As Brooks from the Shawshank Redemption said, the world went and got itself in a hurry. Taking a step out of that world could do a great deal to getting you to a better mental state, if you feel you need it.
Having the chance to relax and unwind your mind and body is a core pillar to striking a good balance between work and life.
Better Productivity
Generally you’re going to have more productive staff when they feel rejuvenated and happy in all aspects of their life. Happy staff are productive staff.
Taking regular breaks and resetting, be it with a walk in the park or a casual coffee with a friend, makes that ability to refocus a whole lot easier.
Quality of work can also be higher when individuals are allowed to recoup and gather their thoughts as opposed to hunkering down and putting in 6 hour shifts to get work done.
Health Improvements
When we have more time to focus on ourselves, we have more time to eat food that makes us feel good and fit in a bit of exercise.
When we’re rushed, exercise can often be an afterthought and it can be so much easier to grab some fast food or jump on a food delivery app.
Good health improvements take time and if you don’t have it to invest, then you won’t see the returns.
Higher Quality Of Life
I suppose this is the entire point. Having a better equilibrium between your life and your work makes life a little bit more worth living
It can take time to find the harmonious state between the two, and as mentioned, it’ll never be perfect.
Keep testing and experimenting with what works for you, and little by little you should make improvements.
If your company offers any flextime arrangements, make sure to take advantage of them and see how you can incorporate a flexible schedule to better accommodate your requirements.
If you feel a change of job career might be the answer to unlocking better work-life balance, or you need some ideas to freshen up your routine, these resources might help:
View more Work-Life Balance Quotes
Companies With Best Work Life Balance
The best work-life balance is subjective, but based upon the consensus, these are some of the best work-life balance companies to work for according to Buildremote with key benefits ranging from 4 Day Work Week, Unlimited PTO, Work From Anywhere, Paid Maternity Leave and Home Office Stipends:
Buffer
Social network account management View Jobs
Shopify
Multinational ecommerce platform View Jobs
Automatic
Distributed company most notable for WordPress View Jobs
VMWare
Cloud computing and virtualization company View Jobs
Instacart
Grocery delivery company View Jobs
Countries With The Best Work-Life Balance
The Global Work-Life Balance Index looks at the quality of life-work balance in the worlds top 60 DGP countries. With considerations for minimum wage, sick leave, maternity leave, healthcare, happiness, working hours and inclusivity.
If you’re considering upping sticks or just curious, here are the top 10 countries with the best work-life balance according to remote.com:
🇳🇿 New Zealand – 79.35
🇪🇸 Spain – 75.55
🇫🇷 France – 75.34
🇦🇺 Australia – 73.71
🇩🇰 Denmark – 73.67
🇳🇴 Norway – 73.05
🇳🇱 Netherlands – 69.14
🇬🇧 UK – 69.07
🇨🇦 Canada – 67.91
🇧🇷 Brazil – 67.73
The US 🇺🇸 was 53rd on 37.52
Work Life-Balance Tips
These are my top work-life balance tips that hopefully give you a few ways to help get you through the day:
Set Boundaries
Partitioning your working life and personal life off will make it easier to separate the two so that you can switch off and transition more easily between them.
Not bringing work home (as it were) and, if possible, having a designated working space if you are at home will help you set those boundaries and build clear distinctions in your mind.
Make sure others are aware of when you’re focused and working so that you’re not interrupted constantly and the line between work and life doesn’t become blurred.
Schedule Breaks
I’ve been very guilty of this in the past. Sitting for hours on end working on the same thing until it loses all meaning!
Even though sometimes you have to force yourself to take breaks. I’ve never gone on one and though, damn, I should have kept working.
Our minds need varied stimulus to operate, rejuvenate and refocus.
When you do take a break, try to freshen up your environment by getting outside or at least moving to another room to give you a fresh perspective.
Getting away from our digital devices and managing our screen time is also an important part of taking regular breaks.
Learn To Say ‘No’
There’s only so many shits you can give in life. If you become a ‘yes’ person and try to appease everyone, you’ll probably be helping them out with their life-work balance, but neglecting your own.
Always take time to reflect on how much energy you have to give to a given topic or area in a day and prioiritze accordingly.
Time management is often a key part of how we improve our wellness; devoting our daily hours to the the things that matter to us the most and that we find the most rewarding leads to a better sense of wellbeing come the end of the day.
Figure Out What Works For You
There is 100% not a one size fits all situation when it comes to getting the balance right. Whatever your company’s approach or policies are are going to substantially shape how you go about work and life.
The important thing is to adapt and set your priorities in order of what works for you. I always try to list them by what makes me happy, what makes me feel fulfilled and activities I find fun.
You can’t achieve everything, but if you let the small things go, you’ll get as close to a harmonious equillibrium as possible
Be Realistic
As mentioned. The perfect balance can never be truly achieved, there’s too many moving parts in life. As long as you feel content in yourself and in a good rhythm with those that matter most to you, then you’re doing pretty well.
It’s a constant daily flow of adjustments and trial and error that get us a little bit more comfortable every day.
Connect With Others
One thing we’ve undeniably lost from being in the office less, is the freedom which we connect with others.
We need to be more proactive to foster those relationships and maintain our communication skills.
Activities like virtual networking can be a fantastic way to supplement the loss of face to face interaction whilst also helping to boost our professional profiles and networks.
Set Goals
When I started working from home, I was so aimless in what I was doing as the whole concept (especially doing it 5 day a week) was completely alien.
There’s so much more autonomy involved in career and personal development that you have to be somewhat of a self-starter to benefit from remote working.
Setting goals, whether it’s being more productive, focusing on your health, saving money or progressing your career will give you that added purpose about your day, making it more fulfilling in the process.
Work-Life Balance Books
If you’re looking for a deeper dive, here are my top 5 recommended work-life balance books:
Work-Life Balance Meme
If I had to sum work-life balance up in one meme:
I do prefer the idea of harmony over balance. Life is not designed to be in perfect equilibrium. If it was, there’d be none of the change and variation that makes it exciting and worth living.
It’s a pathway, a marathon, not a sprint. As you learn more day by day about what works for you and how best to cater your life around all of the moving parts, you’ll get closer to that sense of happiness and tranquillity one step at a time.
Conclusion
I hope this article offers some insights in what work-life balance is all about and how to best navigate it.
If you’re looking for more resources on wellness, the below might be of interest.
Thanks for reading!
- Work From Home Tips
- Top Remote Work Tips
- Tips For Extroverts Working From Home
- Tips For Introverts Working From Home
James Waite
Founder of Remoteopia, James has worked in remote roles for 6 years. After a stint in recruitment, he now works as a director of website strategy in tech.
