These 4 Disciplines Will Help You Improving Work-life Balance

"Please focus on your work-life balance," said my compassionate boss when he learned I was in the office in the past few weekends. I heard about this gripping term, “work-life balance” for the first time. My relationship with this term has evolved since that day. I used to work long hours and proudly proclaimed myself as a workaholic to my friends and family. When my colleagues asked why I work so much, I responded "work is my life. Hence no need to balance work and life."

When I conducted a poll on LinkedIn a few months back—asking the most challenging aspect of WFH, work-life balance made it a clear winner among other options.

The concept of work-life balance came into corporate life in the 1980s as studies on work-related stress gathered momentum. Ever since we have destroyed millions of trees to write about it. Reading several articles about the topic made me realize work-life balance essentially boils down to stress management. The very usage of the ‘term’ states that work and life are separated. As life is the most precious thing, it's work that generates stress leading to agitation and anxiety in professional and personal lives.

The root cause of any stress is mental agitation caused by unfulfilled desires. As an example, you are stressed that your child Jim is not studying correctly. If he does not learn properly, he will not get into a good school. If he does not get into a good school, he will not get a good job. If he does not get a good job, then he will struggle with money. If he struggles with money, he will not get a good partner. If he does not get a good partner, he will not have a good family life—ad infinitum. You have multiple desires for Jim which will not be fulfilled if he does not study. Thus, you are stressed. You can extend this logic to other aspects of life as well. To mitigate stress, you need to manage your desires carefully. The solution lies in improving the quality of your desires as you cannot live without desires.

It would help if you cultivated higher values, which would automatically drop off lower categories of desires. For example, when you grow up as an adult, you no longer value toys that were the world to you as a child. Now your toys are name, fame, family, wealth, etc. How can you work towards higher values in life?

Here are some practical tips you may want to try.

1) First thing in the morning is the best time of your day

Study a book or watch videos that explain higher values of life with guidance from someone whom you believe to live (not just talk) higher values first thing in the morning. It needs to be a systematic study as one does with other courses like medical, law, engineering, etc. Discipline is key here. Otherwise, it will be a waste of time. To have maximum impact, do it before you touch your phone or other devices. Please remember not to do this for more than 75 minutes; otherwise, it will overstretch your brain.

2) Perfect your attitude throughout the day

Have an attitude of service and sacrifice while performing work throughout the day. Think about how you can benefit the organization or your team instead of thinking about promotion and bonuses. The moment you move from being selfish to unselfish, your capacity to contribute will increase proportionately, in turn, you will be highly productive. Your management will recognize this focus to help the organization and will provide you with additional responsibilities. This will automatically take care of your promotion and bonus. At home, listen to your family members instead of thrusting your views on them. This could be as simple as watching a Netflix or Amazon prime show that you don't like with your kids. You will be amazed to see how your family reciprocates this behavior in due course.

Also, spend 20–30 minutes doing physical exercise. If you do not have a fit body, it will not let you function correctly. 

 3) Be Grateful for being alive

Have an attitude of gratitude for people who contributed to your accomplishments in life. Reach out to them if they are in distress. When did you last talk to your teachers who taught you subjects in schools and universities? Do you remember your friends who sacrificed time and money for your sake? Listen to music that inspires you. Watch a nature documentary appreciating how a flower releases fragrance without caring whether anyone is there to take it or not. The underlying focus is to stay away from selfishness and recognize there are things bigger than you.

“Got no checkbooks, got no banks, still I’d like to express my thanks. I got the sun in the morning and the moon at night.” Irving Berlin, one of the greatest songwriters

4) Don’t exaggerate your worries 

It's critical to give the required value to every task. As a teenager in high school, all that mattered to you was getting a respectable score in your exams. That made you worried and anxious. Currently, it has not much meaning in your life. Fast forward to now and consider what is worrying you now will not concern you in 2025. However, that does not mean you need to be careless about what you are doing now; all I am saying is to give appropriate attention to your present task—not more, not less. Having that understanding also reduces stress.

Following these disciplines have a positive impact on my life and others who are following them. So, take control of your life—for your development and others around you. The reduction in stress and an increase in happiness will make "work-life balance" just corporate jargon. Why don't you start some if not all of these disciplines and share the results with me?

“Let him who would move the world first move himself.” ― Socrates