Marinating Work-Life Balance

In this week’s edition, we will be focusing on an essential aspect of remote work-

Marinating Work-Life Balance: Addressing the challenges of balancing work and personal life boundaries in a remote work environment.

Work-life balance is typically defined as the amount of time you spend doing your job versus the amount of time you spend with loved ones or pursuing personal interests and hobbies. However, the term itself can be misleading because our careers and personal lives don't always exist in separate spheres. Work-life integration—or the synergistic blending of our personal and professional responsibilities—has become an increasingly popular concept [2]. From this perspective, work is simply one aspect of our lives, which needs to be considered alongside other important concerns

What does work-life balance look like?

Work-life balance is a constant negotiation about how—and where—you spend your time. In striving for greater work-life balance, you get to determine your priorities, whether they're related to your work or personal life. It looks different for everyone.

Signs of an unbalanced work-life dynamic

Poor work-life balance can have a far bigger impact than just skipping the gym.?One study found that the risk of stroke is higher?in people that work more than 55 hours a week. The same amount of work hours is also associated with?a higher risk of anxiety and depression. And even when adjusting for fairly normal sleep patterns, another study found that?working longer hours correlated with a decline in physical health.?

By its very definition, work-life balance impacts all areas of your life. It tends to show up differently for different people, however. Here are eight characteristics associated with poor balance:

• You can’t stop thinking about work when you’re not at work. Those who find it difficult to draw boundaries between work and life are at?higher risk of burnout.
• Your relationships — both inside and outside of work — are beginning to suffer. You may be easily irritated with coworkers and distant from loved ones.
• You feel off. You have unexplained aches and pains. You may rarely have energy or find it difficult to focus when at work.
• When you’re not at work, everything seems uninteresting or unimportant. You just don’t feel like doing anything unless you have to. You often turn down invitations, further isolating yourself from your friends.
• You spend a lot of money outsourcing support for personal tasks. Your laundry, dishes, and mail pile up, waiting for the day when you “have time” to get around to them.
• You struggle to take time off when you’re sick, mentally strained, or when you need to take care of personal tasks. You don’t remember your last vacation and you don’t have plans to take one.
• You can’t imagine doing what you do for the rest of your life. Even if you work in a field or a company you once loved, it feels impossible to imagine continuing life as it is for long.
• You always feel like no matter what you’re doing, you should be doing something else. Over time, this lack of presence and direction?often leads to an existential crisis.

How to improve work-life balance in a remote work environment?

The truth is, there’s no prescription that will fit everyone. And you may have to play with what time scale feels most relevant to you. Trying to find balance in any single day may feel frustrating, but the balance may be easier to achieve over a week or more.

Here are 12 tips to have good your work-life balance:

1. Plan ahead

Plan ahead to combine work activities with leisure, social, or fitness activities. If you find yourself with several virtual meetings back-to-back, try taking them while you go for a walk. You could also take a call outside (if ambient noise allows!) or invite a friend over to work with you.

2. Embrace the way your brain works

Use productivity hacks like a?Pomodoro timer (short, periodic break)?to work in short, focused bursts. Block out all other distractions so you can make the most of your time.

3. Set blocks of time for different tasks

Designate a time to check (and respond to) messages, a time to take meetings and a time to do mentally-intensive work. It helps to anchor these tasks around the times that you are personally more productive.

4. End work at a certain time

There’s a saying that “work expands to fill the time allotted,” and?when you work from home, it’s even easier to let work spill over into personal time. Set a time to end work for the day, and reinforce it by powering down work-related devices, getting up and moving away from your workspace, or scheduling something afterwards.

5. Enlist technology to help you unplug

Use an app to block distracting websites during the day, and then block work tools after hours. If you can, restrict work to one device, or try to keep one work-free device so you can disconnect completely.

6. Go out for lunch, or enjoy lunch with friends or loved ones

Even if you’re working from home, you can go out for your lunch break or connect with colleagues. The change of pace will be refreshing — and, of course, will remind you to actually eat something.

7. Take time off

When you’re home all the time, you try to work through illnesses that certainly would have kept you home from the office.?Time off, including sick time, personal time, vacations, and?bereavement, are important ways to nourish your well-being.

8. Practice mindfulness

Mindfulness makes imbalance hard to ignore. When you practice mindfulness techniques, like meditation or breath awareness,?you become more in-tune with your emotions and physical sensations. Paying attention to these feelings helps you learn how to notice when you might be suppressing a need in order to work. It’s hard to return to that spreadsheet after you notice your stomach rumbling.?

9. Find something you love outside of work to engage in

If you have something that you’re excited about doing after work, it will make it easier to disconnect from work messages or end your day at a predetermined time. Our hobbies boost our energy and vitality. When we play and feel creative, we bring our fresh selves back to work.?

10. Reconsider work that makes you yearn for balance

If your work feels completely unrelated to the activities that stir your interest, enthusiasm, energy, and sense of meaning, you may need to look at how you can change the work you do or the way you do it. While work doesn’t need to (and can’t) satisfy all of your needs for purpose, meaning, social connection, and challenge, we can expect work to provide moments of satisfaction, accomplishment, and connection.

11. Pause and evaluate

Taking time out to understand how the various parts of your life are impacting one another. Pause and consider your current work-life situation; ask yourself how you feel. Some questions you might reflect on include:

·????????Am I spending enough quality time doing what I really want??

·????????Am I committing enough time and energy to people or things that are meaningful to me??

·????????Do I still feel aligned with my professional or personal goals? Why or why not?

·????????Where do I feel the most stuck? What is it about this situation that makes me feel that way?

?12. Assess your priorities

Once you have a better sense of what you'd like to adjust, you'll want to begin identifying what you want to prioritize. Some questions you might ask yourself include:?

·????????What really matters to me and am I doing enough of it??

·????????Where can I make compromises? Where can’t I? Where have I been making too many compromises?

·????????What are some alternative actions I can take to ensure I am devoting enough time and energy to my goals and relationships?

·????????Where can I integrate my responsibilities so I honour more than one at the same time?

?The best way to determine the best balance for you is by learning to check in with your inner compass — and your results.

With intentionality and a little creativity, you can recalibrate your expectations and reset your work-home balance.?

As you think through these complex personal questions, journaling your thoughts and feelings can be a good way to identify the areas you feel need the biggest adjustments. Ultimately, these questions should help you gain greater clarity on your current situation.?

We encourage you to share your thoughts, experiences, and suggestions on these topics. Let's engage in a constructive dialogue and learn from one another. Feel free to comment on this post and share your insights with fellow professionals.

Best Wishes

Diana Varghese & Dr. Prabalya Kumar Appukuttan