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Work-Life Balance: What It Actually Is
On the most basic level, everyone seems to think that the best work-life balance tips are about minimizing the amount of time and energy you spend working while maximizing the amount of time and energy you spend doing everything else (a.k.a. the things you love or need to do, but don’t or can’t do for money).
But this oversimplifies the concept. And it suggests that work should always be hard, stressful, and overall unenjoyable.
What a depressing way to think about work!
This may have been the general belief in the past when the main purpose of work was to earn a paycheque to provide for their families. But today, with more educated people, a higher standard of living, and more jobs now being dominated (and created) by modern technology, the old ways of thinking about work-life balance and searching for the best work-life balance tips are mostly outdated as more people look toward building careers that are meaningful and personally fulfilling.
After all, work is a part of your life. Even if you do it mostly for the paycheque, your work life and personal life are still fundamentally interconnected, and they’re constantly influencing one another.
Work-life balance then, in my opinion, is just smart lifestyle design.
“Smart Lifestyle Design” Broken Down Into Four Main Areas
Smart lifestyle design is comprised of four core components: Your finances, your health, your relationships, and your spiritual / personal growth.
1. Your Commitment to Earning a Living and Taking Care of Your Finances
This encompasses everything in your life that has to do with money, including your job/career, budgeting, spending, saving, side hustles, and so on.
2. Your Commitment to Maintaining Good Physical, Mental, and Emotional Health
Staying healthy isn’t just about exercise and healthy eating habits. Sure, those are two top components, but there’s more to health than that.
Good overall health and wellbeing requires proper rest and recovery. It also requires that you spend time doing things that make you happy and leave you personally fulfilled.
3. Your Commitment to Nurturing Your Relationships
Relationships are a huge part of life. Everyone from your romantic partner and children, to your coworkers and friends can have a greater impact on your life than perhaps anything else.
4. Your Commitment to Spiritual / Personal Growth
Not everyone is spiritual, but almost everybody is trying to figure out their own path in life.
Whether you turn to spirituality/religion or use a combination of logic, experimentation, and emotional feedback to try and find your way, your commitment to personal growth is what helps you flow along with the ever changing nature of life.
Here are my top 40 tips for taking the old school “work-life balance” way of thinking into modernized, smart lifestyle design.
Read over them, consider how each one fits into your own life, and think about how you can improve on them so they compliment all four areas of your life (work, health, relationships, and spiritual/personal growth).
1. Get on a good sleep schedule.
This is the number one work-life balance tip on this list for its huge impact on everything else you’ll be able to do throughout the day.
By good sleep schedule, I mean one that keeps a consistent bedtime and wake-up time. Your circadian rhythm, which governs your 24-hour sleep-wake cycle, will naturally adapt to it over time.
2. Pay more attention to your quality of sleep rather than the quantity of hours you’re sleeping.
Seven to eight hours of sleep is the typical recommendation for adults, which is great to aim for—but if you’re clocking in at least seven hours a night and still feeling fatigued, it’s time to look into ways to improve the quality of your sleep rather than figuring out how to carve out time to sleep longer.
3. Cut back on the coffee, if you drink it.
Us desk workers love our coffee, and there are tons of health benefits you can get from drinking several cups a day. But if it’s leaving you feeling jittery, nervous, anxious, fatigued later on in the day, or awake when it’s time for sleep… you know it’s time to cut back.
4. Drink a large glass of water first thing in the morning, and continue drinking water all throughout the day.
I know, drinking water is pretty boring, but with the average human body being about 50 to 65% water, you know it’s got to be good for you. I made myself start drinking a large, 16-oz glass of room temperature water with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice every morning before my coffee, and now it’s just a hardwired habit.
5. Journal when you wake up rather than look at your phone.
Nothing seals your fate to live your entire day in “reactive mode” like picking up your phone immediatelyupon rising to check all your emails and news feeds and social media notifications. Replacing that action with journaling will help you get intentional about your day—even if you do it as one big brain dump.
6. Become aware of your current daily habits.
Do you know exactly how you spend an average day? If you’re one of those people who constantly wonders where the time went or why you’re not making good progress on your goals, I suggest you track your habits for an entire day by writing them down. This will make you aware of how you’re actually spending your time.
7. Replace as many bad habits with good ones as you can.
Once you become aware of the habits that rule your day, you can pinpoint the ones that aren’t getting you any close to your goals. The best way to eliminate them is to replace them with good ones.
8. Automate as many good habits as you can.
A habit is automatic by nature, but you can always enhance it. Do it at the same time each day, keep it simple and quick when you’re just starting, use automation tools if you can, and pick a “trigger” (the sight of a specific object or a specific action) to signifiy to your brain that it’s time to perform the habit.
9. Reassess failed good habits, forgive yourself, and start over—but start smaller.
If you failed to stick with a particular good habit, don’t take it as failre—take it as a sign that you need to simplify it or scale it down. People often try to adopt habits that are too much for them because they’re focused on the results. Instead, focus on developing the behaviour first. The results will come.
10. Figure out whether you’re a morning person or a night owl, and learn to work with it.
I’m a night owl, and I’m not exactly happy about it. I’d love to be a morning person, but I know that waking up at 5am and throwing myself into a vigorous workout by 5:10am just wreaks havoc on my whole body. (Eelieve me, I’ve tried.)
And so I’ve made peace with my night owl ways. If I can get up by 7:30am and fall asleep at night within a half hour of hitting the hay, then I call that a success.
11. Get clear on your goals for the day first thing in the morning.
I often like to combine this with morning journaling. I’ll usually pull up my Day One app and start brain dumping, then end with a brief list of the things I need to do to make today count.
12. Practice visualization (of yourself taking action).
The cool thing about journaling about my goals in the morning, at least for me, is that it triggers me to visualize myself taking action on my tasks for the day. It’s sort like writing a novel about myself.
You can definitely do visualization all on its own, but I highly recommend using journaling to essentially “write your story” the way you want it to be written, see it in your mind, and then use that as motivation to do it.
13. Consider your tasks for the day, and then estimate how much time each task is going to take you.
In an ideal reality, we could get twice as much done in half the amount of time. But at the end of the day, we’re often left feeling like we didn’t do enough. And that’s probably because we had unrealistic expectations about your time.
If you want to avoid frustration and disappointment at the end of the day, it’s so important to take your eight-hour workday (or however long you plan to work) and consider how much time you’re going to need to work on each task—including time for breaks, lunch, and possible interruptions if you can predict them.
14. Break big tasks down into smaller tasks.
An even easier way to get realistic about time needs for task completion is to avoid going too big or being too vague with what you want to do. Instead of saying to myself that I want to work on a blog post, I might say that I want to get 500 words written—which I know I can do in about 30 minutes or less.
15. Build your to-do list, but build it right.
I love using Todoist for my to-do lists. The thing is, I often end up with only 5 to 7 tasks on my list for the day. That might not seem like a lot, but that’s because I build my lists right.
If one task takes me anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours to complete, then 5 to 7 tasks is a full day of work (including breaks). The trick is to avoid getting carried away with listing too many items and/or not paying attention to time constraints.
16. Give yourself permission to edit your to-do list throughout the day.
The trouble with to-do lists is that they’re unforgiving of unexpected events. And unexpected events are just a part of life.
It’s okay to cut back on a task for the day. It’s okay to move one or two tasks to tomorrow. When you build your to-do list in the morning, it’s not set in stone. Edit as you go so you can still end the day feeling accomplished.
17. Shift your focus to providing value rather than keeping busy.
As a freelance writer, I want to provide the most value I can in the shortest amount of time. That might make a lot of sense for someone like me who trades value for money rather than time for money, but even employees who are paid by the hour or earn a salary can benefit from this shift in thinking about work.
For instance, by adding greater value rather than dragging out your tasks until the end of the workday, you’re left with extra time to get ahead of the game, take an extended break, and even gain recognition from your coworkers and superiors.
Time is money? More like ENERGY is money. Just keep in mind that staying busy doesn’t necessarily earn you more money.
18. Set your own rules for productivity.
There are a million and one tips, tools, and techniques out there that promise to boost your productivity. The thing is, not every one of them is a good fit for everybody.
I like to use the Pomodoro Technique and listen to weird ambient beats in the privacy of my home office. But other people do better working in coffee shops with the background noises and sights of other people. I can’t stand it, but to each their own!
19. Fill your workspace with things that inspire and motivate you.
I have a sticker that says “gratitude” taped to my computer monitor. I also have an essential oil diffuser and occasionally a houseplant sitting on my desk. I even keep a copy of my book in front of me to help remind myself that, hey, I wrote a book!
Make your workspace a place of inspiration. Just try not to make it too cluttered!
20. Focus on completing one task at a time.
It’s ridiculously tempting to multitask, but research has shown that switching tasks actually takes a huge toll on productivity. You can do better work, in a shorter period of time, just by getting laser-focused on each task individually.
21. Close/quit all those web browser tabs and applications.
For everyone who assumed that they could focus on an individual task with distractions beckoning in the background, THIS ONE IS FOR YOU. If you have all sorts of things open on your computer or even your smartphone nearby, chances are you’re going to automatically switch to going for it out of a bad, subconscious habit.
So get rid of it. Close it down. Quit it. Put it away. I know, it’s painful, but it’s the only way to take control of that bad habit.
22. Take advantage of tools that help you focus and concentrate.
Two tools that have been super helpful for me include the Moment mobile app and the FocusMe desktop app. Both track your time spent on various apps or websites, and you can set controls so that you limit your time on them.
23. Take frequent breaks while you’re working.
Breaks are key to productivity. It might not feel like it, but you’re doing both your mind and body a big favour by getting up from your desk every 25 to 45 minutes—even if it’s just to stretch your legs for a minute.
Like I’ve mentioned before, I prefer using the Pomodoro Technique, which involves working in laser-focused 25-minute incremenents followed by five-minute breaks. Every four cycles, you get a longer 40-minute break.
24. Set clear boundaries for your availability.
One of the worst parts about working with others is that their constant need for your input or help can be a productivity killer. Even I work independently, but I have clients, and I get anxious about answering their emails as soon as possible.
Besides outright telling people you’re availability, you can also train them to take you seriously by not answering calls or emails during certain times. And when speaking to someone directly, tell them, “I only have X minutes.”
25. Learn how to say “no” assertively and respectfully.
Everyone needs something from you, but you have to put your own agenda first if you want to get anything done. This can be excrutiatingly hard for people pleasers.
If you think you’ll disappoint people by saying no, you’re already in trouble. There’s an art to saying no in a way that’s reasonable and understanding—not selfish.
26. Eliminate as many unnecessary phone calls and meetings as possible, or at least cut their time down by as much as possible.
I used to get on the phone with almost every client prosect who emailed me and it turns out that doing that was a huge waste of time. I’d spend hours on the phone taking about things that could have been cleared up quickly in an email, and lots of times I wouldn’t even end up getting the gig.
These days, I screen all my client prospects with an email script of questions. If they answer and it looks good, I’ll move on to step two, which might eventually lead to a phone meeting. If they don’t answer, they were never all that serious in the first place.
27. Be present when speaking to people.
The greatest gift you can give to somebody is your full, undivided attention. This means listening intently when they speak. You’ll have more interesting conversations this way and be able to build better relationships with people.
28. Block out one or two times a day to take care of emails, if you can.
Keeping email open all day long is just a recipe for all-day stress. I know that not everyone has the luxury of being able to keep it closed for most of the day, but if you do, I urge you to spend time only in the morning or at the end of the day answering emails.
29. Use canned email responses.
Canned email responses (particularly in Gmail) are pre-written scripts you can put into an email reply quickly and customize as necessary. This is super helpful for cutting down on unnecessary time spent typing the same things you type in emails anyway.
30. Have separate email accounts or at least filters for work, personal, subscriptions, etc.
I like to keep a secondary email account for all those times I have to give my email address away for something I want to sign up for. I end up on their email list, but they can’t flood my main email with junk that I don’t really care about.
31. Turn all unnecessary notifications off on your devices.
Every single dang app you download will ask you to enable notifications. DON’T DO IT. In fact, I urge you to go into your app settings and disable all of them (except for phone calls).
Mobile notifications are one of the most distracting things of our time. You can check your apps on your break.
32. Physically leave your desk at break times, and especially at lunch.
Research has shown that people work better when they take regular lunch breaks. Now, that doesn’t mean sitting back in your chair while you chow down on a sandwich and browse Facebook. It means getting up and going somewhere—a cafeteria, a park, an outdoor eating area, or a restaurant—to separate yourself from work for a bit.
33. Have at least one go-to for quick stress relief.
By quick go-to, I mean a simple technique you can run through to regain your sense of calm and presence. This can be a simple meditation, deep breathing, mental count to 10, visualization of an escape, or anything else you like.
34. Have at least one go-to for minimizing the effects of the “afternoon slump.”
If you suffer from the dreaded afternoon slump, and many people do, try scheduling some kind of light work, break, or energizing activity when you expect it to happen. There’s no use in trying to push through some mentally challenging work when you know it’s coming.
35. Take power naps.
Speaking of the afternoon slump, a 20-minute power nap counts as a go-to. And if you really want to come back swinging, plan to drink a cup of coffee right before you go down for a nap so that the caffeine kicks in right around the time you get back to work.
36. If you work from home, don’t multitask with work and home activities.
Working from home makes it hard—even impossible—to draw a line between work and home life. At the very least, try to block out time that you spend working versus time that you spend doing personal stuff.
37. If you work from home, have a dedicated workspace just for work.
In my old place, I used to work in a corner between my kitchen, dining room, AND living room. That’s what I had to work with since it was only a one-bedroom, but I at least used that space only for work, and shut everything down when I was done.
38. If you work from home, consider joining a co-working space.
I’ve been going to a co-working space every Wednesday for over two years now. It helps to shake up my week and work environment, plus it gives me the chance to say hi to the people who work there as well.
39. Tidy up your workspace at the end of the day.
Don’t make a habit out of leaving your workspace cluttered by loose paper, open notebooks, food, beverages, and other nicknacks. It only creates unnecessary stress and an unsightly place to work.
40. Practice mentally disconnecting from work when you’re done.
You can do this by choosing a trigger to signal you to disconnect. The act of grabbing your coat, getting into your car, shutting down your computer, or closing the door to your home office are all good examples of triggers to use.
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