At Mustang Marketing, we pride ourselves on working hard. It’s important to us to consistently deliver our best work to our clients — and in a timely manner. But overall, no matter how hard you work, it’s also critical to find a proper work-life balance.
Having a satisfactory amount of time allotted for events/activities outside of work — such as spending time with your family, exercise, pursuing a hobby or just making time for yourself — not only contributes to a more fulfilling life, but can also help you stay motivated and productive at work.
If you feel that you don’t have enough time for yourself, that means there might be an opportunity to improve your work-life balance. Here are some helpful tips:
Find your rhythm
With any job, especially when you’re just starting out, you’ll find yourself trying to get your groove down — things like what time you should leave your house to make it to work on time, adjusting to new systems and protocols, figuring out how many hours it normally takes to finish a project, and getting your time management skills locked and loaded. Once you’ve accomplished an efficient work routine, it’ll enable you to become a master of your time.
Set limits
Setting limits means setting a specific hour when you plan to leave the office. Being flexible in certain circumstances is expected, but try to commit to leaving the office at your goal time whenever possible. And if you can, try to avoid taking work home to keep your professional and personal lives separate.
Work smarter, not harder
Devote your full attention to one task at a time, and devote a certain amount of time to that task. Multitasking works in certain scenarios, but if you find yourself feeling scattered, aim to finish one thing at time and set priorities.
Learn to say, “no”
While being an enthusiastic team player is important, and you should help out your coworkers when you can, learning to prioritize requests and say no when you have too much on your plate is also a good skill to learn. This will not only help to ensure you get the highest priorities completed, but also allow you to finish your work by the set time you have made for yourself.
Make time for a social life
Although most of us save social events for the weekend, you can still make it a point to plan something fun during the week to give you something to work toward and look forward to.
Rethink your errands
Running errands can take a lot of time out of your day and be especially draining after a busy day at work. You can save time by finding alternative ways to accomplish these daily tasks, such as looking into a grocery delivery service or spending part of your lunch hour running to the bank or picking up your dry cleaning.
Take care of yourself
Make time for you. Exercise. Eat a balanced diet. Doing this will help you stay healthy, feel more energized at work, finish tasks in a timely fashion and enjoy the free time you deserve after a hard work day is completed.
It can be tempting to try to do it all, but continually working long hours while also trying to devote your full focus to commitments outside of work can lead to exhaustion and burnout in the long term. At the same time, depriving yourself of a life outside of work can be equally detrimental. The key is to be aware of your work-life balance, set reasonable goals and budget your time effectively so that you are able to give both your career and the rest of your life the attention they deserve.