Do you have any information on how to develop and implement a work-life balance plan?

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Answer Paywizard:

Indeed, developing a work-life balance plan can be one of the most important decisions that you can make in your life. Your work and your life are the two key variables that determine your happiness. If they are balanced, you may be assured a happy and prosperous life, but leave them unbalanced and you may find yourself constantly stressed and unable to get out of bed everyday.

Unfortunately there is no “magical formula” that can give you an optimum work-life balance. Indeed, the key to creating and maintaining work-life balance is entirely up to you! Some people are very happy working more than 12 hours a day, have virtually no social life, and no family. Others would consider such a work-life balance to be reprehensible and think that spending time with friends or family and maximizing the amount of leisure time in one’s life is what they aim for on a daily or weekly basis. From my experience, most people fall in between these two extremes however. Most people generally want enough free time to do what they want to do with their time, regardless of what this is based on their own priorities, but also want to work enough hours to feel both accomplished and to thrive financially.

Not knowing you, I am unable to tell you exactly what kind of work-life balance you should have, but perhaps I can suggest some questions to aid your thought process as you determine for yourself what kind of work-life balance would make you the happiest. Ask yourself the following questions:

1.      What would be your ideal workweek (in hours)?

2.      Would you be willing to work fewer hours for less pay?

3.      How much time do you want to spend with your family?

4.      How much personal time, time that you have only for yourself, do you need/want?  For other activities?

It is one thing to have an ideal in mind, but it is another step entirely to work toward putting your plan into action.  What I find helpful for people is to actually map out a 7-day calendar, color-coding it according to how you plan to spend your time.  Do not forget time for sleep, gym, errands, activities, time to socialize, learning a language, or whatever else you’ve decided to prioritize.  After sorting all of these issues, ask your employer if s/he has flexible schedule options that can allow you to take care of all of your needs and make your work-life balance happen.

Now, make a serious and sincere commitment to your plan.  Knowing yourself is important, and be realistic.  Is it best to implement on a certain day and committing stepwise or going headlong into your new plan?  Again, if you are going to be successful, this must be a personalized plan!

Good luck!