When we’re overworked in one aspect of our lives, the stress tends to ripple out and affect all other areas – it’s almost unavoidable. When you’re working long hours or have difficult tasks on your hands, it can be difficult to dedicate the time and energy to exercise regularly, cook healthy meals, spend quality time with your family or nurture your relationships, among many other things that can tend to take a back seat. Sometimes, there’s just not enough time for everything … inevitably, something has to give. And when it does, we’re often left feeling frustrated, exhausted and disillusioned – which then negatively affects our work and all those other important relationships!
But how can we address this? Especially when the work just keeps coming in.
As the title of this article suggests, the answer lies in achieving work-life balance. Of course, while work-life balance always sounds wonderful in theory, for so many of us it seems out of reach. This is especially true in industries like healthcare, where shiftwork, long hours and being responsive to the needs of others are very much part of the job.
There are so many benefits to having a healthy balance between our work and personal lives; benefits that allow us to thrive in all aspects of our lives – if we get the balance right – at least most of the time.
So, how do we achieve work-life balance?
As elusive as it may seem, it is possible to achieve a healthy balance between your work and personal lives. Here we’ve compiled a few strategies that could help you to achieve it for yourself.
1. Schedule your time!
Tracking and scheduling your time allows you to be more productive during working hours. It provides a solid guide of what you have to do and by when, plus keeps you on track. Whether you do this through an Outlook calendar or in a physical diary, scheduling your time boosts productivity and helps you to work through (and tick off!) each task on your list.
A strong strategy to follow here is to plan out the following workday at the end of each day. Then as soon as you arrive, you can hit the ground running.
2. Determine your priorities – both personal and professional.
This will help you to decide where your time and resources will be best spent. And taking the time to reflect may actually bring about realisations that affect your work. For example, you may decide your family is your priority, spurring you to cut down on hours, or you may identify a promotion to work towards, or even decide you’re ready to start up your own practice!
A little self-reflection can go a long way, so come back and reassess your priorities on a regular basis to ensure you’re always on the right path to get you where YOU want to go.
3. Prioritise your health.
The healthier you are, the more energy you’ll have to pour into your work (and personal life). And with burn-out so prevalent in the healthcare sector, don’t forget to pay attention to your own health, not just that of your patients.
Whether it’s working on what you eat when, or getting more exercise, there are lots of strategies out there to help. Some of our team’s favourites, are meal prepping in advance, packing our lunches and gym gear the night before, investing in smart watches to prompt us to get up and move more, and committing to exercise with a friend.
4. Book a holiday!
Schedule a holiday where you don’t have to think about work. Whether you’re going to a beachfront villa or simply relaxing on the couch or in the garden at home, block out some time to give your mind a break from thinking about work and be fully present with your loved ones.
Even booking a simple picnic or day out with friends, will give you an opportunity to put work to the side for a while and your mind the opportunity to engage with different experiences.
5. Establish boundaries.
Draw clear lines between your work and personal lives and set expectations with your team members to ensure they don’t cross this line. Raise the topic with friends and colleagues too, it may spur them to do the same.
Supporting strategies might include things shutting off work calls or emails on your phone at a specific time each day, ensuring that on the trip home you actively stop thinking about work, and limiting the amount of time that you talk about work when you are home.
6. Leave work at work.
When you finish work for the day, leave it there. Don’t let the stresses of work permeate into the other aspects of your life – having a separation allows you to better focus on what you’re doing when you’re doing it.
This may be difficult for those who regularly work from home, but there are strategies to overcome this – like going for a run after finishing for the day, getting changed in and out of work attire, closing your office door / blocking your workspace from view at the end of the day, or even just playing music to remind you that your workday is done. Find whatever works for you and embed it as a habit.
7. Know when to ask for help.
Asking for support can be more effective that you expect, including because when you try to do more work than you have the time and energy for, the quality often falls – creating you even more stress. If you’re under the pump at work, don’t shy away from reaching out to team members or your manager for support. People are more willing to help than you may expect, and sharing the workload often brings good results for everyone involved.
8. Set SMART goals.
For the overachievers out there – ensure that you set goals that are SMART (Strategic, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely). Setting goals that you know you can achieve will help you to avoid overworking and burning yourself out in the process of striving for unrealistic goals. And remember to celebrate and be proud of the accomplishments that you’ve achieved so far, rather than always looking for more or moving straight onto the next thing. You really are doing great things, recognise that.
Supporting others to achieve work-life balance
As a healthcare practice owner or manager, you can implement policies, procedures and strategies to help your team members to achieve work-life balance too. A few examples include offering flexible work hours, introducing policies for paid time off, managing staffing issues promptly and respecting the boundaries and limitations of your team members.
Encourage your team to take breaks and create personal and professional boundaries – even when you don’t. Hopefully the ideas covered above will help you to get it happening too though!
It really is possible to achieve success in your professional life and maintain a fulfilled personal life, but to achieve this you need to take control and take action. The benefits to your career satisfaction, personal life, health and overall happiness are so worth it!
The Augmentum team provides a broad range of consultancy and management services, supporting healthcare business owners and decision makers in other key areas such as human resource management, personal and business coaching, strategy development and action planning, building effective foundations and teams, keeping your finger on the pulse, and driving growth and success. Get in touch to find out more, or check out our website www.augmentum.com.au
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