How to Build a Healthy Work-Life Balance

Establishing a balance between your career and personal life is so much work, but it doesn't matter how challenging it is, it is crucial. Your drive for success and growth can be dangerous if necessary checks on your personal health (mental, physical etc) are not intact.  The career pursuit often gets affected in the long run when the appropriate balance is not brought into action.

A balanced work-life which can also be referred to as Balance Living is the act in which all aspects of life are considered, not focusing on one and leaving the rest to handle themselves.

Why You Should Build a Healthy Work-Life Balance

Work is amazing, especially when the monetary and emotional rewards come in. However, you don't need to overdo it. If you want to work and make as much money as possible, the best tip is to work less and focus on maximizing your working hours instead. That said, here are some of the reasons you should build a healthy work-life balance:
 

1. Sickness

Working overtime or for long hours, will do you more harm than good. Physical fatigue is constant throughout almost all occupations. It is hazardous when you go through similar motions too much. Not only do you stand the risk of getting some sore muscles, swollen joints, or muscle spasms. But you can even expose your eyes to unhealthy glares, especially when you work with a computer screen.

2. Fatigue

People often ignore the mental strain that comes with repeatedly tasking one's skills and abilities. You might think your brain will fully recover after a quick nap. However, continuous overloading will lead to the inability to continue. The body will forcefully shut itself down, simply to protect and recuperate. When this happens, you will find yourself burnt out, lacking motivation, extremely stressed, and maybe even struggling with sudden apathy.

3. A decline in personal and interpersonal relationships

Overworking will never give you time to build healthy relationships. You are either checking on your friends and loved ones too infrequently, or you are not at all. This leaves you feeling irresponsible and maybe even guilty. Eventually, you will be left alone with your work but without anyone to discuss or relax with when you finally get free. Consequently, working too little and spending too much time with friends and loved ones will only suffocate the relationships. It is extremely vital to strike a healthy balance.

How to Build a Healthy Work-Life Balance

Having a healthy work-life call for some measures to be put in place, such as;
 

1. Have A Schedule For Your Day

Scheduling is the simple act of planning and arranging one's day to be able to achieve one's goal which can be daily, weekly, monthly or annual scheming. Setting or having your day planned helps you to maximize and manage your time wisely enough to get things that are needed to be done. It also helps you to be disciplined with your time as it leaves you with no choice but to adhere to plans.

Having a schedule makes it easier to avoid taking on more than you can handle or impromptu work giving time to rest and do other necessary things that will boost personal life and health. To inculcate the habit of scheduling, it's a must to take note that consistency matters. Here is a list of 7 Apps to help you with scheduling.

2. Understand That Saying "No" Can Be A Great Thing To Do:

Often, people who break down have been traced to not being able to let go of some things and taking up more than they can handle, thereby, causing detriment to their health. Understanding the concept of saying 'No" helps in striking the balance needed to have a healthy work-life. It helps to not take up jobs that you don't have planned to fit into your plans for the day. It's best to evaluate and know your priorities(this can be done by scheduling), cut down on things that are not necessary, or even delegate them to others if possible. NOTE: Saying "No" is not bad provided you do that respectfully.

3. Care For Yourself

You don't have to get sick before you take a break. “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”, and maybe not just a dull boy, a sick boy at large. In that manner, not making enough time to care about oneself might result in fatigue, bad mental health, and other things that will eventually make your body shut down. There's a need to frequently set aside time to take care of yourself, unplug from work activities, eat well, sleep, exercise, have fun, and get involved in activities that will boost your well-being. There's a need for self-love. You not only get to care for yourself, but it also helps to maximize and do well with work when you get back.


    Ask For Help/Support System:

The need for help is not a sign of weakness, it only shows that there's wisdom involved.

No one is an island of knowledge and in that manner, no man can do all the job alone, that's where the division of labour comes in.

Sometimes, there's a need to pay people that can help with jobs that are not necessarily compulsory to be done by oneself. It goes a long way in balancing personal life and work.

Some activities can be handled by friends and won't give way to burnout if only we can ask for help.


Although it is a great thing to give in one's best and be diligent with work, one part of diligence is creating balance. You don't have to break down before you take a break.




We are in an exciting time where your work life does not end at the workplace. People can now work remotely either in the same location with their organization or they can work from any location. And technology has made it easier for workers to be accessible all the time.

This has posed a lot of challenges as one can’t differentiate between work life and personal life. And this in turn keeps you in a never-ending workday that will harm your health, relationship, and your general well-being. A healthy work-life balance is necessary and will help you to maintain a healthy lifestyle. While this may be the case, a healthy work-life balance could be different for a lot of people.

For me, a healthy work-life balance would be completing my tasks at work and still have enough time to hang out with family and friends and engage in activities that I love like baking/cooking, reading, and singing.

But for others, it could be having enough time to give yourself all the attention it needs and pampering yourself by sleeping and eating properly.

While some will prefer to enjoy their time at home without worrying about a pending task that needs to be done from the previous work day.

A healthy Work-Life balance can be explained as a term used to describe how you prioritize your activities around work life and personal life such that no one suffers.

You don’t want to all the time work that you don’t have time to hang out with families and friends or do the things you enjoy doing. And you don’t want to play too much that your tasks at work are not completed and your manager now has to send those sickening queries and if not properly answered can put your job on the line. But more often than not workers are under too much stress from work that they don’t have enough to play or unwind.

Why You Need a Healthy Work-Life Balance

The need for work-life balance can never be stressed enough, among many other reasons you should prioritize your work-life balance, here are a few highlighted below:

It increases Productivity

If you're able to get enough sleep instead of staying up all night, your body will be ready and rejuvenated for the next day’s tasks. Getting enough rest will help you regain more strength for the next day.

To maintain mental health

It is common for workers to be stressed or suffer burnout which can later lead to anxiety, depression, hypertension, body aches, pains, or even troubles with their heart. Too much is at stake when you overwork for a long time without taking enough rest.

You're prone to chronic stress. Too much stress from work is another common health challenge that most workers suffer. Which usually leads to mood swings, irritability, fatigue, and hampers productivity.

Work-life balance keeps you rounded. This will make you active in every aspect of your life, especially in your social life.

How to Build a Healthy Work-life Balance.

You should go for an organization that embraces work-life balance

This is very important to bear in mind when looking out for job opportunities out there. While there are employers who adopted the policy of work-life balance, there are some employers who are still found wanting in this area. You need to do due diligence in making sure that the organization encourages employees to follow work-life balance best practices, and offer support and guidance if they need it.

Learn to log off

Pay attention to your body and also listen to it. When you receive the signal that your body needs rest, don't try to be a superman or super queen. Just log off. Just like the phone will need to charge its battery before it can continue working optimally, the same way your body needs a recharge when exhausted. Rest when your body needs it.

Separate Work from Leisure

If you’re hanging out with friends, let's it remain just that, don’t send emails or work messages to your colleagues. Be present and savor every moment.

Prioritize your tasks

This can be easily achieved by writing a to-do list and pointing out the most important task that way you can focus on accomplishing them. This means you’re exerting your energy on the ones that matter. You get more effective instead of doing the ones that aren’t important and at the end of the day, you are not as energized to do the real work.

And accomplishing your tasks comes with a good feeling that is good for your body.

Exercise and Meditate

No matter how busy your schedule is, you need to create a little time to exercise your body. Exercise remains a good way of lifting moods, pumping feeling good endorphins into your body, and reducing stress. This is good self-care that doesn’t take much time if you’re pressed for time. A few minutes of meditation, deep breathing, yoga, or a workout will do your body a lot of good.

No matter how unending your busy life or work life could be, you need to understand that if you take proper care of your body today, it will take care of you tomorrow.