LIFE BALANCE HOW TO
LIFE BALANCE DOWNLOAD

LIFE BALANCE HOW TO

It looks at how stress impacts your life and how to deal with it and includes 101 of our supporters' tips on how to reduce stress.

LIFE BALANCE DOWNLOAD

You could also download our guide on How to manage and reduce stress. The more visible the process, the more likely it is to have an effect. If possible, assess your work-life balance with your colleagues and management staff. Factor in hours spent worrying or thinking about work, too – they’re a good indicator of work-related stress. This will give you a better picture of your work-life balance. Keep track of your working hours over weeks or months rather than days.They include scheduling time together, getting help with chores and childcare and making every second count if you don’t have much spare time. If work makes you feel you don’t have quality time for your partner or friends, read Relate’s tips on realigning your work-life balance.Our page on stress has ideas to reduce it, for example, through exercise, eating well or supportive friendships. Work-related stress can seriously affect your mental health.The NHS website has more tips on working from home. If you work from home, try to keep to a routine, make a dedicated workspace and switch off when the working day is over. Try to draw a line between work and home.You’re legally entitled to certain breaks during the day and working week: Gov.uk has more information. For example, take at least half an hour for lunch and get out of the workplace if you can. This involves prioritising - allowing yourself a certain amount of time per task - and trying not to get caught up in less productive activities such as unstructured meetings. Your manager and employer need to know where the pressures lie in order to address them.

Speak up when the expectations and demands of work are too much.This could include changes to your working hours. For example, if you have a disability (which can include mental and physical conditions), your employer might have a duty to make reasonable adjustments. Citizens Advice has information on contracts, working hours, sick pay, parental leave and more. Make sure you know your rights (see below) and see if any of our tips feel safe for you to try. It can be difficult or impossible to stand up for yourself at work if you’re precariously employed or worried about losing your job. There are steps you can take to improve your work-life balance. Maybe that’s asking for flexible hours, making sure you use all your annual leave or not checking your emails at the weekend, for example Is there anything at work you can change to meet your new priorities? For example, you might want to ask yourself if working long hours is worth losing out on family time or whether working weekends is worth losing out on your social life Now you’re more aware of your current situation, how does it make you feel? Are you fulfilled and happy or angry and resentful? Being aware of your feelings can help you decide which changes you want to make But just pausing and thinking about your priorities can help you discover whether the way you’re living and working is right for you

Ask yourself: what’s currently causing me stress or unhappiness? How is that affecting my work and personal life? What am I prioritising? What am I losing out on? We often don’t take the time to reflect on work until there’s a major life event, such as the birth of a child or the loss of someone close to us. But for those who can make changes, recent research suggests regularly checking your work-life balance by following five steps. It’s not always possible to make changes at work: if you’re on a zero-hours contract, you might not feel comfortable speaking up, for instance, or you might need to work long hours to earn enough money to pay your bills. Our assumptions and habits around work can become deep-rooted unless we take a step back once in a while. It can be easy to normalise working long hours or being under extreme stress, especially if we’ve been doing it for a long time or all our colleagues are in the same boat. How do I know if my work-life balance is unhealthy? This can be challenging if, for example, we also have caring responsibilities, a demanding boss or health difficulties. not worrying about work when you’re at home.having enough time to sleep properly and eat well.meeting your deadlines at work while still having time for friends and hobbies.It’s not so much about splitting your time 50/50 between work and leisure but making sure you feel fulfilled and content in both areas of your life. A healthy work-life balance will mean different things to us all.

Life balance