Whether you’ve been working for years, or if you’ve just started your first job or business – knowing how to balance work and play can be hard. You want to prove your worth, and go above the call of duty, but at the same time when is it too much?
Karina, a contributor to the Armchair Boss describes it best when she says, “work, no matter how passionate you are about it, is not meant to creep into your life. You’re supposed to put it into a separate drawer in your cabinet – imagine your life to be a cabinet. Use one drawer for your personal life and another drawer for your working life. That’s how it’s supposed to work.”
With all this being said, here are a few quick tips to help you keep your work life and home life separate.
Allocate Time
You might not want to admit it, but you do need time for yourself and with friends and family. Working too much can keep your stress levels too high, and actually be counterproductive. Take a step back and try and figure out when you are working too much.
If you are on a deadline, make sure you stick to it, but don’t make a habit of making “your time” work time. If you work from home, this can be even harder. Set aside some time in the day—an hour, two hours whatever to just do what you want to do. This could be going out with friends, working on a hobby or going to the gym. The point is to doing something that helps you relax can really help you in the long run.
Delegate
This can be hard for some—if you do the work, you know it got done to your standards. Don’t be afraid to let others do some of the work. Again being bogged down with a lot of work can actually work against you. Trust that other people will do a good of job as well; after all you are all working for the same company.
Breathe
We all need to breathe, and when we get stressed sometimes our breath can become much shallower than we realize. If you notice you are getting stressed (at home or office) take a deep breath. This can make a world of difference—and usually clears your mind. If you find yourself at home worrying about work, take a deep breath, and take in your surroundings. Remind yourself that work is over for the day, and it is time to enjoy the rest of your time off.
The main point to take away is that working to the best of your abilities is great, but you need to work just as hard on your home life. Work may be your passion, but it doesn’t have to be the only passion in your life.
Shannon Suetos is an expert writer on postage machines based in San Diego, California. She writes extensively for an online resource that provides expert advice on purchasing and outsourcing decisions for small business owners and entrepreneurs such as postage scales at Resource Nation.
