How to improve your work-life balance

A great work-life balance is one of those things that most people want to improve, but few know how to do it. That’s often simply because we don’t think enough about what it means, let alone how to actually improve it. So in this post we’re going to look at what a good work-life balance means for you, and then how you can get one that you’re happy with.

What is work-life balance?

Richard Branson says that for him there’s no such thing as work-life balance. It’s all life. Even though I think there’s some truth in that, most of us mere mortals draw a line between time spent at work and time spent outside of work.

And this is the crux of the matter: you’re spending your time. As you know, my favourite saying is: 

“When you’ve spent all your money you can always go out and earn some more, but when you’ve spent all your time, it’s gone forever. So spend your time wisely as it’s more precious than money.”

Generally when we’re talking about getting a better work-life balance, we mean spending less time at work and more time at ‘life’. After all, I’ve never heard anyone complain about too much time at ‘life’.

Once you know that, you know improving your work-life balance is really about getting better at managing your activities. Especially at work, but also outside of work. There are plenty of people who have too many leisure activities or home responsibilities and find it hard to juggle them all.

How to spend less time at work

The first thing you need to do is ask: can you spend less time at work? Don’t dismiss this as an option. For example, you might look into a four day work week. There’s lots of evidence that people who switch to a four day work week can get the same amount of work done as they did in five days. This happens because working less hours highlights how precious their time actually is, so they stop wasting it.

But if working less isn’t an option for you right now, then can you work smarter?

There are four key ways to do that. I won’t go into them in much detail here, but I’ll link to some blogs in case you want to know more. The four ways are:

1. Get really good at time management
2. Delegate or outsource as much as possible
3. Set clear expectations with clients and staff
4. Learn to say no

They all sound relatively simple, but do look at each of those points in detail. I will say that learning to say no is a really big one at work. Again, it’s about valuing your time and managing your activities properly.

We all like to say yes to things, but think about each choice carefully. For example, do you need to travel to meet a client or could you get the same results online or over the phone?

Meetings are a big one. People love to have meetings, but they’re often longer than they need to be or just unnecessary. Is it crucial that you’re there or can you send in your contribution beforehand?

How to better spend your time at home

The second part of the work-life balance is life. This is your time spent outside of work.

The problem with time spent outside of work is that it tends to disappear quickly. One day runs into the next and then it’s a week and before you know it a month has flown by. Can you believe we’re a third of the way through 2019 already?

The reasons this happens are complicated, but a major part of it is simply keeping up with daily life. Things like doing the food shopping, washing, hoovering and so on. Think of these as standing orders on your time. Keep track of what’s going out and regularly review if they are still necessary, just like you would with your bank account. If it doesn’t serve you, ditch it. And if someone else can do it better, outsource it.

Thankfully the same four points apply to life as they did for work.

1. Get really good at time management
2. Delegate or outsource as much as possible
3. Set clear expectations
4. Learn to say no

Figure out what’s important to you to do in your time away from work. Don’t just hope and expect it to happen. Put it in your diary and arrange it!

If you want to spend a weekend at a spa with your friends, call them, set a date, and book it!

If you want to spend more time with your kids, put an hour in your diary every Saturday, and stick to it. No distractions or housework allowed!

Prioritise the things that are important to you, and minimise the things you don’t like or that don’t serve you.

I promise you, if you start paying more attention to how you’re spending your time, you’ll be surprised how much you can do with it.