How Work Life Balance Impacts Mental Health
No matter what kind of job you do, work life balance is important. For some jobs this is easier to accomplish, while others it can be a struggle. Yes, even work from home jobs still require you to find a good work life balance to maintain positive mental health. Work life balance is exactly as it sounds, balance between your work and the rest of your life. For most people this means that you aren’t working more than you are living your actual life. Some examples may include spending time with family, going out with friends, participating in hobbies and even travel. Regardless of how you like to spend your time outside of work, it’s important to maintain an appropriate balance to positively impact your mental health.
How a Poor Work Life Balance Negatively Impacts Mental Health
As mentioned above, maintaining a good work life balance can be difficult depending on your job. Having a poor work life balance can negatively impact your mental health and your physical health in different wants. It’s important to recognize that there will be impacts on your work and on your home life. At work you may begin to feel overwhelmed or burnt out. Your work ethic and quality may slip from your normal standards. You also feel less inclined to connect with your colleagues and participate in work activities.
At home things may look different. You will experience fatigue, poor sleep, and even physical effects on the body like weight gain. This all comes from stress both consciously and subconsciously contributing to poor health overall.
When experiencing poor work life balance, it can feel like a vicious circle. It’s important to recognize when you are in the circle so you can begin to act towards a positive work live balance.
How You Can Improve Work Life Balance for Yourself
Recognizing when you have a poor work life balance is a great way to get out of the vicious cycle, but it’s not the key to making changes. The key is to put in preventative measures to avoid having a negative work life balance all together. To do this, you need to set strong boundaries with yourself and your work.
This may look like shutting down work at a certain time every day to go and spend time for family. Setting up proper morning and evening routines is a great way to fill your cup before and after work to ensure you are taking care of you. It’s true that you can’t pour from an empty cup.
Once you establish these boundaries it’s important that you stick to them. You may need a friend to help hold you accountable or a reward system to build the habit. Once you build the habit you’ll never look back as you will feel better overall.
How You Can Improve Work Life Balance for Employees
Although it is important for each of us to have our boundaries set in place to maintain a health work life balance, it is also important for employers to set their employees up for success in this area. As an employer you can put in procedures and policies that help each of your employees maintain their boundaries for work life balance. An example of this may include having morning flex hours. This means that employees can start work anytime between 7am-10am if they complete their required number of hours per day.
By adding in policies and procedures to support your employees, you encourage them to maintain a positive work life balance. Having simple things like flex hours, work from home days etc., will allow your employees to have more control over their schedule. More control over one’s schedule helps to improve the work life balance.
It’s also important to check on your employees. Actively look for signs of burnout, overwhelm or distancing to help intervene when needed. When your workplace has a positive work life balance for all employees your business will thrive.
Benefits of An Improved Work Life Balance
Having a positive work life balance can improve many areas of life. To start it’s important to recognize that a positive work life balance will decrease stress levels. Lowering stress levels has a ton of benefits including improved mental and physical health.
Whether at work or at home, you will be more productive, less stressed, and more engaged. This means that your relationship both at home and at work will improve, as well as the one with yourself.
Overall, having a positive work life balance will allow you to live a more fulfilled life with less stress.