What is Work Life Balance?
‘Work-life balance is typically defined as the amount of time you spend doing your job versus the amount of time you spend doing what’s important to you outside of work, whether that is with loved ones or pursuing personal interests and hobbies.’
Achieving a good work life balance means finding harmony between various parts of your life. While it sounds simple, it can be challenging for many of us.
At times, we may feel we’ve found that balance, only for life to become chaotic once more. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach—it’s a unique journey for everyone.
Some of the areas you need to think about are, when working on your own work life balance:
- Know your values
- Practice Time Management
- Set Boundaries
- Enjoy your work
- Review your finances
- Nurture relationships
- Focus on Health
- Have down time
Source: https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/work-life-balance
We asked some of the CNB Safe team to share with us what they do in their spare time to help manage their work life balance. You will see in reality it is an ongoing process that we all constantly need to work on.
It’s very easy for me to lose sight of what matters in my life if I’m working too much, getting those home maintenance lists done or booking too many catch-up’s with people.
Life can get away from us if we are not aware of the little things that matter which are sometimes as simple as getting outside, taking a walk and pardon the pun but “smelling the roses”.
I personally make sure I take the time every day without fail to switch off the phone, take off the business cap and just have time for me.
This for me is walking outdoors and walking my dog Max, along the Swan River in Perth. Also taking a seat at one of the many benches to stop, breath and take in all the environment around me. New things to look at other than my laptop, allows me to take my mind away from work. Breathing in some fresh air is great for my body but in particular my brain.
It is amazing how such a simple break in my day can have an effect on my mental health, my productivity and happiness for the remainder of the day.
You should try it, it’s FREE!
Reflect, Rest & Recover.
As I have recently semi-retired, I am loving the fact that I can slow down and take my time instead of the mad daily rush that comes with working full time and to do what is important for me (and the family).
I live on a 1.5-acre property on the edge of the Barossa, so as you can imagine, there is always a lot to do and just never enough time.
I spend time growing my own vegetables and really take great enjoyment in knowing where they came from and best of all, that they are organically grown!
Daily walks are also important to me, to ensure that I sustain my fitness levels and to enjoy the good old country air.
Unfortunately, my sons and their families live a bit far away these days and I don’t get to see them as much as I would like but that’s a good excuse for me to travel and share the love when I can.
My life work balance was once pretty good but if I’m honest, today it is very bad.
Working in the presentation world of trying to prevent the next workplace accident opens you up to becoming a type of ‘bartender’.
After most presentations, there will be people who need to talk to you and get things off their chest. It could be about an incident at work which happened years ago, a present day problem, something at home the family is finding hard to cope with due to a family member being hurt at work and worse, death and suicide at work.
They see us presenters, who’ve been through workplace incidents, as being able to understand them, so you become their “bartender”.
This is a lot to carry on our shoulders and some of what you hear will never leave you. So it’s hard but I will always try to find a way to help them. Sometimes they might need to just vent their frustration.
Once upon a time I would go to a movie, a live theatre show, concert or a long drive after a presentation or within days of what I would call a hard day. Now it has been two and a half years since I have done any of those things. I am always planning the next job/presentation even if I have nothing on for a week or so, which is rare.
I could not measure my work life balance as it is now so far out of whack. I’m trying to plan two trips to Bali a year because it is the only place I can switch off and be me. Due to work recently, I have had to cancel one of those so I have blocked out one month next year to try and get back again.
On most days, I walk to my favourite coffee shop which takes 23 mins. I sit and have a coffee, watch YouTube to try and numb the brain and lose myself just for an hour. I then walk home, the work process just kicks in, it is really hard to stop this, even though you know it is happening.
What is keeping me sane is I try to look at travel possibilities every day to Bali, even though I know I cannot get there at the moment, it gives me a positive outlook on life to look forward to in the near future. This is one of the only things that gives me a positive frame of mind to help me recreate a little bit of work life balance again.
