How to maintain a work-life balance

For today’s blog post, I wanted to share some simple tips to help you maintain a work-life balance.

We’ve all been there. Stuck in a job we don’t like feeling unmotivated and uninspired. Burned out from overworking and putting too much on our plate. Frustrated at the lack of time for our partner, family and friends.

It can be really difficult to know how we should arrange our time best to feel motivated in our jobs, but also to feel secure and happy in our personal lives.

The key to this is simple: find a work-life balance that suits you and allows you to smash all your goals.

But simple does not always equate to easy, and even the smallest of things can disturb our balance, leaving us feeling stressed, anxious and depressed.

To help combat this, I decided to put together my top tips for maintaining a work-life balance to help you find your own success and a lifestyle that meets your wants and needs.

If you are currently looking for a flexible job, check out freelance jobs on Jooble.

Let’s get it straight

First of all, you need to sort out your priorities. What’s important to you?

Some people love dedicating all of their time to work because it gives them a sense of purpose, direction and achievement. They’re happy to put a lot of work into their career because the rewards they get in return make them feel positive about themselves.

Other people would rather settle for a simpler 9-5 job where they come away from their work at the end of the day knowing that it’s over and then they have the evening to do what they want. They want to spend more time unwinding in the evenings or hanging out with friends and family.

Sometimes, people want a perfect blend of the two.

Once you’ve worked out what’s important to you, you can start prioritising your time according to your desires.

Plan your time out

Okay, so you’ve sorted your priorities out, now it’s time to plan – my favourite part!

If you’re somebody who wants to be very productive or work-orientated in your spare time, plan that in. Give yourself set hours/parts of the day where you can get your shit done.

But don’t forget to schedule in some time for yourself! It’s important to give yourself time to unwind, let go of those ‘to do’ lists and chill. Yoga is a wonderful way to allow you to let go of your day.

On the other hand, if you’d rather spend more time relaxing or socialising, plan that out too. Arrange meet-ups with friends to give yourself dates to look forward to and make a point of watching that TV series you’ve been dying to check out.

But also add in time where you’re productive to build up your personal skill set. Maybe brush up on your cooking skills or learn about gardening.

Planning is essential to maintaining a work-life balance because it keeps us focused, motivated and positive, and enables us to achieve our goals.

Goal setting

Another way to keep yourself focused is to set yourself goals, which applies to both personal goals and career goals.

In a career setting, think about the areas you could work on to grow as an employee. It will give you a sense of purpose and drive. I personally love being set yearly goals because it means I’m always working towards something and I don’t feel like I’m stuck doing mundane tasks.

As for personal goals: What would you like for yourself? Are there certain skills or hobbies you’ve always thought about taking up? Well, nothing’s stopping you! Achieving your personal goals gives you a sense of fulfilment and self-worth.

The reason I’d argue goal setting is important for achieving a good work-life balance is that it stops you from getting stuck in a rut, which in turn might lead you to feel unmotivated to look after yourself.

Set aside you time

Make time for yourself because you’re the only person that can truly make you happy. Others can make you happy, sure, but total happiness needs to come from within.

So give yourself some you time each week to do what you want. Put a face mask on, watch your favourite film, get a manicure. Whatever it is that you want to do, do it. Don’t neglect yourself!

For more options on what you can do in your own time, check out my 14 self-care ideas.

Time to yourself will definitely add to a perfect work-life balance.

A healthier you

Get enough sleep, do some exercise, have healthy food – you know the drill.

But seriously. Don’t underestimate the power of healthy habits. They’ll keep your energy levels up, which will stop you from flagging at work and give you motivation to meet up one evening with those friends you’ve been putting off for weeks.

Check out the yogi tea that I made for a yummy, healthy drink.

Since switching up my eating and exercising habits, I’ve felt much better in my body and more energetic, which has allowed me to be more productive at work and in my spare time.

Know when you’re burning out

Sometimes it can all just get a bit too much.

I know I’ve had spells where I’ve had to bring work home and all I’ve done is work, sleep and eat. Once work returned to normal, I was absolutely exhausted and felt run down.

I’ve also had times where my personal life has felt hectic. I was always out and about doing different things, which made me feel anxious as I knew I wasn’t giving myself enough me time.

Nip this in the bud. And if you can’t right now, make sure once the chaos has died down, you have time to just do nothing and recharge.

There’s nothing worse than feeling overstretched and it definitely tips the work-life balance.

Evaluate and reflect

Every now and again, it’s worth considering whether there’s anything in your life that you could remove that would improve your work-life balance.

If one of your priorities is to exercise 4 times a week and you’re struggling to meet that goal, look at areas in your life which you can cut back. Do you need to watch that TV show every night?

If one of your priorities is to dedicate as much time as possible to your blog, do you need to then be thinking about freelance writing, taking a photography course and joining a society in your spare time? (Haha you know who this one is aimed at).

Sometimes we give ourselves unnecessary tasks that don’t add to the quality of our lives but just mean our spare time is spread out too thinly. Remove them to keep yourself focused and energised.

Don’t worry about rearranging

It’s okay to cancel and rearrange plans with your family, friends or partner. Sometimes life gets in the way and you feel bogged down with too much work to do. Sometimes, you just can’t be bothered. And that’s okay!

Just as important it is to spend time with the people you love, it’s equally as important to take care of yourself and say no to things every once in a while if you don’t want to or can’t go.

I used to feel guilty if I had to cancel on people, but now I just explain why I can’t see them and make a point of rearranging to show that I still care.

Be realistic

As much as we’d all love to magic up extra time in the day, we can’t. So, you need to be realistic with what you can and can’t achieve, while still being healthy.

I wish I could play the piano, know all the ins and outs of SEO, blog full-time, buy a DSLR and then learn how to use it, become a makeup artist, launch my own e-course, start my own business… But that’s not realistic for me to do all in one go.

If I tried, I’d end up feeling exhausted and unhappy because I was unable to achieve all my goals.

So keep that work-life balance in check by being honest with yourself on what you can realistically achieve in 24 hours a day (you’ve got to sleep too, you know!).

Do what makes you happy

If there’s one point you take away from this post, it’s this.

If you’re not happy with your life, what’s the point in trying to maintain a work-life balance? You won’t feel motivated or inspired to do so if you’re ultimately not happy with the life you’re living.

Make sure you’re happy and put yourself first above anything else! That’s what will keep you focused on living your best life.

Would you prefer to see more lifestyle posts like this on my blog or would you rather me stick to more skincare and makeup posts? Let me know in the comments below!

Sarah Sarsby is the owner of A Woman's Confidence. With over 6 years' experience of writing in the fields of beauty and lifestyle, Sarah is passionate about all things content, makeup, skincare, wellness, and lifestyle. She has oily skin, is obsessed with lip gloss, and loves cookie dough.