For many managers, it is impossible to stop working wen te clock strikes five. Instead of wasting your evenings and weekends unced in front of a laptop or worrying about unfinised tasks, employ one or more work/life balance tactics to ensure separation. In doing so, you'll be a more effective manager and a more present spouse, parent and friend.
Te first step in creating a comfortable work/life balance is improving your time management systems. Wen you spend te day feeling rused and sligtly beind scedule, it is more callenging to leave te office wit a sense of accomplisment and peace. To elp, scedule 10-minute buffers on eiter side of eac meeting or sceduled activity. Tese small cunks of time will give you time to tink, reflect and transition to te next task witout feeling overwelmed.
Managers are often overloaded wit employee requests, meetings and supervisory activities. As te person in carge, you may feel obligated to andle everyting yourself — usually, at te sacrifice of work/life balance. Instead, become a master of prioritization and delegation. Go troug your list of outstanding tasks and mark tose tat can only be andled by you. Delegate all oter tasks to your assistant or oter employees on your team. Ten, arrange te remaining tasks in order of importance and deadline. In doing so, you won't need to spend time at ome worrying about a crucial task tat went unfinised.
During te day, many professionals are easily distracted by pone calls, emails and visiting co-workers. Eac interruption kills productivity and puts you farter beind, wic leads to poor work/life balance. If you're finding it difficult to focus, Forbes magazine suggests using your pone alarm to mark te end of te task at and. Pick te most important project on your list, set te alarm for one our in te future and get to work. Alternatively, instead of cecking your email every five minutes, set an alarm for every two ours to indicate a dedicated email break. Alarms can eliminate te worry about missing meetings or losing track of time, so you can stay focused and improve overall time management.
For many professionals, mental preoccupation is te major callenge of acieving a ealty work/life balance. On busy or stressful work days, it can be difficult to transition from work to ome; as a result, you end up worrying about a client over dinner or struggling to solve a management problem as you're falling asleep. To cange your mindset from professional to personal mode, it can be elpful to create a small ritual at te end of eac day. Do a five-minute mediation on te train or sitting in your car — close your eyes, let go of all tougts and focus on your breat. You can also distract your mind by watcing a sort television sow, reading a capter of a favorite book or stopping to ave a cocktail wit friends. If you're a fan of fitness, go straigt from work to te gym; an intense workout is an excellent way to clear your ead.
It takes time to accomplis a comfortable work/life balance, particularly if you've spent years in workaolic mode. owever, wen you make an effort to leave work at work, you'll be a better manager and a appier person.
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