Friday 30 July 2021

5 Surprising Ways of Striking Work-Life Balance

 Do you often feel the heat of a tug-of-war between your work demands and your personal life? If the answer is yes, you’re not alone! The constant struggle of achieving a perfect work-life balance is the most common reason behind triggering stress and anxiety.

Since technology has blurred the lines between personal and professional lives and constantly online, the work-life balance has taken a severe hit. Moreover, most office spaces for rent in India are closed due to the pandemic of remote working, which has made things difficult for many of us.

However, with some exciting and straightforward tips on striking work-life balance, you can get on track again. Here are the tips:

1.Mark Work-free Zones at Home – Just a visible fence protects the house, pets, and plants from intruders; you can also create an invisible wall that marks your work zone and your living space. This metaphorical difference between both will help you disconnect from work after your shift gets over. So whether you’re working out of your living room, kitchen, or your designated work corner at home, make sure that your laptop and work phone are out of your ear and sight once the work is over.

2.Ask for Flexi Timings – Most employers based out of leading office space on lease in ITES and other sectors now understand the work and family pressures their employees deal with daily. So as long as you fulfill your work commitments and are an ace performer, they won’t mind allowing you an hour or so at either end of the day. That makes all the difference in achieving a work-life balance.

3.Ditch Perfectionism in Every Thing – A lot of us tend to become overachiever in every sphere of life that lead us to expect perfection in everything we or the others do. It’s easier maintaining that perfectionist tag when you’re a kid, but remaining the same in your work life is only going to leave you disappointed. Letting go of perfectionism is the best way to avoid burnout due to excessive work. Instead, focus on achieving excellence rather than perfection.

4.Unplug Often – From online remote work meetings to instant messaging apps and more such technological advancements, our workday never seems to end. However, with the expectations of constant accessibility also comes fatigue and exhaustion. The best way to combat that is to unplug often to rejuvenate your tired brain cells. For example, while spending time with family, keep your cell phone away or reply to work emails. Simply by not reacting to the work notifications, you will develop a stronger resilience.

5.Cut Toxicity & Negativity From Your Life – Whether it’s the toxicity emanating out of people, habits, or emotions; if a specific thing or person doesn’t make you feel good, it doesn’t deserve a place in your life. The crucial time spent on warding off the negativity can be utilized in being more productive if you don’t have to deal with it every day. Determine what needs to be trimmed out of your life, and don’t think twice before doing that.

6.Exercise & Meditate – Even when you’re busy juggling between personal and professional lives, make time for simple yet important things like regular exercise and meditation. It is a no-brainer that exercise and meditation are the best stress busters and need to be incorporated into our schedule to keep us healthy mentally and physically.

Thursday 8 July 2021

6 Brilliant Work-Life Balance Tips for Working Parents

 When I say having and raising children is a job in itself – I am sure many working parents will relate to this. It might seem like a humungous task to balance your personal and professional lives when you’ve small kids at home and have a regular day job to take care of at their office based out of commercial building in Kolkata

With great responsibilities also accompany great ideas and trips and tricks to manage them well. Here, in this blog, I’m sharing a list of work-life balance tips that work well for employed parent or parents. Here you go:

1. Switch Your Phone Off

We have to become the mirror image of how exactly we want our kids to turn out. The easiest way to make the most out of your time spent with kids is to switch off the phone when the kids are around. This will make them feel attended to and will create some boundaries around personal and professional lives too. Stay away from checking work emails every now and then or replying to not-so-urgent texts while kids are around.

2. Divide House Chores

Dividing the home and child responsibilities ahead of time will not only help reduce the frustration and feeling of overworking between couples but also there is a sense of clarity as to who will do what. When it comes to night-time routine of kids, have clear demarcation as to who will give bath to the kids and who will put them to bed.

3. Share Each Other’s Work Calendars

This is a brilliant way of keeping each other posted about work commitments so that when one is busy, the other can fill in to take care of kids. Most couples do that to know if one’s having a late night at the office in Kolkata and the other has an early morning departure tomorrow. Same goes for work-related travel as well. 

4. Get Realistic

Realize and accept that work-life balance is largely an individual subject to apply. For some parents, the down time of 1 hour with kids might suffice and for some it takes more than that. Set your own rules and boundaries and stick to them. Make changes to them when required and keep everyone concerned informed too.

5. Set Your Priorities Right

Most kids don’t really acre about their parents gifting them fancy clothes or big toys. What they need is for their parents to be around and spend quality time with them without having to worry about the work. Set family time with your kids as your top priority and work your job around that and not the other way round. Doing this will bring in a lot of mental peace and con tent for sure.

6. Outsource Chores

Mundane and time-consuming chores as laundry, running errands and getting essentials can take most of your time leaving you little to no room for quality time with kids. You can get grocery and supplies once a week on weekends or order online. Outsource laundry to save time, buy appliances that save you from a lot of headache and more such actions.