What is Work-Life Balance?

GENERAL OVERVIEW:

Over the past few years, the term “work-life” balance has become a popular buzzword. In order to understand what Work-Life Balance is, let us start with what it’s not:

 

  • Work-life balance does not mean equal balance. Life is unpredictable so it’s hard to schedule exactly the same number of hours per week for both professional and personal activities.
  • There is not a perfect template for work-life balance. Work-life balance will look different among each person because we all have different priorities within our daily lives.
  • Work-life balance is not scripted. Our definitions of our most ideal work-life balance will change over time. For example, the right work-life balance will be different while in college versus when you start a new career or even graduate school.

 

Now that you know what isn’t work-life balance, let’s discuss what it is:

Work-life balance describes the relationship between work commitments and life commitments and how they impact each other.

 

WHY IS WORK-LIFE BALANCE IMPORTANT?

  • Work-life balance is a key component of a healthy work environment. Maintaining a work-life balance can reduce stress, prevent burn out, and increase productivity.
  • We all need a certain amount of stress in our lives in order to help us perform at our best and the key to managing that stress is BALANCE. There are two forms of stress: Distress and Eustress. Distress (aka negative stress) occurs when your level of stress is either too high or too low and your body and/or mind begins to respond negatively to the stressors. Eustress (positive stress) occurs when your level of stress is high enough to motivate you to move into action to get things accomplished. Therefore, we want to have enough stress in our lives that allows us to reach our optimal performance levels. We can reach this optimal performance level by making schedules, taking breaks, planning ahead, and avoiding procrastination.

 

HOW TO CREATE A WORK-LIFE BALANCE:

  • To have a successful work-life balance we can use the following equation: Achievement + Enjoyment = Work-life Balance
    • Achievement = professional successes (e.g. passing an organic chemistry exam)
    • Enjoyment = the joys of life (e.g. love, happiness, positive well-being)
    • Having BOTH achievement and enjoyment allows us to avoid the “as soon as…”
      • Example: "I’ll be happier AS SOON AS this semester ends" -- NO, we don’t have to wait for happiness. We should be feeling fulfilled on some capacity on a daily basis. Therefore, maintaining work-life balance does not need to feel like a daunting task. Even just the incorporation of quick and easy activities can improve your work-life balance such as taking a walk, watching a movie, or reading a book for pleasure.
    • Work-life balance means something different to every person. There is no one-size-fits-all solution to finding an ideal work-life balance so you have to find one that works well for YOU.
  • For more strategies on creating and maintaining a healthy work-life balance click here.