Improve Your Work Life Balance: Self-help Books

1.  ​​Get more balance.

Many people feel unhappy about the state of their work-life balance. Perhaps you're one of them, and like them, you may want to know what you could do to restore, rebuild, and renew it.

If your work is your life and you have no time for little else, then something must change. Work is important and may take up many waking hours. But don’t neglect the rest. It is vital to find time for your friends and family, your partner, and your community. But most important of all is you and what is essential for your health and happiness.

That means discovering the steps you need to take to make a difference. It entails making time for parts of your life that you ignore. It involves committing yourself to making changes.

Be realistic about what’s possible. It is better to achieve small things consistently than nothing.

Decide what changes you want to make. If you know the balance in your life is not ideal, and it falls far too much on the side of work, then it's time to adjust the way you live your life.

The first step is to decide precisely what you want to change and how you will make that change. Too often, people are very clear about what they no longer want but haven't clarified what they do want.

Because you have got stuck in a rut about the way you spend your days, it's important to brainstorm new ideas, especially noting possibilities which you might not have considered before. At this stage, don't think too deeply about the practicalities. Those come later.

Instead of assuming that nothing can change, start by

doing something different. That will influence ‘the system’ and the situation you find yourself in will become different.

Eventually, you will be less stressed, happier, and more able to cope with setbacks when you start by making small changes.

You can live the life you want when you create a clear vision in your mind’s eye, of how you and your life will be different.

Think about how your colleagues, friends, and family will know you have changed.

What will you look like?

What will you say?

What will you do?

Imagine you are in a theatre watching yourself on the stage. Notice something about yourself that other people may see but you haven’t thought about. Doing this helps you understand what to do because when you think about your situation from a different point of view, the way forward becomes obvious.

You may take an enormous leap and jump straight into a new way of doing something. However, it is more often a gradual process. Once you have a clear vision, you can break it down into small, realistic steps to reach your goals.

Keep your dream in mind because it is connecting with it that will keep you on track or bring you back if you waver.

Just like a boat that gets blown off course, you can make fine adjustments in your settings and trim your sails until you are going in the direction you want to go.

A metaphor is a powerful way to think about a situation. Think of a metaphor that works for you and write a sentence or two about it and how you could use it to keep on track.

The hero’s journey is a metaphor for the process of change, described by Joseph Campbell about what happens when you make changes.

The stages of the Hero’s Journey are:

The call: a feeling deep inside that something must change.

Setting out: find who supports you and who tells you the journey is pointless, dangerous, or stupid.

The wilderness: after you make progress, you feel stuck as if there is no way forward. You wonder if it has all been a big mistake. You feel as though you are in the wilderness or the ‘belly of a whale’. For a while, there seems to be no way to move forward.

The goal: If you keep reminding yourself about your vision, you will move again towards your goal.

The return: You reach your goal and realise that you could have achieved it more quickly because you already knew what to do. It is the old story about setting out to find a pot of gold and then finding it in your own backyard.

Think about changes in your life in the last few years and identify where you are on your various hero’s Journeys.

2.  Lack of work-life balance.

Here are ways you may have neglected your work-life balance. Do any apply to you?

Being unaware of boundaries: if you do not define your boundaries for yourself others step over them whenever they want. When you are hazy about what you should do, others take advantage of you.

Doing everything yourself because you don’t want to ask for help or delegate and believe that you are the only person who can do those things.

Procrastinating as long as possible about any task you must do. You wait until you are asked several times before you even consider when or if you will do it.

Being ignorant of time management strategies: you are vague about when you will do anything and are incapable of knowing how long a task will take you to do.

Not making decisions: you let others decide on your behalf, and feel frustrated about what you agree to do

You eat anything, however unhealthy, especially fast food, and takeaways. You regularly miss meals and then stuff yourself with highly processed sugary foods because you can’t be bothered to choose more carefully what to eat.

You take minimal exercise or do anything much apart from work.

You decline