Achieving Balance Between Work and Home
Let’s start off by talking about the current problems that so many of us are facing.
“workers in the 34–45 age group report the lowest scores in the work–life balance index” CIPD 2022 p.10
“hybrid workers appear to face the biggest difficulties in balancing work and life, including work–life spillover and longer working hours than would be preferred.” CIPD 2022 p.31
Whether you are a hybrid worker or not, the statistics are clear, this is something that needs urgent attention. We are working in an environment where barriers are hard to maintain, meaning that many of us teeter on the verge of burnt out. This has a detrimental affect on other significant areas of our life outside of our careers. The balance is heavily in the favour of work and as a result your home life takes a dip.
So, how do we tackle this?
Some of the issues lie with your behaviours. Over a period of time you could work to change how you behave. Eventually, you’d start to alter what you believe about work-life balance. Another, arguably more sustainable way is to flip this the other way and first tackle your belief system.
Below is an example of how your behaviour lead to your circumstances.
From the above, you can see how your behaviours directly affect your outcomes.
The boundaries between work and home are blurred and you don’t have the time or energy to fulfil other areas of your life. Both work and life suffer.
Now let’s take a look at what happens if you work on changing our belief system first.
In the scenario above, the client has altered their beliefs. As a direct effect, both their behaviours and outcomes have now changed. At work, they have more time for important tasks, more energy to focus their strengths, and better relationships with colleagues. At home, they have a more fulfilling relationship with friends and family. Their sleep, diet and overall health has improved, and they have more time for other areas of their life such as hobbies and interests.
It can be difficult to achieve these results by relying solely on changing your behaviour. Instead, it is more sustainable to deal with the root of the problem. What beliefs do you have about your working style that has potentially detrimental effects on other areas of life? What could you choose to believe that would support new, healthier behaviours?
It is all about creating the right balance between work and life. The appropriate balance is different for everyone and can change throughout their careers.
If you want to create more space between work and home, let’s work together. First, we will take a look at the balance you currently have. Then I’ll help you discover the beliefs you are currently holding about your work style and how you can alter these and rebalance the scales.
