Achieving Work-Life Balance When You’re Employed Full-Time

Working in a long-term, full-time job has a lot of advantages, but it sometimes takes a toll on other parts of your life. Many workers at all levels of their organizations say they struggle with work-life balance.

While we can’t give you specific advice without knowing your situation, we can give you some general tips based on the ways other people have created a more balanced life.

Ask About Scheduling Flexibility

Depending on your lifestyle and situation, a different work schedule might help you improve your work-life balance. Some employers are willing to give employees a degree of control over their schedules as long as their work doesn’t need to be done at specific times. You may want to consider:

• Working from home or on a hybrid schedule. Working from home reduces your commuting time, and some people find it easier to stay focused without the distractions of the office (although others have the opposite experience).
• Flextime scheduling. Flextime is the option to schedule work earlier or later in the day, such as 10am-6pm vs. 7am-3pm. You can schedule work at the times when you’re most effective or around family time.
• Workweek compression. You might benefit from working longer hours over fewer days, such as working 10 hours per day 4 days a week instead of 8 hours per day 5 days a week. You get an extra day to relax and handle general life tasks, although you’ll have less free time on the days you work.
• Reducing non-work-related commutes. If you spend a lot of time on grocery shopping, ordering groceries online can give you some time back. If you can afford to do so, it might also be worth it to choose a gym and childcare provider closer to your workplace or home, even if it’s more expensive.

Schedule Time For Your Wellbeing and Relationships

It’s a little counterintuitive, but feeling too busy and tired is often a sign that you need to spend more time on your health and relationships, not less. Your physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing have a huge impact on your productivity. Healthy meals, regular exercise, consistent sleep, and social support give you the energy and mental clarity you need to do better in every aspect of your life.

Think of the time you spend cooking and meeting up with loved ones as a necessary investment, not a nice-to-have. These activities more than make up for the time they take. If you frequently find yourself canceling plans or struggling to find time, try scheduling time for them on your calendar, like how you would for a formal appointment.

Making time for hobbies or creative activities can help you with work-life balance, too. Recreational activities are a great outlet for emotions and often help you bond with other people. More than that, they add another dimension to your life beyond work and general life maintenance.

Find Out Where Your Time Goes

A one-week time audit might give you some surprising insights into where all your time is going, particularly your non-work time. If you’re interested, try tracking everything you do for a week, both at work and outside of it.

Many of us are spending far more time than we realize on our phones, for instance, with a substantial chunk of that time on social media. If you work in a computer-based job, you might spend a lot of time on work emails during your “off hours” — emails that could potentially wait until the next workday. You might also realize that certain household chores are sucking up most of your non-work hours.

Ask For Help

There’s only so much you can do to manage your time when you have a lot on your plate. If you’ve made it this far into this article, there’s a good chance you’re overwhelmed by too many responsibilities. In this situation, your best fix is likely to come from being assertive.

If you do most of the household chores and feel like you have a never-ending to-do list at home, maybe other members of your household can step up. Keep in mind that housework includes not only physical work but also the mental load of planning and scheduling. If you have the money, you might want to consider hiring someone to occasionally help with tasks like cleaning.

Maybe work is eating up most of your time, even outside of expected work hours. In that case, talk to your boss or delegate some responsibilities to the employees who report to you. And if your workplace expects you to be superhuman, maybe it’s time to quietly talk to your network or reach out to a recruiting agency for help finding a new job.

Sometimes mental health difficulties can cause overwhelm, too. If it’s been taking you more time to do tasks you used to be able to do quickly, or you’re struggling to get yourself to do necessary life tasks, you might be dealing with a mental health challenge. Like with physical health, treatment usually brings faster and/or more complete relief than hoping the problem will go away on its own. Don’t hesitate to talk to a doctor about your experiences.

Looking For More Career Tips?

LG Resources is a staffing and recruiting agency that helps people grow their careers. We help job seekers find both temporary and long-term, direct-hire positions, including professional roles. For more career advice articles, check out our jobs blog.