Life is a balancing act, like the tightrope walker in a circus. The tightrope walker uses a long bar in his hands to help him maintain his balance. So, we use our brain, and some simple life tools to balance our work and life.

First, define what is really important to you in life. Second, starting today, start managing yourself. Make yourself best in what you love to do. When you are the best version of yourself, then you can help others win, handle situations better, be more efficient and manage your work-life balance in a better way.

Saying it is easy, right? But, you think that doing it is very difficult, right? But, no you are wrong it is as easy as doing other things you do on daily basis. Here are some points to remember which help you balance your work-life aspects.

• Assess Your Life: Just take some time and think about your life and work, find out what is more important to you. Do you need to give more time to your family, or do you need to devote more time to your favorite hobby, which makes you feel happy? When you get your answer try to adjust your lifestyle accordingly so that you can spare time for the activities you want to do more.
• Unplug: Technology is a boon for human race, it has come a long way and has made many things much easier and faster. Communication has become a breeze with the ability to text, video chat or an email instantly. Unfortunately, these advancements have also made it too easy to stay connected 24 hours a day. It has become normal to keep receiving and sending work related correspondence even in your off-work hours from home or your ride back home. When you are at home, your full attention should be paid to your family or on personal endeavors of your enjoyment like your favorite hobby which can be anything like gardening, painting, DIY etc. Turn off or ignore non-emergency work notifications which keeps you checking your emails or phone regularly. If you strain yourself after hours with work issues, you will exhaust and be less productive at work. Give yourself ample time after work to relax and focus on other things which require your attention like your family, friends, relatives, and when you spend time with your family you will feel happy and then you will be able to give all your attention to whatever is needed when you are at work.
• Learn to Say No: Start to set some boundaries when your boss wants you to be available for work even when you are off. This may be difficult at first but you can do it slowly. Let your boss know that you have other obligations and can’t be reached when he wants you to take care of things when you are off. Do not respond instantly to after-hours texts and emails, but dependably take care of the issues on work time. Leaving work at work will help you be more focused and productive when you are there instead of being tired from handling work-related issues the night before.
• Set Goals for Your Off Time. Think about your other interests or hobbies you want to pursue that enhance your life and set time aside specifically for these things, or people that you want to spend time with. Holidays, sports, concerts or other hobbies are as important as your work so do indulge in them and it will keep you happy and fulfilled.
• Manage Time More Efficiently. After spending a long day at work, usually everyone feels exhausted and then there are household chores which are to be taken care, it would be nice to cut back on the time it takes to get other household chores done. Identify the things that are time wasters and streamline them by paying bills online or auto-deducting them from your account. So that you can save your time for the things which are more fulfilling and enhance your life.
• Stay Healthy: Health is very important to enjoy the life. You need to take care of your body by maintaining a routine involving exercise, eating well and getting good sleep. There are many great exercise routines that can be done in your home or at work even when you are short on time. So, you can choose stairs over an elevator or escalator when the opportunity arises which will give you a muscle exercise and also burn calories which results in accumulating fats in your body. In addition to focusing on fitness, eating healthy meals and getting enough sleep is also very important as it will help you remain attentive and energetic at work and prevent illness.
• Ask for Help: You can ask for help from family and friends when you’ve had an overly stressful day and you don’t have energy left to do the household tasks, ask the other capable family members to keep the home running smoothly and don’t stress about perfection. It doesn’t always have to be perfect as long as it gets done.  Similarly, you can do their tasks when required.
• Find a De-stressing Method: Whether it’s five minutes of desk yoga, or basic meditation exercise, you will need a way to calm workday stresses at some point. Even if you love your job with a passion, it’s significant to have coping mechanisms in place for when things don’t go perfectly well, or when days are extra busy.

As we said at the beginning of this article, everyone’s priorities are different so it’s on you to figure out what is most Significant to you. Don’t lose yourself in the workplace hustle. Always take some time for yourself and your family, friends, society and your hobbies, and you can successfully maintain a healthy work-life balance.

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Also published on Medium.