Work-life balance tips

Good work-life balance can help reduce the stress in your life and support your resilience. Review the tips and strategies below and choose those that make the most sense for you. Try one now and then come back for other ideas.

Work-life balance tips email series

Weekly emails with tips on how to balance work and life.

Mindfulness stress reduction video

If I’m resilient, does it stop my stress?

Having a high level of resilience won't make you immune to stress - stress is inevitable. Resilience gives you the ability to adapt to challenging moments and bounce back more quickly.

Managing stress by embracing it as part of life can help you develop positive coping strategies.

Finding solutions to stress can start with these stress reduction videos.

Separating from work when you work from home

Working from home has become common. How do you detach yourself from work if you’re already at home? Are you taking your breaks and stopping for lunch? Disconnecting from work is important when leaving the office or site- it's even more when working at home.

Once your “workday” is done, separate yourself from your workspace or clean up the area you’re working in. For example, if you use your bedroom, living room or kitchen table to work, try to turn these rooms back into what they’re meant to be when you’ve finished working. Leave it the way it is when you’re working but try to put away your work things so you’re not reminded you have a report due while eating your dinner or getting ready for sleep.

Giving your full attention to whatever you’re doing in the moment improves the quality of the experience. Try to focus when you’re:

• Working
• Eating
• Sleeping
• Reading
• Talking with family or friends

Screen fatigue

Technology has grown so much over the years – it’s become a part of our daily lives. We literally hold technology, and all the information it provides, in the palm of our hands. And much of our social interaction is now facilitated through virtual platforms. It’s great until it’s too much.

Take note of your average screen time for the day and then check out the research-based tips developed by Liz Fosslien & Mollie West Duffy to get some tips to conquer screen fatigue.  

Balance your support network

What would you have if your organization shut down? Your work is important, but your social connections are what keep you grounded during transitions and stressful times.

Whether it’s family, friends or being out in your community, these are your connections to the world. It’s important to cultivate them. Here are a few ideas for sustaining your social connections:

• Chat on the phone
• Meet to go for a walk
• Have a virtual catch-up
• Go for a picnic in the park

The ideas are endless – get creative. Use Balancing your support network to think about the specific people from whom you both give and receive support.

How work can help

Balance is necessary to maintain a healthy lifestyle in both work and our personal lives. We’ve shared some ideas for improving balance in the moment, which is a personal approach. Share these evidence-based strategies with your employer – they can also support work-life balance for all employees.

Energizing break activities

Put one foot in front of the other and get some physical activity into your day! Reduce stress and take an energizing break.

It sounds repetitive to say things like: “Go for a walk or a run” or “Do a workout – it’ll make you feel better.” Nike has three simple words for you: “Just do it!” Who knows? You may even like it!

Not used to adding physical activity into your day? Start off small with these energizing break activity ideas.

21-day health challenge

You can help reduce stress by engaging in habits that support nutrition without giving up all your favourites. Simply add in healthy choices by:

• Snacking on nourishing foods more often
• Drinking more water throughout your day
• Being aware of how much you consume when you’re stressed
• Planning ahead to make it easier to have healthy choices available
• Being present while you’re eating, rather than doing it mindlessly while multi-tasking, can make a big difference in what and how much you eat. Writing down everything you eat is also shown to increase awareness and healthy choices.  

For the next 21 days, really enjoy that snack and lunch break rather than just consume food.

Let go of perfectionism

Perfectionism affects people in different ways: some try to achieve perfectionism only at work, others only at home and some in all areas of their life. Since perfection is an unattainable and unrealistic goal, seeking it can become destructive to your well-being and relationships.

Identify what’s good enough and avoid the stress-inducing perfectionist approach. Here’s a short video from Mary Ann Baynton, on letting go of perfectionism.

Deal with workload stress

The task at hand isn’t your enemy, although it may feel like it at times. Be mindful in your approach. Organize your time and take frequent short breaks if you have trouble focusing. Remember to:

• Limit time-wasting activities
• Let go of perfection

Here are some other workload management actions you can try or suggest to your organization.

Self-awareness

Life can sometimes get so busy or be so routine you’re no longer in touch with how you feel emotionally, mentally or physically. Take time to check out these free self-assessment tools. They can help you become aware of how you’re feeling now.

Healthy break activities

Whether it’s a calming, energizing or relaxing break you need, have a look at these healthy break activities. 

Get your calm on

You can increase the feeling of calm before, during or after the storm. Some people feel calm with breathing exercises, being out in nature or engaging in art. What matters is finding what works best for you. “See the effort in focusing the mind as an exercise, not an exertion.” – Chaitanya Charan. Choose from among many different calming activities.

Unplug

Let’s unplug! Take some time to step away from your phone or computer or any device you’re working on. Set it aside and just enjoy the moment.

Phone and email notifications from work can distract you even when you’ve logged off for the day – they can also add to your stress. Unplugging gives you an opportunity to explore your interests and passions. You also get a greater sense of control and balance in life. No links or resources for this one – just unplug from your work environment at some point today.

Organize to reduce stress

Organization can help reduce your stress and provide more balance to your workday. By setting up your day with a list of daily goals and prioritizing your work, you increase your sense of accomplishment. Take a few minutes to tidy up your workspace and make sure the resources you need are close at hand. This can help your day go more smoothly. Decrease your sense of stress by organizing your work and life to support balance for you. Read more in Tips for stress management.

The wisdom of emotions

You can be positive and look on the bright side but don’t dismiss difficult emotions without first exploring what they might be telling you. All emotions, positive or negative, contain wisdom for our growth and development. Learn to tap into this knowledge by learning the functions of emotions.

Prevent burnout

If you’re emotionally exhausted or feel you’re unappreciated and overwhelmed, even though you continue to work hard, you may be approaching or are in burnout. Check out this resource to find ways to prevent burnout.

Improve your emotional intelligence

Building your emotional intelligence can help you manage how you react and how you respond to others. You can recognize your emotional triggers at work and home. Building your emotional intelligence can improve relationships and help control your stress. Learn more about emotional intelligence through this library of resources.

Improve your focus

Find ways to keep yourself calm and focused while working. Explore approaches until you find what works for you:

• Play music, a podcast, or just background sounds.
• Can’t work with sounds? Find ways to block out noise.
• Uncomfortable? Find what is just right for you and be sure you don’t end up with back or neck pain.
• Add a pillow, light a scented candle, get a plant or sit near a window.
• Dress for success, whether that means comfy clothes or a business suit.
• Take many short breaks to stay focused or take the entire 15 minutes away from your workstation to re-energize.

We’re all different so find what works for you and do it!

Assess your risk of burnout

Remember your well-being is important. Disconnect from your stress and not from your life. As soon as you experience exhaustion or serious stress, recognize it’s time to take a step back.

Identify the source, detach from it, rest and refocus. When you’re ready, try the burnout assessment (under Additional resources).

Accept help

You don’t have to balance work and life alone. Ask for help and accept help when it’s offered. Talking through your challenges with someone else can immediately relieve some of your stress. Whether you’re an independent professional or an employee, read the Accepting help section in the Independent professional article.

Assess where you are now

Take time to assess where you are right now. Understand your worth, your accomplishments, your energy and capacity. Once you know where you are, you can make decisions to move toward some new habits and let go of those that aren’t helpful for you. 

Welcome the insight and give yourself the opportunity to grow! Use the Assessing your current situation series of questions to help.

Start small

Take control of your work-life, start small and build your balance from there. It sounds simple and it can be. Making little changes to your work-life balance is a good start. Build with more little changes and appreciate the successes that comes. Then continue to grow at a manageable pace that’s within your control.

Build resilience

Good work-life balance can help reduce the stress in your life and support your resilience. Want to learn more about resilience? Click on this link to create your own Plan for resilience.

The bottom line: you’re only human

The bottom line is you define how you show up in the world and how you control your work-life balance. None of us will escape challenges and hardships but developing our resilience and choosing to seek balance every day can help. Remember you’re only human and basic human needs drive all behaviour. See What drives behaviour? to learn more. 

Share this with anyone who could improve their work-life balance.