We might be on our tedious quest to finish work, achieve goals, and discover or invent better solutions, but all that may lag until you can manage to strike a perfect health-work-life balance. 72% of people say that while looking for a job, work-life balance is something they consider.
If you’re wondering how that’s possible in today’s highly competitive environment, we’ve got you covered!
To understand the evolution of telecom, let us take a glance at the role of IT in the telecom industry.ls alone. It is a core commitment that permeates from the long-term vision of the company to every individual across the hierarchy.
Firstly, let’s tackle the question – What is Health-Work-Life Balance?
Work-life balance is a common topic but what does health add to this? Being able to contribute to all 3 aspects- health, work, and life – without hindering each other in any manner is the key to striking a proper balance.
This simply doesn’t mean dividing our time precisely 33.33% between all three! It implies, being able to comfortably fulfill the important duties within each aspect without having to compromise on your fulfillment and contentment. In simpler words, it means being able to focus on finishing your work deadlines without canceling plans with friends and family or letting go of your lifestyle or daily routine to ensure a healthy mind, body, and soul. Sounds like a lot to do in 24 hours? But, it’s completely possible!
Let us look at a fictional yet very real-world corporate situation.
Adam is a Project Lead in a very prestigious IT firm. A priority project has been rolled out and is in its final stages of completion. Suddenly, one morning Adam falls violently sick and cannot work even from home. A mail to that effect is sent to the reporting manager and team members.
The subsequent cascade of events chronicles the most common response to such situations across enterprises.
1. The Project Manager is in a fix over a few sensitive project details managed by Adam and now, must request access to it.
2. The team members are in a fix over challenges best resolved by Adam.
3. The project timeline may be delayed and this prospect has instilled a state of overwhelm and concern in the team.
4. The consequent budgetary overspill is becoming a critical factor.
5. Not to mention the client’s and stakeholder’s displeasure.
6. The result is – frequent and frantic phone calls and messages that Adam has to attend to and address; leaving him even more fatigued and slowing down his recovery.
Questions we must ask ourselves:
● Given that Adam’s team has been informed, that he is ill and cannot work, is it ethical to disturb him frequently and not let him rest and recuperate?
● Is it right to pressure Adam into attending to all the team member’s frantic calls and messages?
● Most importantly, shouldn’t there be a system where, the dependency is distributed, so if one member is unavailable, work does not stop?
● We have project management tools that can help in such situations. Hence, shouldn’t organizations consider investing in them?
● Will it not make everything so much easier and help Adam recover faster to resume work at the earliest?
This brings us to a very vital understanding – Health must be prioritized. And as dated as this may sound – Health is Wealth! Once, this aspect is taken care of, rest (work-life) becomes easier. This is the essence of Health-Work-Life Balance.
Can I Have A Perfect Health-Work-Life Balance?
While there’s no steadfast, universal answer to keeping different aspects of your life in equilibrium, there are simple things we can do to ensure that we’re giving enough to different parts of our day to maintain stability.
77% of employees have experienced burnout at least once in their current jobs. So, here are 5 tips to help you get started:
1. Don’t try to multitask : Never juggle between multiple things at once, especially since they’re parts of different aspects. This will not only create confusion and blur the boundaries but also reduce your efficiency.
2. Always Prioritize : Your health comes first and foremost. Only in your healthy state can you fix any problems presented at work or in your personal and social life. Keeping that in mind, don’t put away that doctor’s appointment! It’s not worth it.
3. Learn the Eisenhower Matrix : Characterize all that you have in a 2 x 2 table based on importance and urgency. This way, if you’re ever in a pinch, you can easily see what’s not necessarily time-bound or outstandingly important.
4. Lose the aim to achieve perfection : Perfection is only an illusion you can chase after indefinitely, especially in the modern world with so much to do and so many people to please. Hence, focus on your contentment and use that as your guide to health, work, and personal/social life.
5. Find hacks to help : An easy way to ensure continuity at work is using project management tools that let your superiors know the status of your work without having to contact you or disrupt other aspects. There are several project management tools in the market like – Trello, Asana, etc. Identify the one that caters to your needs and leverage its benefits.
If you think, you’ve got it all sorted and already have a perfect health-work-life balance, let’s check if you truly do.
How do you know you have a proper Health-Work-Life Balance?
Ask yourself the following questions:
1. Do I worry about work at home and vice versa?
2. Have I skipped hours of sleep or meals to push through deadlines?
3. Am I compromising my self-care time to be with others?
If your answer to any of these questions, even made you think about saying ‘maybe’, you need to rethink your priorities!
It’s essential to understand that there’s no consistency when it comes to balancing these different aspects. One moment you might have everything under control, the next everything might come crumbling down.
The key to maintaining the balance is constant monitoring and ensuring that there are no overlaps. Another factor that must be mentioned and this article would be incomplete without it is – human nature. How we are always more inclined to keep comparing with others, even if we are at different stages of our journey in life or work. Let’s discuss this.
Peer Pressure
Like every other good thing, all parts of our lives are constantly subject to comparison. There’s no doubt that instances like your superior hosting weekly parties, your colleague training for a triathlon, or your friend getting a promotion may cloud your thoughts, at least for a major chunk of the working population!
With that in mind, you must understand, your journey is unique and no one besides you, can set your limits. At Techwave, we ensure productivity as well as employee well-being by ensuring this for each of our employees. We believe that the employer-employee relationship is the key to our success and, we also, invest in technologies and tools that encourage health-work-life balance.