In today’s hectic world, hustle culture calls most of us to work constantly and give our all in the workplace. We spend so much of our time in front of our desks or at our office spaces that we often forget to have a life outside of work. However, for our physical, emotional, mental, and even spiritual health, maintaining a healthy balance between our work and personal life is crucial.
A certain distance from the grind gives us the leeway to explore and develop other areas of our lives, such as relationships, hobbies, and even making our home spaces more comfortable. But what exactly does a healthy work-life balance look like?
When it comes to maintaining a balance between your professional work and personal life, it can look like different things to different people. Maybe it means not taking work calls in the middle of the night. It can also mean setting time to exercise at least three times a week before or after work. The goal is to maximize the eight-hour workday without burning out or sacrificing your health and personal relationships. A balance can also manifest in a feeling of satisfaction with what you do. Because you’re not so caught up in the little details, you get to see the bigger picture and appreciate your part in making things happen.
So, how do you achieve such a balance, if it’s possible at all? Here are a few tips:
Set Aside Time for Reflection and Prayer
One of the markers for a healthy work-life balance is a rich inner life. Meditation or prayer helps us grow our spirituality and our awareness of ourselves and our surroundings. This can be difficult to achieve if we’re too focused on our busy day-to-day work lives. That said, you can try setting reminders through applications like Muslim Pro to notify you when it’s time to disengage and focus on something outside of work. Making time for prayer, meditation, or simply sitting quietly can give your mind and body a chance to relax and recharge.
Take Your Leaves
It’s also important to know which days to take the day off. Leaves are often reserved for holidays, sickness, maternity, or other emergencies, but try taking your leave on special days that call for reflection as well. For instance, the Muslim Pro app follows the Islamic Hijri calendar, which will show the dates when to celebrate festivities or solemnities in line with the faith. If you’re a devout Muslim, mark these dates on your calendar and make the necessary arrangements so you can visit the mosque and follow other religious observances.
Rest Between Tasks
It’s normal to sometimes feel tired at work. It could be that you’ve done many tasks and you’re burning out or you feel overwhelmed by stress. Either way, such moments call for you to step back and rest. Don’t feel ashamed to literally remove yourself from in front of your computer screen and do a few stretches away from your desk. If you’re able, you can also opt to go on a short stroll to stretch your legs and clear your head.
Avoid Bringing Work Home
One mistake that most people do is to bring home their work with them. It breaks the physical boundaries of doing work at the office and dedicating your home for rest and recreation. Try to finish as much as you can in your office, but as much as possible, don’t pack your papers in your bag. Leave them on your desk to be finished for the next day or the next week, as you wouldn’t want to work on the weekends either. Saving your off-time for activities other than work can help you feel more recharged and productive once it’s time to clock in.
Get Busy Outside Work
This brings us to our next point, which is to get busy outside work. Find a hobby you really like doing, join a volunteer organization, or simply visit your grandparents on the weekends. These activities are not idle time, but rather, moments that you spend learning something new, being with loved ones, or simply getting to know yourself more. Engage with people and things outside work, you might even find that you start enjoying work more once you get back into it.
No matter how much you love your work, pouring all your time and effort into it will lead to unwanted burnout, which is detrimental to all aspects of your health. So it’s important to boost your mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health outside your monetary or personal fulfillment in a job. Uplifting other aspects of your life will help you strengthen those parts of you, and even make you appreciate your work more. These little things will ultimately make you a happier person in the long run.