How to Have a Better Work-Life Balance

When you're in your 20s, getting caught up in the hustle and bustle of life is easy. You're establishing yourself professionally, and finding time to care for yourself can be challenging. Most millennials deal with this by multitasking, trying to do everything at once, so they don't miss out on anything but that approach is not sustainable for long. As a result, we end up stressed out, burned out, and falling ill due to stress-related illnesses like insomnia or depression.

This is not sustainable, and it's a big reason why many millennials leave their jobs after just a few years. In this article, we'll look at how you can better balance work and life so that you feel more satisfied with your career and less stressed out by what's happening outside of work.

1. Set Boundaries

You can't change the world or even the people in it, but you can control how much you let them into your life. Setting boundaries is not just about telling people what they can't do or say; it's also about telling them what they should do and say. For example, if someone is trying to pressure you into doing something at work that doesn't feel safe or right for you (and never will be), then set a boundary that says "no" loud and clear.

Setting boundaries for yourself is often more difficult than setting them for others because sometimes it means saying no to yourself when we'd rather say yes—or maybe even getting mad at ourselves for saying no! But the more we practice setting boundaries with ourselves and with others, the easier it becomes to recognize which things are good ones worth keeping around vs. which things are bad ones worth letting go of.

2. Take Breaks

Take a break every hour. It's common for us to spend long periods working without taking breaks, but it's important to remember that this is not healthy or sustainable. So instead, take a short break every hour (20 minutes at most), and then take a longer break after 3 hours (a minimum of 30 minutes).

Don't spend too much time on social media. Social media can be addictive, so you'll want to limit how much time you spend with it. This can be hard if you're checking Facebook several times an hour while working—and who isn't? But try your best to keep up with these habits only during breaks; otherwise, your productivity will suffer in the long run.

3. Collaborate With Your Coworkers

The primary key to success in the workplace is collaboration. Collaborating with your coworkers is an excellent method of balance in your work life because you have someone else to take part and share the weight of assignments. If you receive a large amount of work that you can't do alone, ask for help from a coworker who may be able to finish the job with you. This will make your workload more manageable, and you won't be alone in getting everything done. If you're only given one assignment at a time, you can always ask for help if it seems to be too much work.

You may be astonished by how much easier it is to complete a project when you have a partner. This is because the weight of the work is lessened by having two people working on it and sharing responsibility.

4. Get Organized

One thing to remember when trying to balance your work and life is that you want to be organized. The ability to stay organized will allow you to focus on more important things and realize what is happening in your life. Keeping track of all these things lets you stay on top of everything. With that said, here are some tips for staying organized:

• Keep a planner where you can write down all your appointments and meetings.
• Have a place to keep track of bills, payments, etc. This will help you out in avoiding any delays in payment of fees or other penalties.
• Set aside time every day for planning, organizing, and analyzing. This will support you to stay on track and know what needs to be done.
• Keep a calendar organized by month, week, day, and hour. This will help you see how much time is left in your day.
• Use an electronic organizer or mobile device to keep track of all your appointments and meetings.

5. Make a Daily To-Do List

If you're like the majority group of people, you find that your to-do list is never-ending. You can't possibly get everything done in a day, and the longer it gets, the more anxious you become about doing all those things. So start making a daily to-do list to calm those nerves and ensure you get everything done on your list.

To do this correctly:

Focus on one task at a time. If you try to do two or three things at once (often, this is necessary), nothing will get finished. The key here is to focus on accomplishing one thing before moving on to the next step of your plan for completing this task.

Prioritize tasks based on importance rather than urgency or difficulty level. This way, when something more urgent comes up later in the day, it won't interfere with finishing other tasks off of your list first that may have taken longer than expected but still need to be completed before taking care of another item that might not have been an as high priority but still needed attention nonetheless.

This way, even if something comes up unexpectedly, there's room left over without sacrificing any essential duties first, so nothing falls through the cracks or gets forgotten later down the road when needed most urgently.

Conclusion

Ultimately, there's no set-in-stone way to balance work and life. You have to do what suits and works for you. Keep in mind that it may take time before you find a system that works well for your lifestyle, so don't get frustrated if things aren't going as smoothly as they could be at first. Remember that the most essential thing is to keep working on finding ways to improve your balance—and having fun!