Career Insight

3 Tips for Maintaining a Healthy Work-Life Balance

work life balance

 Ah, yes, the ever-elusive work-life balance — finding the perfect state of equilibrium between your professional life and your personal life. Sounds blissful, right?

If you tend towards the cynical, you may think it’s impossible to create this kind of balance, and we get it. Life is busy, expensive, and moves fast. But we invite you to drop your assumptions about work-life balance for the next few minutes.

At Kenzie, we always support doing what you need to do to support your mental health and self-care while also slaying it (yaaas) in your career. After all, you can’t have one without the other.

With Professional Wellness Month upon us, we’re taking some time to examine the ways we can find more harmony in our careers and our lives. Follow these tips to maintain a healthy work-life balance this June and all year long.

Let go of the myth that you need to do it all 

Why not kick off Professional Wellness Month by dropping the desire to be perfect? While this is easier said than done, it’s not impossible. Perfectionism most often rears its ugly head in our work lives and can leave us striving to be better and do better all the time. This ultimately leaves us more exhausted than ever and our work suffers as a result.

When we let go of the desire to be perfect, we create space to nurture our greatest work of all, ourselves. And, when we have time to lean into and enjoy our human experiences, we’re able to show up less stressed, more creative, and more focused in all areas of our lives. We can’t do it all, but we can be the best humans, employees, partners, parents, friends, and family members we can be when we take some of the unnecessary pressure off ourselves.

Restructure what’s not working 

If you already struggle with maintaining a healthy work-life balance, you may need to restructure your days. Step back and assess your schedule. Check in with your mental and physical state.

Ask yourself:

Am I running on fumes? 

How much caffeine am I taking in each day? 

Is work causing me to miss out on important life events? 

How do I feel? 

Am I unplugging regularly? 

Chances are if you’re running yourself ragged and not taking time for basic self-care, you’ll need to restructure some things. Maybe it’s something as small as going to bed a little bit earlier or telling your boss you can’t stay at work past 5 p.m. Whatever it is, do it because your physical, emotional, relational, and mental health depend on a healthy work-life balance.

Ask your employer how they plan to support work-life balance

Let’s face it. Not all jobs are created equal which means not all employers are either. When it comes to work-life balance, some employers care more than others. If you’re lucky enough to have a boss that truly cares about your well-being, congrats! You’ve hit the jackpot. If you’ve found yourself in a company that doesn’t provide much time off, isn’t flexible enough for your lifestyle needs, or is just generally toxic (read our tips on how to spot a toxic workplace here), it may be time to high tail it out of there.

But before you make any hasty decisions, ask your employer what actions they’re taking or policies they’re implementing to better support employee work-life balance. Professional Wellness Month is happening now and it’s the perfect time to have these conversations in your office. You could even ask how your boss plans to honor employee wellbeing during the month. We recommend a virtual disco (but it’s up to you).


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