Guest post by Paul Gilbert
We live in a career-centered and fast-paced society where almost everyone wants to excel in their field and be the best employee. In order to grab that promotion, some tend to stay longer hours in the office, to the point that they sacrifice their social and personal life. They are too focused on their work that they no longer have the time to spend with their kids at home; they become alienated with their friends, and lost their human and social connection. You do not have to sacrifice your personal life just to become successful in your chosen field. After all, if you became too tired and exhausted and got yourself in an injury caused by over fatigue, you may not be able to afford to hire a worker’s comp attorney. Having a balanced life is not impossible if you take these things into practice.
1. Time Management
You do not have to work hard, you just have to work smart. Being an effective and productive employee means able to complete the task within the allotted office hours. Create a plan every day and prioritize your tasks. Create a check list, do first the most challenging task at the start of your day so that you still have all the energy and focus. Learn how to efficiently use your time so that you would not have to extend more hours.
2. Knowing Yourself
You are the captain of your universe so make sure that you know your strength and limitation. Do not accept that task just to impress your boss if you know that you are not skilled to do the said task. If you invest in the tasks that you are highly-skilled of, you will be able to finish work promptly and efficiently.
3. Respecting your Boundaries
Know your limits. If you are pretty confident that you do not have any talent at website designing and you feel that there is nowhere in the world that you can learn how to do it, do not accept the said assignment. You will just spend endless wasted hours trying to accomplish something that you are not capable of. Instead, capitalize on your skills to maximize your potential.
4. Being Social
A happy employee is more productive than a stressed one. They are known to be able to cope with stress better and deliver the work better. So take time to socialize to your co-worker. Also make sure that you maintain a healthy social relationship with your family and friends. Do not spend too much time at the office, instead call a friend or loved one and go watch a movie or just simply have a good laugh over a cup of coffee.
5. Work Management
You do not need to be a super hero and do all the jobs. Learn to allocate the tasks to your co-workers. You could assign the other minute task to the other team members so that you could focus on more important tasks. Delegate the tasks properly.
6. Enjoy Weekends
Use the weekend as an opportunity to refresh yourself from a toxic week. Go out of town, smell the fresh air, go to the beach or just simply reconnect with friends and family. You would be eager to face the new week ahead if you have taken a break and rejuvenated yourself.
7. Family Time
No matter how you love your work and your officemates, they will not be there for you during hard times. Your family is your core so make sure that you prioritize them. Be present for your family, have meals together, read a story to your kids before they go to sleep, spend a lot of quality time. No matter how successful you are in your career would be useless if you have a broken family.
8. Be open about your needs
Everyone has different kind of needs which makes us human. Some need affection, while others need to be recognized and rewarded. Know your needs and be honest about it. If you know what the things that you need in life are, you would have direction and structure. It is the nature of every human species to satisfy their needs so recognize those needs and work hard to get it. Reach out to people that could help you meet your needs, say if you need to vent out after a hard and stressful day at work, find someone who would be willing to listen. Some people find other outlet if their needs are not met. They would work very hard and make sure that they excel in their profession to compensate their failure when it comes to their personal relationship.
9. Use the OFF button
Even machines need to rest or else they would overheat and eventually would stop functioning. It is very unhealthy to spend at least 12 hours at the office everyday just to meet the deadline. Our body needs rest for it to function to its optimum. Get at least 8 hours of sleep daily, eat healthy foods and do not skip meals, take a vacation from time to time. If you feel that you are already overwhelmed with the pressure and work load, you can go out of the office and take a deep breath, look at the clear blue sky and the lovely flowers, listen to your pick-me-up song or just anything that you do to take the stress away and reprogram yourself.
10. Yes, you can say NO.
We all have the desire to please everybody. Saying Yes, when we clearly want to say No, is the most common reason why a lot of people are burned out and exhausted. Feeling pressured to say Yes to your boss all the time just to please him? Feeling guilty to say no to that cute co-worker even though you’re already swamped with your own tasks? Though most of us would say YES to almost anything, it is never wrong to say NO. Object in a nice and polite manner, you may or may not provide a reason for the decline and empower the other person to do the task themselves.
11. Be Honest with Yourself
We all have the need to be socially accepted and loved. Some would put up a façade because they are afraid that people will not like them if they show their real selves. They have lost touch with their identity which is why they would do whatever it takes to please everyone. Feeling the need to volunteer in the unnecessary task of sorting all the files because you think that they would like you if you do most of the work for them? Scared of being deemed unworthy if you turn down your boss’s request to extend more hours at the office? When you know yourself very well and has a strong sense of yourself, it would not matter what other people would think of you. You would focus your time and energy on other important matter rather than spending more unnecessary extended hours.
Career growth and success are very important, but it should not hinder you from having a socially balanced life. Why limit yourself to just one aspect of your life where you are successful when you can have the best of both worlds? Live a happy, healthy and productive life by making sure that your professional and personal life is well-balanced.
Paul Gilbert is a professional blogger, enthusiast who loves to write on several niche including Insurance, Personal Injury, workers comp attorney, Workers’ Compensation & Social Security Disability. He is also a part-time consultant providing best solutions & support to injured workers for claiming workplace injury benefits under Workers’ Compensation.
