What is work-life-balance? Maintaining the productivity and performing various organizational activities at workplace without much impacting the personal life on one part and fulfilling personal leisure on the other without impacting the workplace activities constitute work-life-balance. In work-life-balance both personal and organizational activities should not have major negative impacts on each other. For example, a person should not bring his family issues to the workplace as it could destroy his productivity and organizational decorum. In the same way, a person should not carry whatever work pressures he has at workplace to his home.
If you work in an organization, you may come across many different faces in the workplace. Some of them may be very cheerful; while a few of them may look sad. There may also be a group of people who are just fine, meaning they are neither too happy nor too sad and they look just normal. Interestingly, in the same organization when most of the people are doing jobs of almost the same nature, there are three distinct groups of people with regards to their happiness.
The first category of people well maintains work-life-balance and are very enthusiastic for their growth in the organization; the second, but, lacks the balance between their work life and personal life and the third one has also a well-balanced work-life, but lacks enthusiasm about growth with the current job. There are various reasons which make a person productive and happy in the workplace. In the same way, there are also number of reasons acting against one's productivity at the workplace and happiness at both home and workplace. In all the cases, work-life-balance plays a very important role. We should know how to maintain a better work-life-balance in our day-today life to lead a happy life with a rewarding career.
We should know the various aspects of family and the workplace which are essential to maintain a better work-life-balance. The below are the six keys to get a better work-life-balance:
Maintain a good relationship - We should always maintain a good relationship with all the family members and friends. Likewise, at the workplace too, the relationship with the peers, different people such as clients and from other departments whom you are dealing with is very important. For example, someone is facing a technical issue and a ticket has been raised with the IT team for resolution. The ticket can be resolved quicker had the person has someone in the IT team who knows him well and has a good professional relationship with. This is not against the ethics of work. The reason- if the person does not inform the IT colleague, his ticket would remain in the queue unnoticed for longer time even if it was mentioned that the issue is a major one. One can note here that keeping a good relationship with others can give the resultant support to achieve the top goals in life.
Get the best out of conflicts - Conflicts do happen in everyone's life- within the family and with friends and among the peers at the workplace. Conflicts can be a clash of ideas, a serious disagreement on a matter etc. The results of conflicts can be good if the arguments can lead to an acceptable positive outcome and also can be worst if the serious disagreements cannot give some rooms of acceptance among the conflicting groups. While the worst things are wiped out, the good things should be accepted. One should know that conflicts may also lead to a disturbed environment till the time a consensus is brought in. Conflicts with no room of agreement should be ignored till the time a fresh re-looking opportunity arrives. These are applicable both in the family and workplace.
Maintaining a gap - The gap between family and workplace. There should be a strictly maintained space between the family and the workplace matters. Narrate the good part of the office life to the family members to keep them happy. Try to solve the office issues at office only and avoid any discussion on such matters with the family members except when you think that the family support is very much necessary. In the same way, the family matters should be kept at home. Always avoid any discussion on family issues at office, but you can celebrate or narrate to your peers at work about some good things or achievements at home. When you discuss your family issues with the peers at the workplace, be aware that you are taking the risk damaging your image and your family as a whole. To avoid this, always respect the gap which you have kept between the family and workplace.
Knowledge - Francis Bacon said, "Knowledge is power". This is a strongly agreed statement which holds true every breath of our lives. When you gain knowledge, you have confidence; when you have the confidence, you have ability. This ability is 'power', the power to act, to speak, to sing etc. On should learn the great values, moral lessons which normally start from the elders of the family. Whatever good values, one learns should also be applied in the society. This will make a person more confident in the society. In addition to this, any person working in an organization should learn the skills which are required for him to deliver the day-to-day business of the organization in his role. The person should try to be self-reliant in all the possible ways. For example, for every case resolution of a client, if you need assistance from others most of the time, then you do not have a happy work life. There will be pressure of job loss even. This will make you more trouble in your personal life. The only solution to this embarrassment is to stop confusion, but to learn new and the important things at the earliest.
Prioritization of work - No one has enough time to complete all the tasks in his or her life. But, the most important thing in life is to accomplish those tasks which are meaningful and has a purpose for you or something which you are interested in. For example, there are millions of books in the world and I cannot read all of them. But, I can pick a few which, I think, will benefit me or I am interested to read may be because of the author or for gaining some knowledge on a specific field. All the works or tasks can be arranged in the below order in terms of their priority:
1. Urgent and important tasks
2. Not urgent but important tasks
3. Urgent but not important tasks
4. Not urgent, not important tasks
The first group of tasks should be executed quickly while focusing to complete the second priority tasks in the next. The last two groups of tasks should be avoided almost in all the possible ways except under unavoidable circumstances.
Have fun - Everybody wants to be happy. When you have fun with your friends, family members or with the peers whom you are working with, you feel happy. Happiness brings smile to everyone's face. Happiness brings peace in the family and in the workplace too. When you have some spare time off from the office works, have fun with your family members or friends. At the workplace too, no one is occupied in all the working days of the week. Nowadays, most of the organizations think of their employees' satisfaction, they organize various activities which include office parties, fun activity on the floor etc. You should participate in such activities to make you feel relieve from the workloads and feel happy. Have fun to have happiness which is one of the keys to success in life.