Me Time: Managing Stress and Finding Work-Life Balance

HR Corner 

In our ever changing lives, full of jam-packed schedules and fast approaching deadlines, it is easy to put our Me-Time on the back burner. Homewood Health shares some useful tips on why we need time for ourselves, what’s the cost if we don’t make Me-Time a priority and how we can obtain additional free time for ourselves.

Why do we need it?

Without quality personal time, not only will you run out of energy, slow down and be less productive, but soon you’ll find yourself underachieving in every life department, personal and professional, and your anxiety may increase exponentially. Myths around human invincibility are hard to debunk—but for most (if not all), the model is unsustainable. Several studies have shown that working long hours for extended periods of time have led to occurrences of physical and mental ailments including cardiovascular disease, anxiety and depression. As a result, fatigue, absenteeism, lower productivity and organizational turnover rates tend to increase.

How to get additional free time for ourselves

If you experience prolonged periods of time without work-life balance, it may have adverse effects on your mental and physical health. The good news is that you don’t have to find hours of daily Me-Time to reap the benefits, small daily periods are significant! Here are some tips:

• Wake up 30 minutes before the rest of your household to exercise, meditate or do something you enjoy.
• Make weekly or monthly dates with yourself: cinema night, driving golf balls, a couple of hours at the spa, etc.
• Try tracking, prioritizing and respecting your personal time as if it were as important as the time you give to family and people close to you.

Achieving work-life balance takes effort. It is important to practice work-life balance regularly to keep yourself on track with what is important in your life at that moment. With continued practice, you can create a roadmap to a life with less stress and more focus on what’s important to you.

For the full short three-minute read, please log on to www.homeweb.ca click on Tools then Workplace.  As well, remember that Homewood Health is available at 1-800-663-1142 every day of the year and the service is completely confidential.