Why Work Life Balance is so important?

In today’s fast paced business world, the ability to achieve work life balance is becoming more and more difficult. With the constantly changing nature of work, employers expect more from staff, and we are increasingly putting additional pressure on ourselves to achieve greater results. But when did it become acceptable for our 9am to 5pm working day to become 8am to 7pm?

Despite the importance of work life balance, many of us have allowed this to happen, whether it is through conforming to the workplace culture, or feeling obliged to put in more hours. But  this should not be the case. Ever since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, more companies are reducing hours in the office and letting employees work from home. Working from home provides additional challenges in finding that work life balance.

The importance of work life balance

Maintaining work life balance is not only important for your personal health and relationships, but it can also improve the efficiency of your work performance. If you need further convincing – familiarise yourself with the below three reasons.

1. You become less susceptible to burnouts

Whilst occasional stress is normal for every job, burnouts are certainly not. According to The Help Guide, burnouts occur “when you feel overwhelmed and unable to meet constant demands”. The negative effects of a burnout can impact every area of your life, including your personal and social life.

Work life balance is important as it allows you to separate work and home, meaning that any stress that comes from work should stay at work, and not follow you home outside of office hours. Allowing work stress to infiltrate your home life is one of the primary indicators that you are not achieving a healthy work life balance. If you find that this is happening to you, we recommend you take the time to talk this over with your manager, or come up with a plan to avoid a burnout as a result of your professional demands.

Read more: The Significance of Burnout – Are you paying attention?

2.  Attention is paid where due

When you achieve a healthy balance between your work and home life, you have greater control of where you are able to focus your attention. If you leave your work at the office, your full attention can be on your home life and giving your relationships the attention that they deserve. When spending time with your partner, children or friends, your mind should be solely focused on the experience you are having, rather than thinking of work concurrently.

Similarly, if you are in the office, greater focus should be paid on the tasks at hand. In turn, this makes you a more productive and effective worker, and demonstrates one of the many benefits of achieving a work life balance.

3. You experience fewer health problems

It’s no secret that when you are run down, tired or stressed; your immune system is the one to suffer. Healthline explains that “stress can cause a variety of symptoms and can affect your overall health and wellbeing”. These can range from less serious conditions such as the flu, to more serious health issues such as respiratory or digestive problems. Either way, the fact that stress can impact your health so much is even more of a reason as to why maintaining a healthy work life balance is important.

Taking the time to look after yourself by exercising, eating well and relaxing can contribute to limiting your health problems and make you a more efficient worker during business hours.

Don’t underestimate the importance of a healthy work life balance

Work life balance is certainly a topic of debate at the moment, but do you believe that it is possible to achieve a truly  equal balance between the personal and professional spheres of your life? I’d love to hear from people both for and against the importance of separating work and home, and delve into this topic further.

This article was written by Laura Hutton on behalf of the Australian Institute of Business. All opinions are that of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of AIB. The following sources have been used to compile this article: The Help Guide and Healthline.