What is work-life balance and why is it important?

Neglecting work-life balance when managing work can be very costly; let's see why.

One of the characteristics of how the work environment has evolved in recent decades has to do with how difficult it is to distinguish between personal and professional life.

As the years go by and we move into the 21st century, the line separating the private sphere and the work sphere becomes increasingly blurred, as if paid work were now such a flexible and malleable concept that, when we are careless, it "fills in" many of those moments of the day when we ask ourselves: "Do I have something better to do?

Faced with this new reality, and especially after the emergence of the COVID-19 crisis and the popularization of teleworking, it is more necessary than ever to take into consideration what is known as work-life balance. Let's see what it is and some tips for managing it.

What is work-life-balance?

As its name suggests, work-life-balance is the situation of balance between the time and resources devoted to work. balance between the time and resources devoted to paid work on the one hand, and the time and resources devoted to everything else on the other.. It is therefore a necessary element both for knowing how to establish a consistent pattern of paid work and, in the medium and long term, to ensure living conditions capable of providing physical and psychological well-being, and in which it is possible to maintain healthy and functional social relationships.

Thus, those with a good work-life balance not only manage the time they spend "officially" working the necessary hours, but they also have a good work-life balance.In addition, they have access to family reconciliation, the possibility of being part of the social fabric (through relationships with friends, neighbors, etc.) and have adequate rest and leisure time to be happy.

In short, this balance between what is worked for money and what is done in other areas of life cannot be solved by simply blurring the first of these elements, making overtime pass for moments of rest (for example, working from the laptop while watching a movie at night) or disguising networking or customer service situations under the illusion that they are social relationships of friendship.

A good work-life-balance implies, among other things, that it is possible to clearly distinguish between these two spheres of life..

Why is it important to take this into account when managing time and resources?

Knowing how to establish a good work-life balance is important for a number of reasons related to both personal well-being and power relations, but three reasons stand out.

1. Without clear guidelines and boundaries, work tends to be all-encompassing.

Parkinson's law says that "work expands to cover all available time", and something similar occurs specifically in the work context: if the time we devote to paid work is not clearly delimited and the amount of resources we can spend on it throughout the day and week is not established in advance, it is easy that, without our realizing it, we can easily become overburdened with our work, it is easy that, without us realizing it, it extends to cover all the times when we are not clear about what to do..

This is especially true in countries like Spain, which is known for having a large number of self-employed workers considering its active population. Many self-employed workers tend to self-exploit, partly due to job insecurity, but in other cases it is because they do not know how to measure their time and do not realize the habits of life that generate discomfort and dependence on work.

2. Physical and psychological well-being requires this balance

Having an unbalanced life in which work covers everything not only introduces us into a spiral of constant search for better results; it also wears down our physical and psychological well-being.

Anxiety problems and occupational burnout are among the most common forms of emotional distress in such situations, as are medical complications arising from work-related stress.The same applies to the medical complications derived from this unhealthy lifestyle: joint problems due to staying in the same posture for too long, being overweight because we do not have time to cook, etc.

3. It is necessary to live beyond our responsibilities

Many people believe that work-life balance consists of managing time devoted to paid work and work at home or related to raising children. But this is a mistake: this balance should include moments of leisure and rest dedicated to oneself, as well as informal social situations, which do not seek a specific purpose beyond being in the company of others. Otherwise, we will become more and more isolated..

What to do?

So far, we have already looked at several key ideas that help to recognize possible problems with regard to work-life balance. First of all, ambiguity when it comes to setting schedules makes it easy for companies (or ourselves as self-employed) to demand overtime on the grounds that "you have nothing better to do".This can be exacerbated in contexts such as the coronavirus pandemic, where work is done via an Internet-connected computer that is almost always accessible.

Secondly, some people make the mistake of assuming that they do not spend excessive time at work because they are able to access the resources to stay alive in the short term, without realizing that this way of working causes physical and psychological problems to appear little by little, in a more subtle way than the simple deprivation of what they need. than the simple deprivation of what a salary can buy, which makes it more complicated to detect that something is wrong.

Thirdly, we must not fall into the error of believing that work-life balance is only about family reconciliation. The fact that each person, by virtue of the fact that he or she is a parent, should be able to have time to devote to him or herself, without always having to justify this by appealing to specific responsibilities.

Now then, However, moving from words to practice when it comes to managing the work-life balance is not as easy as keeping these conclusions in mind.You have to act accordingly. And to achieve this, it may be necessary to enlist the help of friends, family or psychology professionals. After all, it is easy to fall, without realizing it, into routines and habits of self-sabotage that lead us to behave in a way contrary to what we believe: "I deserve time, but just this month it is very important that I strive to get that promotion", "I do not rest enough, but I can not say no to my boss," etc..

Are you interested in professional psychological support?

If you are looking for psychological assistance services in person or online, I invite you to contact me. I am a psychologist specialized in the cognitive-behavioral model and I attend both individuals and companies, intervening in cases of anxiety management problems and other emotions, the need to learn to manage conflicts or to communicate in a more assertive way, or the lack of time management skills, among other problems. You can avail of my services both in person in Madrid and through video call sessions.