Work-life balance is an area of challenge that many clients want to address in coaching; even more now that so many of us are working from home. While we might have gained time by not commuting, the blur between work and personal life, the challenges of combining work with home schooling, the additional time needed to get things done virtually and the fear of economic recession and job losses means that many of us are working longer hours than ever and finding it almost impossible to turn off.

As a recovering workaholic, with four children home-schooling, it is a challenge I strongly identify with. Blending my personal experiences with the work I do with my clients, here are five tips that might help.

1. Focus your intentions and energy on the impact that you want to make – professionally and personally – versus an (often never-ending list of) actions that you need to take. Questions you might ask yourself include:

• What is the biggest difference that you can uniquely make at work and at home?
• Where can you involve/ delegate to others to balance the load?
• What is the single most important thing that you can do to move the business forward this week?
• What would give you, and separately those you love, the most joy this week?
• What do you need to say ‘Yes’ to and ‘No’ to in order to make this happen?

2. Recognise that you have choice. You create your own definition of a balanced life and have radical responsibility for juggling what is most important to achieve your personal vison of success and fulfilment. Identifying your vision, purpose and values are significant enablers to achieve this. Replacing “I have to/ should/ need to” with “I choose to” will also help you move from feeling burdened and constrained to purposeful and empowered.

3. Tame any perfectionist, controller, people pleaser or other saboteur that might be channelling your fear and propagating the belief that you must/ should need to …… “make everything perfect”, “do everything yourself” or “always put others first.” What evidence is there for these beliefs? Might other perspectives better serve you in achieving your goals? What if you worked on the basis of being ‘good enough’, delegating to help others grow and putting yourself first in order to better to maximise your time and better help others.

4. Create routines and personal boundaries. Particularly around technology. Research has shown that every time we are diverted by an email or social media, it takes us 15 minutes to get back up to speed on the task in hand. We can regain huge amounts of time in our day by scheduling email review slots and managing social media diversions. Stepping away from work at the end of the day can also be challenging. Many individuals have found taking time to cook food from scratch has created a new way of transitioning from work to personal time in the evening.

5. Investing in deep play. Alex Pang, author of ‘Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less’ found that taking regular breaks from intense work to do something we love leads to greater creativity and productivity at work. A huge win: win for greater future work: life balance!!

If you would like to further explore how to achieve a work: life balance that is true to your professional and personal vision, purpose and values, please message me to arrange time to talk at [email protected]