The Importance of Achieving a Healthy Work Life Balance

Today I want to talk about something that’s so important, but also so often overlooked. In our computer-techno-interweb-cyber age, in a time where we as young people experience heightened stress levels due to pressures, both internally and externally imposed, the art of time management has been skewed in a way that I cannot help but feel is to benefit ‘the structure’, and less the individual who has to live within it. By this I mean, to be organised, to have your juggling act completely mastered, society and heck even you yourself likely expect you to get to all your lectures, even those dreaded 9am’s bang on time, have completed the ‘recommended reading’ (and understood it, so really that sometimes means reading it twice... okay three times), keeping your other commitments like attending the societies you are a part of, training for the sports teams you play for, meetings for college groups you are intrinsic to, all these things have to be jigsaw puzzle fit into your day, and what’s left?

We are so busy trying to fulfil all of the roles we have, that we so often neglect to leave any time for the people and relationships that we could be nurturing and developing. This is such a shame, because these personal projects, these relationships and friendships that we let down are actually the things which enhance our lives and increase our capacity to work most effectively, even though we had to invest a little bit of time in them to yield the boost to our work and studies. People are naturally sociable, so to stifle this aspect of your life, to tell yourself that you haven’t got time for this basic requirement, is to inflict and subject yourself to a space in your life that will be left wanting, no matter how you try to dress it up.

I think that this happens, that we shy away from certain facets of life because we think that it’ll take up time that we simply do not think we have to spare, that by introducing another slice into the ‘pie chart of life’ we are complicating the rest and we fear that distraction will be our downfall. I would consider myself a logical and rational person, and I have side lined things like nights out and cancelled plans before, to make sure I got that last half of an essay written, understood the next day’s tutorial topic and planned the next assignment. It is never these extra study hours spent in the library that are the positive and memorable nuggets that we take away from university life, it’s the connections which we have made, that enriched our experience in one way or another.

Don’t get me wrong, studying is important, it’s why we came to university in the first place, but life is about balance, and to achieve that, I think it is important that we make sure we fulfil both the ‘work’ and ‘life’ sides to our days.

What’s your opinion on achieving a healthy work life balance? Have you got any tips on how you achieve this? Please share them with me in the comments if you do, it’s always nice to hear what you have to say! Bilgi x