Written by Jerome Arandez, student at the Carlton College of Sport.

Feeling tired after work? Struggling to find time for a social life? This article could be all you need to change that. Here are some useful tips to manage your work-life balance.

Organisation

The key to maintaining a healthy work life balance is to be organised. Organisation can include things as simple as setting up a planner and schedule to prioritize your tasks that need to be achieved. Setting up a planner to stick to will leave less stress on your mind and sticking to your work hours is vital otherwise you may find yourself working till the later hours of the night. Having a set routine to stick to is vital so you feel motivated and not go off task.

Exercise

Making exercise a must is a key component in releasing those endorphins, so when you do go back to work you have a healthy fresh mind. Taking 30 minutes to an hour out of your day to do some form of exercise will go a long way in living that healthy, positive life.

Planning

Meeting deadlines and leaving tasks to the last minute really drive people crazy and that builds a stressful mind. To have a stress-free mind setting out a timeline to meet those deadlines and prioritizing tasks to when they are due is the key. This could be done by simply creating a spreadsheet or a diary planner for yourself to tick off, creating that sense of accomplishment.

Personal time

Forget thinking about work and live that social life you need. It is important to go out and see your friends and family. Make some time for yourself to enjoy life and don’t feel as if it  is a reward but just living life as everyone should do. Working till you are brain dead is not healthy, so it is vital you have time on the weekends for yourself and throughout the week.

Sticking to your strengths

Everyone is different and no one is perfect. You may be the person to enjoy your sleep in or an early riser. If you are a morning person try not to set work tasks for yourself to do in the morning and vice versa if you are a night person have time to work on tasks after work. It is easy to say yes to everything but then after that you ask yourself, ‘why did I do that?’ We all want to be the best employee, but health comes first, and it is okay to say no to a task because you have plenty of tasks already assigned.

 

When you study at Carlton College of Sport you get the ability to maintain a healthy work life balance. Spending two to three days a week studying at university and participating in Carlton College of Sport extra-curricular activities such as work placement, guest lectures or industry networking seminars and then having the rest of the week to focus on your personal life is the ideal perfect balance.