Imagup General Magazine 2024
It’s not easy striking a balance between our professional and personal lives. We live in a world in which most American adults are juggling multiple responsibilities, including work, family, friends, and many other things. And the fact is, there are only 24 hours in a day, so if we prioritize one thing, the others slide.
When different areas of our lives start to slide, fall by the wayside or get generally ignored, we begin to feel pressured. An assignment handed in late, a missed soccer game, or a pile of laundry the height of Kilimanjaro — these kinds of things can throw us off-kilter and create a situation in which we’re living in constant stress.
The Physical and Emotional Toll of Stress
When we live in a perpetual state of stress, it takes a toll on our minds and bodies. Stress has been shown to cause headaches, heart problems, skin irritation, upset stomach, chest pains, sleep issues, elevated blood pressure, anxiety, and depression. These are serious medical issues, so if it’s possible to reduce stress in our lives, we need to do it. And fast.
Here are 5 tips for maintaining a healthy work-life balance and reducing stress:
1. Have set hours for work
Many people feel the need to be on call 24/7, but that’s not healthy for anyone. Unless you’re the CEO of a major company, chances are your work will be able to wait until the next morning. So make sure to set clear boundaries with your boss (“I don’t check work emails after 6:00 pm) and then enforce them, kindly but firmly.
2. Prioritize
Make a list of priorities and stick with them. The list can change from day to day, week to week, or month to month, but if you don’t have a clear idea of what’s the most critical, you’re likely to spend time on less-important things and then lose balance.
3. Minimize travel time
If you have the option to work from home on certain days of the week, take it. Working from home eliminates travel time and gives you more time to spend on essential things. The same is true for meetings — why meet face-to-face when you can have a video call on Skype or WhatsApp?
4. Adjust expectations
If you expect to have a spotless home while you work full time, have three kids, and don’t have a cleaner, you may need to adjust your expectations. Similarly, don’t expect to hobnob with the CEO if you miss the company’s Happy Hour and Christmas party. When reality falls short of our expectations, we get stressed, so the trick is to create realistic expectations that match our list of priorities.
5. Don’t lose hope
When work and life seem so overwhelming, it’s easy to fall into despair and wonder whether you’ll ever achieve a balance that works. But be careful — losing hope can be a self-fulfilling prophecy and can make it much harder to achieve the work-life balance you so desire. If you maintain a positive attitude, there is a much better chance that you’ll be able to persevere.
An Additional Perk of Achieving a Work-Life Balance
Achieving a work-life balance that you’re happy with can result in a less-stressed, healthier you. Additionally, you’ll find that the healthier you are, the lower your life insurance premiums will be. This is because most life insurance carriers take your health into account during the underwriting process, so if you have health problems, you’ll be quoted a higher premium.
This is true across the board, for traditional life insurance and no exam life insurance about which you can read on sproutt.com. When you achieve a healthy, balanced state, you’ll not only feel great, but you’ll also save money on life insurance.
Making Health a Priority, One Step at a Time
How can you make health a priority amidst the chaos of daily life? Start slowly. Pick one area to work on — one that you’ll have an easy time incorporating into your life — and focus solely on that. You can choose healthy meal prep, exercising for 10-30 minutes a day, going to sleep an hour early, or anything else that you’ve meant to do but haven’t gotten around to.
When you start with one small thing, your chances of sticking with it are much more likely. Once you’ve incorporated your new habit into your daily or weekly routine for a few months, you can then move on to tackle something new.
The Easiest Thing You Can Do to Take Care of Your Health
Changing old habits or incorporating new ones can be difficult, but there’s one other straightforward way that you can take care of your health. Buying life insurance at a relatively young age means that your loved ones will be covered in case the worst happens, whether it’s health-related or an accident. This means that you’ll have one less thing to worry about, one less burden to carry throughout your day.
But isn’t buying life insurance just another responsibility that you don’t have time for? Perhaps in the past, it used to be a full-day endeavor, but today, buying life insurance is incredibly easy.
Applying for a traditional policy can be done almost entirely online, barring the medical exam. And if you don’t have time for a medical exam, you can buy no exam life insurance, and that process can be done entirely online. The latter is an especially good option for business people who are struggling to find enough hours in their day to take care of all their responsibilities. Applying for no exam life insurance takes only minutes, and approval can happen within days.
If you’re someone who struggles to find the right balance between life and health, getting life insurance should be your priority. Being healthy refers to both body and mind, and when you have life insurance, you have peace of mind. Once you’ve taken care of life insurance, you can move on to tackle other areas, like eating healthy, exercising, and getting enough sleep. It’s hard work, but when you do it, achieving your desired health-life balance is nothing short of amazing.
