Mastering the Art of Work-Life Balance: Navigating the Digital Age's Demands
Now more than ever, people are working from home. In fact, USA Today reports that just over a third of workers in the United States who can work remotely do so all the time and 41% are at least part-time remote.1
While that certainly brings lots of benefits, it can also make maintaining a work-life balance even more difficult. It’s almost like there is this “grind never stops” mentality which ironically makes a balance all the more important and needed.
Why is Balance Important?
Balance is important in every part of life, but especially when it comes to your work versus life. Why? Because you will work on average 90,000 hours in your lifetime, which means approximately 1⁄3 of your life is spent working.2 And when you don’t have balance, you end up working even more.
A lack of work-life balance leads to feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, and stressed. It also leads to burnout and lower productivity. These all bleed over into every other area of your life—your marriage, relationships, mental and physical health, spiritual life, joy, etc.
Work-Life Difficulties in the Digital Age
Work-life balance has always been a challenge for workers across the country, but what specific difficulties does the digital age bring about? Let’s find out!
#1 – Lack of Boundaries with Remote Work
While work-from-home setups offer numerous benefits, there’s often difficulty in distinguishing between work and home life while working remotely. Before, you would’ve likely left your laptop, meeting notes, and work files at the office and come home to a relatively work-free space.
But now, your laptop, files, and notes are all at home in the same place where you eat, spend time with friends and family, relax, reset, fill up, etc. Because of this, it’s easier to sneak in an extra email during dinner or make edits to your presentation after the kids go to bed. Meaning that the time that you should be spending at home, away from work, finds you still working. Some businesses and bosses even think you’re reachable 24/7 now because of working remotely.
#2 – Rise in Connectivity
Similar to above, technology has made us more connected which is great in some aspects, but not when you’re trying to take a break from work and live your life. We’ve become more reachable which could mean people try to reach you more or you feel the need to connect with others at work at all times—even while lying in bed or watching a movie with your friends.
There once was a time you couldn’t be reached except in the office; then, only by email which was something most people didn't have access to at home. Or if/when they did, it was on a desktop, not right with them. But now, with cell phones, we have texting, calling, and email at our fingertips at all times.
The more connected we are shouldn’t mean the more time we spend connecting at or about work. Remember, connecting with other people and aspects of your life that you enjoy is just as, if not more, important.
#3 – Striving for Perfection
The obsession with perfection doesn’t just apply to working during our digital age, but it is certainly enhanced by it…and not in a positive way. The digital age we live in has made work, data, numbers, research, and solutions more available than ever. So, bosses and employees might think that perfect or near-perfect work is actually somehow attainable (they forget that we are still human) if they only worked harder, longer, did more, etc.
When people strive for perfection in their work, either self-induced or for fear of losing their job, it causes negative effects—stress overload and constant negative self-talk. It also creates a lifestyle where work doesn't leave your mind and therefore your mind never stops and has no time to relax or focus on other things.
All of which, you guessed it, carries over to our everyday lives as well. This could lead to striving for perfection in other areas of life, believing you’re a failure, reacting negatively in relationships, draining joy from our hobbies, and more. Remember, work so you can afford and enjoy your life and even have purpose, but don’t make your entire life about working.
#4 – Information Overload
The digital age and the digitalization of much of our lives means that there is so much information at our fingertips…literally when we’re holding our phone or the mouse of a computer. We have access to texts, emails and calls, the web to search for something, websites, blogs, and threads, social media and other news places, apps to order food, take notes, schedule appointments, and so much more.
All of this can lead to cognitive fatigue that overwhelms us with all the messages vying for our very short attention spans (it’s less than a goldfish, people!). This can make it difficult to feel or be present in other areas and activities of your life as well.
Solutions to Work-Life Difficulties in the Digital Age
#1 – Lack of Boundaries → Create Strong Boundaries
Here are our tips to overcome the difficulties of lacking boundaries while working from home:
- Do your absolute best to separate your work and living spaces and not mix the two — for example, try to keep your desk out of your bedroom
- Set and communicate working/reachable hours and non-working/unreachable hours with your team
- Learn to say ‘no’
- Put your phone away, shut down the laptop, hide it out of sight—do whatever you need to do to stick to your boundaries
#2 – Rise in Connectivity → Make Time to Disconnect
Tips to overcome the difficulties of being more connected:
- Make time to disconnect from work and technology in the evenings after work, on weekends, and on vacations. Remove communication apps or work email from your phone if needed
- Learn to say ‘no’
- Take time each week to decompress and be with yourself
- Add in other areas of your life where you connect with yourself, with others, and with things you love. In other words, make sure you’re making time for things besides work
Remember, connection can be a good thing if it’s used in a healthy, balanced way!
#3 – Striving for Perfection → Let Go of Pressures
Life is full of pressures to perform and sometimes even be perfect, which is humanly impossible.
- Know that you’re going to make mistakes—so give yourself grace
- Remember, it’s okay to just do your best—that’s all you can do
- Working harder or longer or doing more so that it affects your life is not going to make the fear of not being perfect go away
- Consider leaving work roles or companies if you feel pressure to be obsessed with perfection
Letting go is easier said than done, but important for your mental health and work/life balance.
#4 – Information Overload → Try “Doing”Rather Than Intaking
Information—both good and bad—is all around us. If you’re intaking tons of information during work, that’s going to drain you. If you’re taking in even more after work in your life, that’s going to drain you even more.
- Practice spending time “doing” which could look like moving your body, getting outside, hanging out with friends, creating art like music or painting
- Take breaks throughout your work day too to break up meetings, work, and information intake
Remember, it’s okay to put work down and not get caught up in all the access you have to information to live your life. Even if others don’t. As long as you keep doing the job you were hired and asked to do, it’ll be worth it in the end.
Conclusion
Now more than ever, people are working from home. While the digital age has made work-life balance tough, it’s not impossible. We guarantee you resonated with some of these challenges, but we hope that the solutions we offered brought you new ideas to try so that you too can create a healthy work-life balance.
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