"Work/Life balance" has become a phrase which is being used everywhere these days. Wherever you see, in corporates, in newspapers etc.

Almost every individual in professional career strive to achieve this balance. But what is exactly a healthy balance that people strive to achieve. To each his own but by and large we can say that a healthy balance is when we are able to meet our deadlines at work while still having time for family, friends and hobbies. having enough time to sleep properly and eat well. Also when we don't worry about our work when we are at home. Isn't it?

In a society filled with conflicting responsibilities and commitments, work/life balance has become a predominant issue in the workplace. Three major factors contribute to the importance of work-life balance:

• Personal Factors : Positives - high confidence, hobbies, good diet etc. Negatives - poor social skills, health issues etc.
• Organizational factors: Positives - work flexibility, friendly manager etc. Negatives - Work overload, strict targets, rules, policies, professional rivalry etc.
• Social Factors: Positives - family support, good system of govt etc. Negatives - Unsupportive family, patriarchal norms, culture, societal rules etc.

All of these above, contribute positively as well as negatively to W/L balance. Work life balance is a cycle and we need to constant appraise ourselves and see whether we are balanced. What can be done to keep ourselves steady and balanced.

These are some things that we could do:

Self Evaluation

Ask these questions to yourself and self evaluate yourself :

• I am doing a lot of work. Am I happy?
• If not what is causing me stress?
• Is this stress affecting my job / personal life?
• What is a miss then?
• Am I setting my priorities right?
• Or Am I not able to?
• What are the things that Am I Sacrificing (unknowing )?
• Where Am I over compensating and is it worth the stress that is caused to me?

Understand your Emotions

It is also very important to know and understand your emotions. It is also very important to identify how a situation makes you feel because that only will determine the changes you want to make in your work or in your life.

Understand your Priorities

We need to understand how our priority needs to be adjusted. Our priorities are not a constant, they change according to many external and internal factors. So we should be aware to correctly determine what is my priority today and reprioritise.

Example: A person was very ambitious and really wanted to climb up fast the corporate ladder. Then after joining work for two years he got married and then he thought that apart from achieving his ambitions, he also wants to spend time at home. Later in another two years, his wife gave birth to a girl. Now for this persons still ambitions were important, but spending humanoid bonding with his daughter was also important.

This shows that there is constant shift in priorities and we need to accommodate these shifts and changes and realign our roles, so that we are in balance.

Plan Alternatives

This is very pertinent thing to do. Before getting into something we need to foresee what are the various alternatives and how this can be achieved. What needs your first attention? What can wait ? Planning things accordingly.

Here again Urgent/ Important Quadrant comes into picture:

1. Important and urgent : Do it right away

2. Important but not urgent : Plan it as you have time.

3. Not important but urgent : delegate

4. Not important and not urgent : Can be pushed, can wait and if need be can be eliminated.

Time to Act

Finally, once you’ve recognized your priorities and carefully considered the options that could help you improve, it’s time to take action. Sometimes we keep planning only do not act at all. We are afraid to take steps and changes and keep procrastinating our plans. Implementation is the key. This shows our adaptability and flexibility.

Lifestyle Changes

Sometimes more than structure or routines its important to make certain lifestyle changes. These changes when incorporated will definitely make you more empowered. Some of them are:

1. Exercising and yoga

2. Meditation

3. changes in diet and mindful and right eating habits.

4. Learning to plug or unplug to technology, social media and chats.

5. Learning to do something for yourself. Say what you like, gardening, painting etc.

6. Self love and taking care of self.

As a closing line to this, would I like to quote:

"Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life" DOLLY PARTON, singer