A balanced private and professional life is still possible!
Nowadays where everyone is striving so hard to be successful, various opportunities that knock on everyone’s door are wholeheartedly accepted.
Who doesn’t want a good opportunity, though?
These opportunities will definitely open more opportunities that may result to a good outcome. Everyone who wants to lead a comfortable and happy life will always hope for this positive outcome.
Majority of us always dreams to have a happy and comfortable life – not just for us but for our loved ones. Hence, we choose to always look for opportunities that will aide us and our needs – even for short-term or long-term needs.
These opportunities mostly come in the form of “work”.
We take our “work” as an opportunity and as a blessing all-in-one. That amidst the effect of pandemic in the economy and might as well with the great competition in the industry and other job-seekers, we know in our hearts that we are lucky to have our own work.
The work that we have is the initial step and leap for us to learn new things, experience other milestone, and reach greater heights for both personal and professional life. From then on, we know that we need to put extra effort in order to make it all happen.
Despite of having work is taken as a blessing; it also indeed serves as a challenge for everyone.
A professional life is not simple. It requires a lot of time, effort, understanding, and wide scope of insights and ideas in a professional manner. Being an employee or a professional is a big role to fill and stand in. As your position, decision, and performance will not just affect or benefit yourself but also with the whole team, management, and the company that you are working in.
This enters the world of pressure. The pressure of proving that you are capable of doing your job in the most possible and best way, and to ensure that everything is always in the right path even you are not present 24/7 comes after in the picture.
This pressure is inevitable as it always happen, and this may lead to a poor time and priority management.
Looking in the bigger picture, every employee or professional has still their personal life outside work. We should also admit that there are rare times that the boundary between work and your personal life has crossed over each other’s limit. This results to an unhealthy motivation to move forward.
Despite the fact that we all want to grow and achieve the best among the best things in life, the importance of work-life balance should still be prioritized. Setting boundaries between work and home such as having a healthy emotional boundaries at work and at home can be a great help to at least weigh evenly the responsibility and pressure given by both scenarios.
Knowing the limitations of your personal and professional life must be taken into consideration as much as possible. These two scenarios are both similar yet different in some ways. They both need your time, presence, efforts and such, yet these two scenarios want you to do it based on your role on the said situations.
Your personal life needs you to be just who you are. You can just rest and lay in your bed, watch your favorite movie with a chip as your snack, or do some household chores when you feel like to, and just planning your desired condo –living as you are indeed a professional now.
On the other hand, your professional life needs you to think critically with such wisdom and enthusiasm with your workloads, and it may ask you to give the best version of yourself as it will give you gratification as an employee or a professional worker under your company.
These both requires even distribution of yourself, and have you asked yourself on how do you establish healthy boundaries at work and at home? If not, try to do it.
Hence just to help you out, the following are the seven (7) tips for setting boundaries at work that may help you manage your time, effort and the like between your professional and personal life:
Seven Tips to Set Boundaries at Work
Know and Set Your Priorities
Again, the importance of work-life balance should be well-considered as both matters need your time, presence, and effort. Thus, so your best or make sure that you know your priorities. Know your top-most priorities that need to be fulfilled and attended as much as possible and other priorities that can wait for just a little bit more, then set and plan how you will do and balance it.
Be Firm with your YES or NO
There is nothing wrong in saying no or declining when you think that you deserve some time-off away from your works or personal responsibilities. When at work, you can say “NO” to not-so-urgent requests when you are on lunch break. On the other hand, you can ignore some personal chitchat with some friends when you are at work. Thus there should be healthy emotional boundaries at work and personal life --- because one’s emotional state is a big factor to the success of the company and at home.
Set Working Hours
Setting boundaries between work and home should be implemented fairly. One effective tip on how you should establish healthy boundaries at work is to set working hours. If it is an eight to five (8-5PM) or a nine to six (9-6PM) work, let them know and respect it that after those span of time, you will not engage in work-related matters and vice versa – maybe not unless it is very urgent.
Maintain a Professional Relationship
There are some colleagues where we got to be close with because of work. Still despite of this new friendship, make them know politely and respectively that it is still not that easy to let them know all about you and your personal life in a snap. Maybe you scan share some personal dreams like your preferred condo-living – that may at least strengthen your bond to each other.
Have your Personal Work System
Another tip for setting boundaries at work is to have your own work system. This means that set things or situations on your end that may give you the go signal to accept it, to decline it, to reconsider it, or to set aside it. When it comes to work-related matters, various situations may arise. So set some work system to at least know your limits and boundaries.
Even the Expectations
At first, you know your job description and as well as your salary to that. There may come a time that your workloads are way more than heavier and bigger than what your job description is, you may ask for a right compensation. This may enter the “flexibility” status, yet just to ensure that your works are still a part of “work” and not a mere “volunteering,”, make sure that you are compensated rightly.
Know your Worth
Your worth should not be left out. Your role at work and at home should not interfere your worth as a person. Avoid compensating your physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional health just to please the people around you. Prioritize yourself so you can do your job and role fairly, evenly, and happily.
