How to Maintain a Work Life Balance

Co-authored by Trudi Griffin, LPC, MS

Last Updated: December 21, 2024 Approved

Want a fulfilling career and a happy and healthy family life? If you want both, you need to find a balance. This means getting your priorities in order, making strategic decisions ahead of time, and making efficient use of your time.

Method 1

Method 1 of 4:

Having the Proper Mindset

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1
Decide what is important to you. Both work and family are important, so you’ll need to make conscious choices as to how you balance your time and commitments. Make a list of your work and family goals, and prioritize the ones that feel most critical and meaningful to you.
- For example, maybe you’ve always been passionate about becoming a successful engineer, and also feel like you might want to have kids someday. If reaching a certain point in your career feels more critical to you right now than starting a family, consider waiting until you’ve settled into a job you love before having kids.
2
Develop work goals. You don’t want to feel smothered by a dead-end job, do you? Think of realistic goals for yourself to achieve at work. When you succeed at work, the rewards will spill over into your family life. Work goals range from short-term to long-term. ^{[1]
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- For example, a short-term goal might be something like completing a work project within a particular timeframe, or making a small change to your office environment.
- Having a long-term goal or several will help motivate you to make the most of your time at work. Think about where you’d like to be in 5 years. If your answer is “Not in this job,” then you probably need to start thinking of strategies to help realize your long-term career goals.
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Have goals for life, too. If you have goals at home too, they can positively affect your work life. Strive for personal growth. Learn something new, whether or not it relates to your job. When you learn, your brain constantly applies new knowledge to old tasks. Most likely, you’ll begin to think of better ways of doing your job, too. ^{[2]
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- Think about long-term personal goals. Do you want to have children, get married, or move to a new area? Consider what is important to you at home and then make career decisions that will help you get there.
- It’s also important to set short-term personal goals for yourself. This could be something as simple as planning to take your kids to a movie over the weekend, or something more involved, like planning a spring cleaning week with your family.

Method 2

Method 2 of 4:

Planning Carefully

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1
Choose a line of work that will help you achieve your goals. If the work that you do is what you love, it will be much easier for you to find a good work-life balance. Pick a profession that fits well with your interests and gives you a sense of fulfillment.
- Every job comes with its set of difficulties and deadlines. If you are satisfied with what you’ve accomplished and proud of a job well done, you’ll be able to focus all of your energy on work while you are there.
- You may need to switch jobs. If your job is too demanding, not helping you meet your career goals, or paying too little to be worth your time, it may be time for a change. ^{[3]
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Think about work-life balance when planning your family. Just as you should consider how your job or career affects your family, you should also think about how your family affects your ability to meet your career goals.
- Ask questions about who should work in your family. For example, if you’re married, should you and your spouse both work? What effect, both financial and personal, will this have? How many children can we take care of, while both of you are working? Are there any other family members that you can rely on to shoulder the load?
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Assess how your job affects your other commitments. Sometimes, finding a work-life balance means more than just balancing family time with work. Consider some of the following questions:
- Does your job give you enough time to do other things that you are passionate about, like volunteering or taking classes?
- What about hobbies? Does your current job allow you to do things that make you happy outside of work?
- How far is your commute? If you choose to live further away from work, then you’ll spend that much more time every day commuting in between. Then there are the costs of maintaining a car. Consider finding a place to live that is closer to work. ^{[4]
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Method 3

Method 3 of 4:

Making the Most of Your Time

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Get organized . Use to-do lists at work and at home. Sometimes, it can be difficult to juggle all the tasks you need to finish. Create lists in order of importance. Get the most difficult or most important tasks done early in the morning, so you’ll have progressively easier tasks throughout the day.
- Don’t erase completed tasks on your to-do list. Some people scratch out or completely erase finished tasks. Many psychologists agree that you should also have a list of things you’ve completed. Doing so reminds you that you’ve been productive.
EXPERT TIP

Lauren Urban, LCSW
Licensed Psychotherapist
Lauren Urban is a licensed psychotherapist in Brooklyn, New York, with over 13 years of therapy experience working with children, families, couples, and individuals. She received her Masters in Social Work from Hunter College in 2006, and specializes in working with the LGBTQIA community and with clients in recovery or considering recovery for drug and alcohol use.

Lauren Urban, LCSW
Licensed Psychotherapist

Prioritize self-care before tackling any tasks. Your long-term motivation can drop at work when your physical or mental well-being is compromised. Instead of pushing through, gently identify what's draining your energy. Addressing these issues is the first step to regaining focus.
At the end of each day at work, write down what you need to do the next day and thoughts you have about accomplishing those goals efficiently. This way, you’ll know you can resume work easily the next morning. You’ll also feel better about leaving tasks unaccomplished.
3
Draw a line between professional and personal life. This is a very important rule that we tend to overlook or break. Sometimes, your boss or even your family may hinder your ability to strictly demarcate work time and home time. Sometimes, you will face deadlines that force you to work at home.
- Communicate your work-life boundaries clearly with your supervisors and coworkers. For example, you might let them know that you will not answer work related messages after 6 PM, and will respond to any calls or emails the next working day.
- Likewise, let your family know when you are working and establish ground rules. For example, if you work at home, ask your family members not to disturb you during a certain period of time every day, or designate a special work space where you won’t be interrupted.
- If you must take work home with you, limit your at-home work to specific hours of the day or to particular days. ^{[5]
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EXPERT TIP

Moshe Ratson, MFT, PCC
Marriage & Family Therapist
Moshe Ratson is the Executive Director of spiral2grow Marriage & Family Therapy, a coaching and therapy clinic in New York City. Moshe is an International Coach Federation accredited Professional Certified Coach (PCC). He received his MS in Marriage and Family Therapy from Iona College. Moshe is a clinical member of the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT), and a member of the International Coach Federation (ICF).

Moshe Ratson, MFT, PCC
Marriage & Family Therapist

Identify how your commitments affect your energy. Would it help you to set boundaries in your social life, or to delegate more at work? As you start building a healthy work-life balance, make sure that you're setting aside time for yourself, too.
Don’t go home and immediately start working. The first thing you should do when you get home is tend to your family. Ask your significant other about their day. If you have children, sit down with them, play with them, and help them with their homework. Only after you’ve filled the needs of your family should your mind turn back to work.
Email is a double edge sword. It speeds up communication around a company, but the amount of time you spend checking it might cripple your productivity. Consider only checking your email during designated time periods. Check it once in the morning, once after lunch, and once before you leave for the day. This will allow you to answer critical emails and reply in a timely manner. ^{[6]
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Method 4

Method 4 of 4:

Taking Care of Yourself

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1
Rely on your friends and family. You don’t have to shoulder the burden of work and life by yourself. Talk to your family members. Tell them when you are stressed or when you have a problem at work. They probably won’t mind listening to your issues, and you’ll feel better afterwards. Everyone needs support networks.
- If you feel overwhelmed with responsibilities and obligations, your family or friends may be able to help take on some of the burden. For example, you might ask your parents to watch the kids some evenings so you can have time with just your spouse.
It can be exhausting having to play the role of employee and family member. You need to decompress. Play golf, go shopping, or see a movie. Blow off some steam before it builds up and you explode. Take some time where all you have to worry about is yourself. This is key. Have some “me” time.
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Nurture your relationships with family. Whenever you can, set aside a little time to spend with the people who are most important to you. For example, if you are married, you might make it a goal to have a date night with your spouse once a week.
- Try to spend time with family members individually and as a group. For example, if you have kids, do things together as a family, but also try to spend one-on-one time with each child.
. Prioritize it. You may be up against deadlines or have dozens of time-sensitive tasks to complete. Without sleep, your brain won’t be able to function on a level needed to take care of all of those problems. Get a solid 7-9 hours of sleep a night, every night. ^{[7]
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Eat healthy . It is tempting to grab fast food while you rush from the office to your home. Take time to eat healthy. Healthy nutrition translates to more energy, which you’ll need to maintain a balance.
. Working out, walking, going for a jog, or swimming at a pool can be great on a number of levels. You get some time to yourself. While you are working out, your brain will continue to examine problems from work or at home. Eventually, you’ll discover answers. The most obvious result is that you’ll feel better about yourself and feel better too. Those “gains” will make balancing work and life easier. ^{[8]
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