24 Mar Is Work Killing Your Off-Hours Enjoyment? Here’s 8 Ways To Regain Balance.
Finding the right balance between pursuing your career at a top corporate office and your passion for travel can be a tricky business. However, having a (demanding) full-time job should not stop you from having awesome, adventure-filled weekends.
Want to get the most out of your trip away from your 9-to-5 job? Here are a few tips to ensure work-life balance while you are away from your office desk:
1. Forget work once you leave the door: Whether it’s a Monday or a Friday night, the only way that you can create a work-life balance is to make sure that you never take stress with you. Nothing is worse than adding the weight of worry, stress or guilt (oftentimes about the things that are beyond your control) with you while you are out for the day or the entire weekend, or even a week. Take the time to relax your mind and forget your responsibilities — it will become much easier to think about things clearly when you are back from your escapade.
2. Learn to take breaks: Even robots and machines who work nonstop for extended periods of time can break down. Learn to take breaks whether it’s an hour of stretching and walking around or a weekend away from the city. Working late hours is always acceptable but remember that doing this does not necessarily equate to productivity, many studies show. When you take the time to do something that makes you happy, you find inspiration again which will help you become more focused and more driven at work.
3. Have distraction-free hours: Technology has become so intertwined with our daily lives — emails, messages, calls, social media — that it becomes very hard for us to be apart from it even just for a few minutes. Take the time to turn off your phone, or put them in ‘Airplane Mode’, even just for an hour a day to get a feel of how life is without these distractions. If you are going away for the weekend, leave your other gadgets and only bring a phone that will allow you to call or send a text message. Tell your family and friends to only call you if there is a life-and-death emergency; you’ll be surprised just how silent your phone will become.
4. Hang out with other travel-loving people: Find friends at work who has the same level of passion for travel as you have. If you can find another set of friends outside the office, then even better. This way, you will find yourself more excited to see faces that you don’t already see for the entire week. If you are more of a lone adventurer, alternate your escapades being alone and being with other people. It is always great to make new friendships and connections plus it also means more stories and more people to borrow ideas from.
5. If it scares you, it might be worth doing it: You continue to challenge yourself day after day at work — why not extend it to your travel life? Make yourself breathless by scaling a mountain or taking a hiking trail you have not yet been to. Do something that scares you or one that simply breaks the monotony of your life’s routine. It helps that you occasionally go for something that will make you feel alive and vulnerable.
6. Continue to push your limits: In the same way that you push the boundaries of your capabilities at work, you should also do the same thing when you are outside. Perhaps camping with friends is something that you do regularly? Why not try a longer camp in a more remote location abroad for once? Are you an avid skier? Why not try a steeper slope this weekend; maybe a slope in Switzerland at a 5-star resort?
7. Create new hobbies outside of work: And, speaking of, why not try to push yourself to try all sorts of new activities and go to new places every now and then? Even frequent short trips can be amazing. It can be very easy to stay comfortable once you have familiarized yourself with a particular place or hobby, so push yourself yet again. Just like at work, doing the same thing over and over again can get tiring. Why not try something new or explore some place else the next time around? Your career might be something you want to focus at right now but you also need to make sure that you find the time to explore other interests or at least spend your extra hours with family and friends.
8. Look for the right employer: Not all of us are lucky enough to spend our time the way we choose it. If you don’t run your own business or have the ability to leave whenever you want, then at least find a job that is flexible enough to allow you to pursue your passions and work off-site. It sucks to have a full-time job when you just want to travel everyday but, let’s be practical, jobs will help you afford more adventures and explore new places, too.