Care & Support Tips: How To Balance Work and Personal Life

We’ve all heard the recommendation to maintain a healthy work-life balance. It sounds good and sensible, but is it easier said than done? The truth is that striking the right balance between work and your personal life is achievable. However, the trick is to know how to set the right boundaries and then maintain that balance.   

It’s not something that you can set up at the start and ignore. It needs a little care and attention at the beginning and then regular checks to keep you on track. If that sounds like a lot of effort, it’s not really, especially since the benefits are worth it.

The Benefits of a Healthy Work-Life Balance

Care & Support Workers, in particular, need to balance the demands of work with time for themselves. That’s the essence of a work-life balance. When you can devote time to both, you feel the benefits in all parts of your day. One of the most important things that you’ll notice is improved mental health. 

When your mental health improves, it makes it easier for you to feel the other benefits. Your sleep can improve, and you’re better equipped to handle stress and other challenges. It becomes a snowball effect, as with better sleep and taking stress in your stride, you’ll feel better in every interaction. 

It’s essential to acknowledge the consequences of an unhealthy work-life balance. It can lead to burnout, increased stress, trouble sleeping, and poor mental health. All of these come as a result of not taking breaks, and spending a lot of time working or thinking about work. Switching off is crucial, so let’s explore how to do just that. 

Tips for Achieving a Balance Between Work and Your Personal Life

As a Care & Support Worker, you need to be able to deliver your best. Thinking on your feet, providing companionship, and looking after someone else’s well-being are all vital parts of your work. However, they become much harder to do when you don’t take care of your well-being.  

Knowing you need to look after yourself is one thing, but making time for it and finding ways to do it is the challenging part. With these tips, striking the right balance, or at least getting close, will feel within reach. Let’s start with the obstacles and then work out how to overcome them.

1. Be Aware of the Challenges

Some elements of care work make maintaining a balance more challenging. That doesn’t mean it’s not possible, just that you need to be aware of them to work around them. Here’s a list of the challenges you could be facing with ideas of how to address them.

• Emotional stress - Care work means forming bonds and witnessing difficulties. You’re human, so it’s natural to feel it. However, finding ways to stay present and not worry is important.

• Long days or shift work - Making time for yourself can be more difficult when you work long hours or irregular ones. Be prepared to find a routine that works for you.

• Pressure - Being responsible for someone else’s well-being can put pressure on you. Knowing how to share the load with your team and supervisor is crucial.

• Physical demands - Care work can involve lifting, moving and helping with other manual tasks. Giving your body a break and finding ways to relax are a must. 

2. Make Well-Being a Priority…

To overcome the challenges, you’ll need to spend time thinking about your well-being. To make that easier, you can turn it into a three-step process. First, you stop to think about how you feel. Next, based on those feelings, you think about what you need. Finally, you meet those needs. 

For example, if your feet hurt from being on the go all day, you might need to rest and revive. The crucial part is identifying the needs, even if there are several, and meeting them.

3. …But Don’t Make It a Burden

Maintaining your well-being could involve exercise, rest, eating healthily, focusing on your hobbies and sleeping more. It can quickly feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day, and some contradict each other. Looking after yourself shouldn’t feel like a burden, as it will just add to the stress.

The first way to lighten the load is to use the solutions that work for you. There’s more than one way to meet the need you identify. If you’re tired, more sleep is one option, but sitting quietly in a park on your lunch break can also make you feel refreshed. You can be realistic and still make positive choices.

4. Set Clear Boundaries

If making your well-being a priority is proving to be too challenging, then setting clearer boundaries will help. Boundaries help set out what you are and aren’t willing to do. Without them, it’s very difficult to make time for yourself. Saying no to some things allows you to say yes to yourself.

Areas to look at when setting boundaries are taking breaks, using your time off and not thinking about or responding to work issues when off-duty. You can also say no more often to extra tasks, responsibilities or extra shifts. It doesn’t have to be no all the time, but check in with your needs before saying yes.

It's important that you enjoy what you do - so make sure you have some time for you. A good employer - and there are plenty in social care - will make sure you're getting the time and support to make that happen.