Work-life balance: we’re all supposed to be aspiring to it and employers are supposed to be helping us. But what exactly is it and how do we get it?

An Australian study discovered that finding a good balance between work and life is based on being able to balance three elements:

1. Time: the amount spent on work and non-work roles.

2. Involvement: the level of psychological involvement in, or commitment to, work and non-work roles.

3. Satisfaction: the amount of satisfaction you get from work and non-work roles.

I think it’s also valuable to define what we mean by ‘work’ and ‘life’. How about:

• Work = what you do for a living.

• Life = everything else i.e. leisure, family, friends, romance, errands, laundry, going to the dentist.

So we can say that work-life balance is the optimum combination of ‘what we do for a living’ and ‘what we do the rest of the time’.

For a lot of us, finding this balance can be pretty simple. You go to work and do what’s needed, then you go home and tend to your life. However, there are a few things that can help you mess up the balance:

• Working for yourself: it can be hard to switch off when you are a small business owner.

• Being ambitious: you want to go way beyond what is expected of you to advance in your career quickly.

• Being connected to work round-the-clock via your phone or laptop.

If you are struggling with balancing work activities with life activities, there are a few things you might want to try:

• Make sure you are using your work hours as efficiently as possible and that you haven’t simply gotten into the habit of drawing your workday out.

• Give yourself goals like ‘I will leave the office on time at least three times a week’.

• Avoid doing work at home outside of office hours. If you simply must do work at home, make sure you take some time off in lieu when things are less busy.

• Leave your work mobile and laptop at the office if you don’t have a specific task to finish.

If you can do one or of these and find some balance between work and the rest of your life, you will be more effective at both sides of life: more efficient and alert at work and more engaged and relaxed in the rest of your life.

Do you have any other tips for getting work-life balance we’ve missed?