Program Belajar

Work Life Balance: We Can Be Productive and Still Enjoying Our Life

On Saturday, 14th May 2022 Act Global held a space to discuss the issue of work-life balance. This problem might be one of the issues that the young generation is now facing. Having found that it was hard to find the balance between work life and personal life. That is why we create this webinar,  we just want to ensure the young generation does not get drawn into the midst of work-life and forget to live their life.

To make the discussion more captivating and engaging, we invited a psychologist to share her view, and Saraswati Indraharsani, M.Psi agreed to join us in the space we created. Saraswati is one of the young psychologists who are currently active in institutions, communities, and activities such as the practice of adolescent and adult psychology at one of the Psychology services in Bali, the Indonesian Soul Society community, she also works in women’s and children’s protection institutions. With this background, Saras filled us with so much insight and knowledge.

Saras started her session by reminding us that sometimes we felt that the 24 hours we have in a day were not enough to do our daily work. She said that this kind of thing can happen to anyone or type of work. And some people who work 24 hours continuously, without regular breaks are called workaholics. People who are workaholics often did not have time for themselves, their families, and those around them. workaholics people were very synonymous with work and it was very difficult for them to divide their time to just rest or relax.

It was often for workaholics people to feel tired, burnout, and restless. According to Saras, this could happen because they often force themselves to work excessively as if everything is important and must be completed immediately. Sometimes, workaholic people also delay their work and applicating the habit of multitasking. They also do not have a set clear daily schedule and do not set health priorities.

Those conditions usually cause an imbalance between living daily life and working life. Saras explained that the signs of a person experiencing work-life unbalance include constantly being tired and sick, mood swings, not being able to relax, having problems with people around them, constantly checking email, and feeling that they don’t have enough time.

And Saras asked the participants, are we a workaholic and experiencing signs of work-life unbalance? She said, “if you experience this and want to get out of the problem immediately, then you need to apply a work-life balance”
So, what is a work-life balance and why was it necessary to implement a work-life balance? Literally, work-life balance is a balance between work and personal or family life. What is meant by balance is that you can organize and divide between work responsibilities, personal life, and other responsibilities. Saras gave us 10 tips to find a balance between work and daily life:

1. Prioritize your task
2. Limit the amount of screen time
3. Take breaks during the workday
4. Don’t overcommit yourself
5. Fight the guilt
6. Know your peaks and troughs
7. Make room for personal time
8. Manage your mind
9. Communicate with others
10. Get enough rest

She also gave us additional tips for getting the work-life balance we want. She said we need to be clear what is the problem that we are facing in our workplace that makes us unable to implement a work-life balance? Saras then stated that all problems have a solution, here are tips and tricks that you can apply if you are faced with a toxic workplace situation:

1. Don’t stop at a toxic colleague’s Level
2. Leave Your work stress at the door
3. Seek out positive Co-workers
4. Practice How to confront
5. Build trust
6. Leave your job or change departments
7. Find ways to relieve stress outside of work

Saras mentioned that if we can apply these tips and tricks in our daily work life, she ensured that we will become more productive, our work performance will be better, and we can reduce boredom and stress. Other than that, this work-life balance also will get us good relationships with coworkers, friends, and parents, our creativity will be increased, and our mental health can be well maintained.

Saras added that we can get all the benefits of a work-life balance if we take immediate action on what is happening to us right now. Saras also reminded us that whatever work we do, we must remember our own abilities, we must be able to measure how far we can do the work, and we must remember when we rest and when we have to continue working, in a sense, we don’t we must always push ourselves to keep working, if we keep pushing ourselves then we can’t get a work-life balance. The key is that we just have to accept what is happening to us. Caused once Erica Layne said that,

“Balance isn’t fitting everything in. It’s starting with what’s important and letting the rest fall as it will’.

Written by Ana, Translate by Harun Arrasyid