Tips on how to achieve work-life balance.

When you have a healthy work-life balance, you’re able to do a good job at work while simultaneously maintaining good relationships with family members and friends, with some time left over for outside interests.

When work begins to damage your health or interfere with your relationships with family and friends, your work-life balance has entered treacherous territory. Economic problems often contribute to a poor work-life balance. If someone has to work two jobs to get by, it can be difficult, if not impossible, to maintain a healthy work-life balance. It can also be extremely difficult to balance work and life if your job is interfering with what should be your leisure time.

Stay-at-home parents can also have problems maintaining a healthy balance. If you’re a stay-at-home parent, make sure you maintain a few interests outside the home (or a wide variety of interests inside it). Otherwise, life could begin to feel dreary and repetitive.

If you’re working 55 hours a week or more, start thinking about ways to cut back. A study from the World Health Organization and the International Labour Organization has found that working 55 hours a week or more is associated with a 35% higher risk of stroke and a 17% higher risk of dying from ischemic heart disease, compared with people who work 35 to 40 hours a week.¹

Most people can balance work and life if they work 35 to 40 hours a week. Those working more than 40 but less than 55 hours a week are in uncertain territory. A well-paid executive with a partner who willingly takes on most household tasks may manage long hours with ease. A single parent could be overwhelmed. Take your own inventory and assess the maximum number of hours you can work while still striking a reasonable work-life balance. If that inventory results in the conclusion that too many hours are needed to do your current job properly, start looking for another job, either inside your present workplace or outside it.

For many people, working from home makes it easier to strike a healthy work-life balance. For others, however, working from home makes it difficult to leave the job behind at the end of the workday. People sometimes feel guilty about time when (perhaps distracted by household issues) they worked at less than full speed, and they try to make up for it at the end of the day.

The solution? Make a specific area your workspace. Spend your workday there, and stay away from it when your workday ends. If you’re feeling guilty about the half hour you spent helping your daughter with her homework, put in an extra half hour at the end of the day. But when that half hour is over, shut down your computer and leave your workspace.