Though many of us strive for that perfect work-life balance, the reality is that our work days often eat into our free time. Whether it’s overtime at our place of work or taking phone calls and responding to emails outside of our standard work hours, more and more people find themselves dedicating extra hours to their boss than they do to their personal life!

One of those activities or pastimes often pushed aside in favor of finishing off our workload is usually that of exercising or working out.Overtime, this can lead to many health problems and only serve to make it harder to get through such an extensive workload when our fitness levels are down.

How Do I Turn My Current Schedule Around?

If any of this sounds familiar to your current circumstances, it is crucial that you take a step back and look at how you can implement a change into your life, whereby your health and fitness is on an equal par with your workload.

Fortunately, there are several ways in which you can do this, alongside getting a better overall picture of where your time is currently spent, as well as how you could implement a healthier lifestyle in the process.

Step #1: Scrutinize Your Current Waking and Sleeping Patterns

It goes without saying that if you aren’t getting a good night’s sleep, or more so a decent number of hours sleep each night, then your overall health will suffer as a direct consequence of this. This is also how many people find themselves putting on weight a lot quicker.

You owe it your body and brain to allow yourself at least 8 hours of sleep each night, whereby your brain cell scan repair themselves,and your body gets as much of a decent rest as it needs. This is essential if your current job is a high powered or particularly stressful one.

Record your waking and sleeping patterns over the space of an average working week. Some people find that when they write this information down, they are genuinely surprised at how they survive on such limited sleep.

If you discover that you are just scraping by with a couple of hours sleep each night, here and there, now would be a better time than any to overhaul your bedtime hours and waking hours. Scrutinize why it is that you end up rolling into bed during the small hours:

• Are you distracted by the many electronic items in your home which you have around you, such as mobiles and computers? Why not set a time whereby you stop using them completely and resort to not looking at these in their entirety until the next day?
• Do you find yourself slouching out in front of the TV each night in a slump? Could you do without binge-watching the latest box set and possibly doing something other with this time, perhaps meditation or yoga, to get you super calm and chilled for a better night’s sleep?
• Are you finding that your mornings are the problem here?Try making a solid routine for each morning and sticking to it. This way you aren’t stressing the night before about getting everything done first thing the next morning, and you’ll sleep better as a direct result.

Step #2: Assess Your Current Eating Habits and Patterns

With increased working hours and a more significant workload often comes a disrupted diet. If you find yourself running out of the door in the morning without eating breakfast, you’re more likely to be tempted to snack during the day and, by lunchtime, not be hungry. Additionally, when you get home after an exhausting day, the last thing you probably feel like doing is cooking, therefore reaching out for a takeaway.

By paying little attention to our diets, the consequences are enormous here. Bad skin, sluggishness,and minor ailments present themselves in the early stages, with potential health risks such as high cholesterol levels, diabetes,and possible heart problems if we don’t watch what we eat alongside our weight.

If you aren’t able to work out or exercise as much currently because of work, and you know what you are consuming during a typical workday is not doing you any good, it is vital to change this habit immediately and try looking at how to control your appetite.

Step #3: Consider Your Current Commuting Options

Many people feel that they never have time to exercise or work out but when pressed about their commuting options, usually find that the answer is staring them in the face, every morning and evening.

This is particularly so of the many of us who commute to work using public transport. There is more than often usually the option to get off a couple of stops earlier and walk. All it takes is a little organization beforehand and perhaps leaving the house a few minutes earlier than usual, but if you could try to make the change here, you would give yourself the chance to get in a good power walk before and after your workday. You may even want to jog this distance.

For those who have no other choice to rely on their vehicle to get them to and from work, mainly if their work is located further out, why not include such exercising and workouts in the working day?All employees are entitled to several breaks throughout the day,and everyone has a legal right to a lunch break. Therefore, look at claiming this time back as your own and pop on a pair of trainers, getting away from the office each time and using such breaks as your exercise time. If your job involves sitting at a desk for most of the day, the benefits of getting active during all your break times cannot be highlighted enough.

If you’re feeling brave and find that you can actually get quite a bit done in your lunch break, why not consider the possibilities of joining a nearby gym or fitness club, or even going for a swim?

All it takes is a minimum of twenty minutes each day, alongside an improvised sleeping routine and healthier diet plan, and you can soon begin to work on improving your overall health and fitness in next to no time.

Step #4: Reassess and Overhaul Your Working Day Routine

If, despite taking the above steps, you still find yourself struggling to get that much needed healthier work-life balance, now may be the time to turn to your workday itself.

Keep a diary of a typical working day for over a week and commit to writing down where most of your time and energy goes. Use a selection of colors to highlight different tasks. Then take this diary home and spend the weekend analyzing it.

You should be able to decipher from this what tasks you are most efficient in, spending your time wisely, alongside any such problems areas. By doing this, you can begin to see for yourself if any patterns are emerging here.

Have you discovered that there is a good chunk of your day whereby you could be doing the work that seems to be keeping you back later at night, or is there a procedure in place which is not working anymore and therefore the root cause of you having to respond to emails and phone calls outside of work?

If you can devote a day to working on the source of these work problems, you can immediately start implementing those crucial changes needed at work, therefore getting everything done during work hours. You can then be confident that those hours outside of work are all your own!