Regardless of how long you’ve been working as a legal transcriptionist, there is one constant in your career. The goal of achieving work-life balance is always there, from the first day of your career to the last. You are not alone in this struggle, achieving a work-life balance is becoming more and more difficult in our always connected society.
While it might be the norm to always be working or thinking about work, we don’t want this to be your reality. After all, there is more to life than work. You have friends, family, hobbies and interest that should and must be part of your life.
Whether you’re a freelance legal transcriptionist or work for one of the major legal transcription companies – we want you to think long and hard about your work-life balance.
What is Work-Life Balance?
When you started searching in Google with this common phrase: what is legal transcription – you likely didn’t give any thought to work-life balance. This is normal. Most of us don’t think about work-life balance until we’re working in our chosen career.
Work-life balance is about how you personally balance the demands of work with the demands of day-to-day life. This balance is different for every person – it really depends on what you want your life to be like. However, we want you to make sure that you’re not sacrificing time with friends and family for work. This is when the work-life balance becomes skewed, and unhealthy lifestyle habits can develop.
Remember, no work situation is stress-free. The more time you spend working and thinking about work, the higher the chances that you’ll become overly stressed and even suffer career burnout. This is why maintaining a positive work-life balance is super critical.
How to Maintain a Work-Life Balance
The pursuit of work-life balance has become so critical for everyone, that more and more research is devoted to effective strategies to achieve a work-life balance. From this research and from learning from experts in career and lifestyle management, we’ve learned a number of key ways you can maintain a work-life balance.
If you feel like you’re struggling with your work-life balance or want to make sure you do not become consumed with work, consider incorporating these work-life balance strategies into your day-to-day:
- Review your work goals. Make sure you’re not setting yourself up for failure. Don’t try to do more in a day than is reasonably possible. Prioritize your daily to do list and focus on the most important tasks first.
- Talk to your boss. Discuss with your boss how you’re feeling – and emphasize that you’re starting to feel overly stressed and burned out. Discuss the possibility of some extra work flexibility.
- Use your vacation days. Too many of us don’t take the vacation days we’ve earned. If you have vacation time, plan how you’re going to use it and follow through with these vacation plans.
- Unplug. Don’t check your work email at home. Don’t log into your work network in the evenings. When you’re at home, you need to give your complete attention to your home life.
- Give yourself some space. Remember, no one is perfect. You can’t do everything. You’ll have days where you can get a lot done and days when you only get one thing done. This is normal.
- Move your body. Make time every day for some type of exercise. This can be a walk before work, getting out for a run on your lunch hour, or hitting the gym on the way home from work. Exercise has been proven to help lower stress levels and to boost your feelings of confidence.
- Talk to your family. Tell your family and friends how you’re feeling. Let them know you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed and that you need their help to regain a work-life balance.
- Make time for hobbies and interests. When you focus on a hobby or activity, you give your brain a real break. Hobbies such as pottery, painting, reading, drawing, woodworking, etc. required your full attention – giving you a much-needed break from thinking about work.
Think about why you decided to become a legal transcriptionist – remember what gets you excited about your career. But, remember that you’re more than your job. When you spend too much time working, it’s very easy to lose the passion for your career. Achieving a work-life balance allows you to live a full work life and a full life away from work.
