7 reasons why you should stop work on time. Life is too short to spend it all in the office!

Work-life balance means getting the right ratio of your time dedicated to working versus time for non-work activities. It is something you have to find for yourself and not wait for it to be bestowed upon you by higher powers. Of course there are reasons why you might want to or need to work extra hours sometimes, but it should definitely not become a common practice!

The Malaysian Employment Act defines the workweek as 48 hours, with a maximum of eight working hours per day and six working days per week. 

Here are 7 reasons why you need to carve out more “free” time for yourself outside of the office, or also known as 7 Things to Do with Your Free Time!

Reason #1. Catch Your Zzz’s

The [American] National Sleep Foundation (NSF)’s sleep times recommendation for adults between the ages of 18 and 64 is reported as 6 to 10 hours a day.

Undoubtedly, many adults today do not get enough sleep. The situation is widespread enough that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) even describes sleep deprivation as a “public health epidemic“. Insufficient sleep leads to many unsavory results ranging from inconvenient ones such as being cranky all the way to scary ones such as a shortened life expectancy. Yikes.

In other words, if you were that sleeping more today would prevent you from dying miserably of ABCXYZ disease in the future, would you sleep more? One simple way to monitor your sleep hours is to get an activity tracker or smart watch that automatically records your sleeping hours.

Reason #2. Take Up a Side Job

When night falls, you should still have a handful of hours to pursue other interests. Why not get your hustle on and look for a part-time job? Whether freelance or contracted, active or passive, having a side hustle is a worthwhile investment of your time.

To decide on what side job to pursue, consider which benefits you want to glean from your part-time work and where your interests lie.

Lock down your goals early to keep yourself motivated. Whether it’s so you can gain enough experience before you change careers, network to meet your future life partner, or to gain enough income to fulfill a financial dream, write them big and put them visible so you can often see those goals and say “I need to spend less time in the office and more time doing this!”.

Reason #3. Personal Development

Lifelong learning is really exciting. Every day any day there is always more to learn, more things to discover, more things that can benefit you. Why stay in the office with the same old daily grind when you can be exploring new experiences?

Use your time wisely and look into your education. You can take up formal education in an institution such as a post-graduate degree or a certificate in baking. You can also take the opportunity to delve into information online whether in written form or videos; however, be careful not to get distracted by non-learning content such as shopping sites and entertainment videos.

Exercising and looking into your physical and mental health are also areas that can benefit from further attention. For example, learn about different exercise regimes or healthy recipes. or learn to have boundaries and say no.

Take time to reflect and take stock of your life. Are you where you want to be? If not, what can you do now to inch closer towards being on track to where you want to be? Now is your chance to make time to do this.

Here are some ideas as to what you may want to look into to develop personal growth.

Reason #4. Relationship Building

No man is an island. Take stock of the all the relationships you are involved in. Not just romantic relationships but the human connections you have with the people around you. Family, spouse/partner, friends, neighbors, colleagues, classmates, etc.

  • When was the last time you had a meaningful conversation with them?
  • When was the last time you thought about them?
  • When was the last time you apologized for something or thanked somebody for something?

Taking time out to fill up your relationship jar by reaching out is rewarding to your emotional well-being and may one day be paid back to you when you need it the most. “Too busy working” is an excuse that only leads to sad regrets in later life.

It can be as easy as playing masak-masak with your young children or sending a Whatsapp message to a friend.

Reason #5. Chores and Errands

An undeniable part of being an adult is having the discipline to ensure certain routine tasks must be done and not neglected, no matter how tedious or dull. In fact, learn to derive satisfaction over a job well done. What tasks are these? Laundry, grocery shopping, vehicle maintenance, throwing out expired food, getting a haircut, updating your expense tracking, etc.

Chores and errands must not get neglected lest the consequences build up and you end up struggling to cope. Find ways to simplify your life and stay organized, for example you can easily make doing your chores more fun.

Avoid falling into the trap whereby you rather spend longer hours in the office because you can’t bear to face your incomplete chores. FYI, they won’t disappear by themselves. Roll up your sleeves and just do them without delay. You will feel much better knowing everything is sorted and in order once you are done.

Reason #6. Entertainment

What’s the point of work-life balance without having fun? Take a break.

How wonderful to have time after office hours to spend on what you deem as entertainment. It could be watching Netflix, gaming, reading, shopping, baking, pampering your car, or pretty much anything at all.

The risk here is that you end up spending all your free time rolling in entertainment rather than having a healthy mix with the other things you need to be doing with your time. Find ways to control your entertainment hours.

However, if you find that you are needing to indulge heavily in hours of entertainment in order to unwind from work, you should consider re-assessing your job. The concept of “work hard, play hard” has its limits too.

Reason #7. Giving Back to the Community

Philanthropy is the desire to help others. Giving back to society with no expectation of returns such as rewards or recognition. Aside from it helping you practice becoming a better human being, there are other known benefits to giving back.

There are so many ways to give back to the community.

  • Donating money or items to charities.
  • Spending quality time with the residents in old folks homes, orphanages, homes for disabled, and animal shelters.
  • Lending you skills regularly to charitable organizations in need. For example, helping to check accounts books, manage social media accounts, or cutting hair.
  • Using skills for one-off events such as running a fund-raiser, or organizing a workshop for underprivileged.
  • Doing physical work at charities such as sorting items at a recycling center, or walking dogs at an animal shelter.
  • Doing things on your own for the benefit of others such as plogging.

The smiles you receive in return from grateful hearts are more satisfying that adding another few hours staring at your work.

Conclusion

So many good things to do with your free time, right? When there is not enough time in the world for you to do everything you need and want to do, what excuse do you still have for clocking in extra hours? Take charge of your work-life balance today.

And, by the way, don’t let any of your annual leave go to waste either, okay?

 

You May Also Like

 

What else motivates you to seek work-life balance?