#WellbeingWednesday: Life balance

Welcome to another episode of Queensland Rugby League's #WellbeingWednesday series, providing handy tips and helpful advice to improve overall wellness.

Each Wednesday, Luke Archer, from QRL's wellbeing and education team, will cover a hot topic people may need some further guidance on. This week, it's all about maintaining a healthy work / life balance.

Maintaining a healthy life balance

During the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of people have been forced to work from home.

This may cause some challenges to maintaining a balance between work and home life.

Here are some handy tips to help maintain a healthy balance.

Keep your daily routine

Be sure to wake up at a similar time to what you would if you were heading to work. As well as this, follow the same morning routine as you normally would; this may include exercise, a shower, breakfast, coffee.

Avoid scrolling through your phone as soon as you wake up

A common activity many do as soon as they wake up is start scrolling on their phones.

Whether it be checking emails that have been sent overnight or checking the latest social media posts, this activity puts your mind straight into 'work mode' and doesn't let you effectively take care of yourself in the morning.

Communicate

We all have a lot of elements in life; work, family, sport, hobbies. It's important all of these are managed effectively to ensure a healthy balance. 

Communication is key to successfully managing each element.

A suggestion for couples and families is to sit down on a Sunday night and review the plans for the upcoming week, allowing each person to plan around the agreed commitments.

Talk about your situation with family and friends

As shared in last week's episode of #WellbeingWednesday, there has never been a more important time to stay connected with family and friends as now. 

This can include talking through how your life balance is going with family and friends. The people you reach out to may be able to give advice and guidance on how to keep your balance in check.

How to juggle the unknown

Worrying is like a rocking chair ... it gives you something to do, but it gets you nowhere.

Glenn Turner

Try and worry with a purpose.

In each situation that exerts worry, ask yourself ... 'can I control this situation right now or provide a solution to the the issue I'm worrying about?'

If the answer is no, the best thing to do is not invest your time worrying about it.

It might be tough to just 'switch off' the feelings of worry initially, but work on trying to only focus on the important things that can be controlled.

Find time for yourself

Now is a great opportunity to put in place some strategies to help find and dedicate time for yourself.

Identify the best time that will allow you to spend time with yourself each day to do something that you enjoy. It may be as simple as exercise, writing in a journal or meditation.

Be sure to visit QRL.com.au or the Intrust Super Cup app every Wednesday for a fresh #WellbeingWednesday episode, or catch up with previous episodes:

Episode 1: Working from home
Episode 2: Staying connected

For more information on QRL's wellbeing programs, click here.