3 Tips for Using Technology To Increase Your Work-Life Balance

With the accessibility to all kinds of technology in all places around the world, it’s becoming harder than ever to disconnect from one task that needs to currently be placed on the backburner and wholeheartedly connect to the current task that should be given your attention. In no area is this more evident than in the idea of creating a work-life balance. At all times throughout the day, you can be getting information and notifications from both your personal and professional life, making it nearly impossible to ever completely focus on one or the other. So to help make this compartmentalizing easier, here are three tips for using technology to increase your work-life balance.

Become More Productive

Although technology can be utilized during those times you choose to be intentionally unproductive, you can also use technology to become much more productive both with your time and resources. By doing this, hopefully you’ll be able to eliminate the need for your internal struggle between playing when you should be working or working when you should be playing. To best do this, Ilya Pozin, a contributor to TheNextWeb.com, recommends ensuring all the apps you’re using to manage your personal and professional lives can be synced together and are always up-to-date. If you’re working with outdated or ineffective software, you’re just spending more time being less productive, so get the right technology to help solve your problems.

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Institute Email Urgency Labels

Even when you’re at home, your smartphone can be barraged with alerts from emails flooding your work inbox. And for many people, it’s just a natural impulse to check a new email when it arrives. However, this can be detrimental to a work-life balance. To help with this, Jennifer J. Deal, a contributor to the Wall Street Journal, recommends instituting email urgency labels at your place of business. This will make it easier for you to quickly and efficiently recognize if there’s a work issue that needs your attention now or if the email you just got can wait until you get into the office tomorrow.

Better Manage Your Notes and Ideas

Nothing is better at pulling you out of your work-life balance than when a brilliant idea strikes at the wrong time. Luckily, there are quite a few pieces of technology that can help with this. When you get a great idea for work but you’re at home, Kelli Smith, a contributor to TheMuse.com, recommends using apps like Vesper or Google Keep to capture those thoughts without indulging them right then and there. By doing this, you can have a way to remember thoughts you had without having them fill your mind during a time when you should be focusing on something else.

If you need help managing your work-life balance, use the tips mentioned above to let the technology in your life assist you.