Having a work life balance is your best bet to ensure happiness at work and at home.

Certainly, there is plenty of research that suggest that companies expect more work from fewer employees especially after the large layoffs and downsizings that have occurred over the past few years in many companies and industries.

Youve probably heard the old adage that money cant buy happiness but not having money certainly doesnt buy happiness either. Your job obviously provides you with income but no job is worth throwing away your personal life for.

At the end of the day, if your job requires you to work long hours and/or weekends that disrupt your personal life, you might either need to figure out how to get the proper work life balance or decide if this is the right job for you.

Here are some suggestions to help you get the proper work life balance:

1. Improve your time management.

Do you waste time at work that could otherwise be spent on productive tasks? If you spend 20 minutes per day in the smoking area, 20 minutes talking sports with colleagues and 20 minutes making personal phone calls, there is 1 hour you have wasted. Dont procrastinate. Look for ways to improve your time management and organizational skills.

2. Ensure you are doing everything you can to remedy the situation yourself.

Do you take work home with you even though you dont need to? Is everything at work a crisis to you? If your manager seems to be less stressed about work than you are, then something is wrong. We sometimes have a tendency to make mountains out of molehills and make things bigger than they actually are. Not everything is a crisis and not everything needs to be treated as being critically important. Learn how to distinguish between tasks that need to be done now and things that just need to be done at some point and dont require you to drop everything else.

3. Speak with your manager regarding your situation and possible remedies.

A good manager will understand the need for a work life balance and will help you achieve it. Is there the option for you to work from home one or more days per week? Do you require an additional staff member to help you with your workload? Could some of the work you are doing be done by other staff members? Write down options that you and your boss can consider and discuss them together to figure out how to move forward.

4. Change jobs.

Some companies work their employees harder than others, thats a reality. Before looking for a new job, ensure you have done everything you can to achieve a work life balance and that your inability to achieve it is not your fault. It would be a disaster to switch jobs and then find out you face the same (or a bigger) problem with a new employer.

5. Change careers.

Certainly this is drastic but some careers/industries are known to demand more from employees than others. In some cases even if you have done everything you can to achieve a work life balance, your career might simply prevent if from happening. I know some people who have changed careers and taken less money and responsibilities but are happier for it. Your priorities might determine whether or not this is as option.

Before achieving a work life balance, you need to take stock of your life and see what you can do to make things better.

Look for ways to improve your time management and organizational skills and dont procrastinate.

Dont make things more difficult than they need to be.

Carl Mueller

My name is Carl Mueller and I'd like to thank you for learning a bit more about me!

I feel that I have numerous relevant experiences during my career that come in useful when helping people with their careers:

I know what it’s like to work internationally, having worked overseas (in New Zealand, from 1994-1998).

I've survived several corporate downsizings while many of my colleagues were being laid off.

I have also experienced being laid off twice myself during corporate downsizings.

I know what it’s like to be self-employed.

I've helped many people find better jobs. I started to work as a professional recruiter in 2000 first as an Information Technology (IT) recruiter and then in general recruitment across many industries including IT, manufacturing and marketing. Since this time, I have helped many people find their dream career and it’s a great feeling.

I experienced one of the slowest hiring periods in recent memory especially during the general hiring slowdown that followed the Y2K frenzy in 1999, the bursting of the dot com bubble in early 2000, and then the employment market bottoming out following September 11, 2001.

These were certainly not great times to be a job searcher in most industries nor was it a particularly good time to be a recruiter.

Following this, I began running the day to day operations of an Internet-based company in early 2003 that focused on developing online software and subscription-based websites for consumers. It was then that I fully realized the power, usefulness and potential of the Internet which really spurred me to set up my own website which you can view in my Personal URL section below this bio.

I’m also a Platinum Ezine Articles Expert as recognized by EzineArticles.com, one of the most visited websites on the Internet. This special designation is earned by having consistently high-quality articles published and viewed on their website. All of my submissions are related to helping you find your dream career and many of my articles get reproduced on other websites by their webmasters.

Good luck with your career and I hope I have been of assistance to you!