As of 2025 the work scenario has greatly changed. When I joined the workforce back in 2014, remote jobs were unheard of. It was not the norm and only a handful of corporate set-ups even had the facility to enable remote jobs. However, times are different now, especially after the pandemic. More and more corporate jobs are moving to a full-time remote setup or at the very least a Hybrid model.
Work-life balance has always been the topic of discussion when it comes to corporate jobs. It was different back in the days when our elders went to work. MNC’s did not exist then and their jobs mostly involved leaving home early in the morning and back by early evening. Their daily routines followed the circadian rhythm to the tee.
With the IT sector booming and corporate jobs picking the pace, the millennial generation was mostly pushed into the workforce even before they could realize the implications of such a job. Corporate jobs have a lot of benefits, but it comes at a cost. The cost is sacrificing our time, schedule, mental peace and health. The nature of work here is such that there are no time boundaries. An IT consultant in India is working for a client in the US, hence adhering to US hours. Or a Software Developer in India is working in an MNC where the project is based out of Australia, hence he or she is working very early hours to sync with the Australia time.
We typically call such corporate jobs a 9-to-5 job. But 11 years in the industry, I have never once worked a typical 9-to-5. It has mostly been 11-to-8, 1-to-10 or even the graveyard night shift. The industry standard is working 8 hours a day, so one would think what is the big deal about the bracket of time we work. We still would have two thirds of the day, isn’t it? I thought so too, but I was wrong.
In my opinion, the major disadvantage of this kind of corporate job is that we are not able to follow the circadian rhythm that we as humans are supposed to follow. In simple words, circadian rhythm is our body’s internal clock that follows a 24-hr schedule based on the light changes in our environment. Basically, one should be waking up and sleeping with the sun. If this rhythm is disrupted, it leads to various health issues resulting in a poor quality of life.
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What is Work-Life Balance and Why you need it?
There is a saying like do the work that you love and you never have to work a day in your life. This is very true, but the reality is that majority of the people are working to earn a living to sustain their life. They may or may not have chosen the area of work but somehow ended up there. I fall into the same bracket, and I am sure most of you reading this blog too. Honestly, there is no harm in doing so. At the end of the day a job pays you the salary which buys you the lifestyle that you desire. Yes, it would be fun to earn a living doing something that I enjoy a lot (like travelling!). But that has its own set of hurdles, and it is not as easy as it looks from the outside. As they say, grass is always greener on the other side.
If you are someone who passionately love their job, then maybe you do not need to have a work-life balance as your work may be well integrated into your life. But if you are someone who does not enjoy your job then you may need to learn to balance your work and life for good.
I have spent quite a few days dreading my job, but I’ve now realized that I do not need to love it in order to deliver and get my salary. I can still be good at it without enjoying it. That takes away after the stress of it. But in order to be good at a job that I do well at and not be burnt out at the end of the day, I needed some sort of a structure.
The term “work-life balance” is used roughly all across the job market. Most people are looking for jobs that provide adequate balance. But I have not come across a standard definition of it that can apply to everyone. That is because it is going to be very specific to your own individual needs. If I have to define it, I will say work-life balance is a set structure that defines how one spends their time in order to deliver the best to their career, family and self without feeling burnt out and tired at the end of the day.
Structure your Life for Balance
All of us have the exact 24 hours in a day – from the CEO of a company to an intern. Then how is it that some people are so exhausted at the end of the day and some have the energy to go to an after-office party and still be the most active person. It all comes down to energy management.
In the current scenario of corporate jobs, it is almost next to impossible to rise up and wind down with the sun. So, following the circadian rhythm is out of the picture. But if your schedule allows do give that a try. If your full-time job is the main energy drainer of your day, then you need to plan the rest of the day around it.
There must be some or the other activities that you are interested in apart from your job. And it is actually important to have such hobbies that enrich your life and fill your cup. But the main problem is time. When do we have time for such activities, right? The first key is time blocking your day and filling such time blocks with your hobbies. The second key is not having more than 2 such hobbies at one time. If you can have just one at a time even better. Else it will overburden your day.
Time Block your Day for Efficiency
Time blocking is basically means blocking chunks of time in your day to get things done. It is such a great tool for productivity. I always took it for granted because I thought it would be too cumbersome to account for each hour of the day. I hate the idea of having each hour of my day dedicated to do something. So initially I never tried time blocking. But once I looked at it from a different lens, I found its usefullness.
So essentially you do not have to time block the entire 24 hours of your day. You just need to time block one-third of your day. For instance, you would be sleeping for 8 hours of your day, so that is already cordoned off. Next you would be at your full-time job for 9 hours of your day, so that is another block off. So essentially you have just 7 hours in your day for time blocking. And these 7 hours are what is going to fuel your life and future.
When I started looking at it from this point of view, I realised I have close to 7-8 hours in my day which I was just wasting. Sometimes doom scrolling, sleeping or just being lazy. Imagine using just 50% of these hours everyday. The progress that we can make in life is insane.
Now let’s discuss how to get started with time blocking. My advise would be to not block the entire 7 hours that you have carved out for yourself in the beginning. You would need buffer hours until you figure out your rhythm. Break down these into 30 mins time block each. Now we will dedicate these blocks and spread it through out the day.
In the previous section, I mentioned about having 1-2 hobbies for yourself outside of your work. Let’s say we dedicate 60 minutes everyday for the hobby, the next 60 mins we keep it for some physical activity. It could be anything that fuels your body and mind. Let’s keep another 60 mins for the survival – cooking, cleaning etc. So that’s 3 hours of your time chunk. And maybe we keep 30 mins for a nigh time wind-down routine. So that is 3.5 hours of our remaining hours.
The next thing we need to decide is how we are going to place these time chunks into our day. Now this is going to be very personal and as per your own schedule. This is something that you will have to sit down with yourself and figure out. You can decide to have these entire 3.5 hours at one stretch or spread it out through the day. I prefer the latter, because that way I have a good buffer in between. Depending on what we discussed above, someone’s day with an afternoon fully remote work shift could look something like below. But feel free to adjust or change anything as per your liking:
- 12:00 am – 8:00 am : Sleeping (8 hour)
- 8:00 am – 9:00 am : Getting ready for the day and have breakfast (1 hour)
- 9:00 am – 10:00 am : Hobby block (1 hour)
- 10:00 am – 10:30 am : Home cleaning (0.5 hour)
- 10:30 am – 11:00 am : Buffer time (0.5 hour)
- 11:00 am – 12:00 pm : Gym session (1 hour)
- 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm : Cook Lunch and Dinner, have Lunch (1 hour)
- 1:00 pm – 10:00 pm : Full-time Job and Dinner (9 hour)
- 10:00 pm – 10:30 pm : Home tidying (0.5 hour)
- 10:30 pm – 11:00 pm : Buffer time (0.5 hour)
- 11:00 pm – 11:30 pm : Night time wind-down routine and get to bed (0.5 hour)
- 11:30 pm – 12:00 am : Buffer time (0.5 hour)
As you can see above, I have roughly divided the 24 hours of the day into required time blocks with good amount of buffer time in between. Now this may not be very feasible for everyone, but the idea is to get started with one thing that you can fit into your routine and build on it. It is easier said than done, but our lives have a lot more things to do other than sleeping and working. Like we need to clean the house, cook dishes, laundry etc. So how do we get time? So that is why the key is to just pick one hobby and get started with that.
I have personally dedicated 1 hour each day to write on this blog, and 30 mins for Yoga. If I can get these 2 things done on any given day with my full-time work I call it a success.
How to Maintain the Routine Daily
The pen and paper part is easy. The most difficult part of maintaining any sort of routine is the practicality of it. That is why it is very important to keep the time blocks as simple and easy as possible. And there should be enough buffer time to adjust and realign through out the day.
The key to maintain such time blocks is to keep following it day in and day out. Take a month to figure out what actually works with your daily schedule and tweak the routine accordingly. Each and every day is not going to be perfect, but the goal is to put in the work each day. Let’s say you want to read everyday, then make sure you spare the time to read. Do not treat it as a non-negotiable.
Why is it important to maintain the routine? If the only things you are doing each day is sleeping, eating and working at your full time job, then you are surely on the path to burnout. It is very important to dedicate 1-2 hours each day for yourself apart from your regular day to day routine. And only with time blocking and actually putting in the effort to follow the routine each day it will be possible.
Final Words
In order to live a fulfilling life, it is essential we all strive for work life balance. We need to find things to do in our day which enrich our lives. And in order to incorporate them seamlessly into our lives, we need time blocking.
It will be difficult in the beginning to keep up with it and it is easy to get overwhelmed. But it is worth it. You may not see its benefits right away, but it will definitely be worth it in the long run.