As human inhabitant on planet earth, it’s imperative we are involved in some sort of work. Wok can simply be defined as – human labor which can be categorized into creative work, house work, manual work, paid work, job, etc.

For the purpose of this article, I will dwell on ‘Job’ – A regular activity done in exchange for payment.

Now as human, you are either male or female. The activities we engage in daily definitely have an effect on us. However, this effects are either positive or negative, thereby varies depending on your sex – gender.

In today’s busy world, prioritizing between your work and your personal life can be a huge challenge. But a poor work-life balance can result in unhealthy levels of stress, unhappiness, and even reduced productivity.

Work-Life balance in this part of the world is at best an elusive idea and at worst a complete myth considering the work hours and systems in place. But by making deliberate decision on what opportunity to pursue and which to decline you can consciously control how your work affects you, thereby having a balance in work and personal life irrespective of your gender. Deliberate choices don’t guarantee complete control, life sometimes takes over.

Even though the definition of success differs individually, defining what success means to you would help you strike a balance. You need to determine early on what a win should look like. While defining success, it is important to understand that your definition will evolve over time.

Figure out what you want your priorities to be not what they should be. Ask yourself, if you had the opportunity to focus on just one thing in life, what would that be? Define what you have a passion for.

Also decide how you spend your time. How much time do you spend doing things that don’t matter to you and your goals? How much time do you spend on the important things – that align with your priority? And how much time do you spend on yourself – personal life?

Multi-tasking is good and also very important but when you are involved in things that are not related to each other at the same time, then succeeding in one out of all will seem very difficult. Also keeping personal time and work time aside is an important step to maintain and control how your work affects your life.

The role models/successful business owner, entrepreneurs and professionals, through hard experience, have discovered that prospering in a chosen field involves carefully combining work and home so as not to lose themselves, their loved ones or their roots on success. They endeavor to give both work and personal life due attention and human capital. Their stories and advice reiterates on: defining success for yourself, managing technology, building support networks at work and at home, traveling or relocating selectively, and collaborating with your partner.

Too many people believe that to achieve great things we must make brutal sacrifices, that to succeed in work we must focus single-mindedly, at the expense of everything else in life, which is where they get it wrong.

For working moms who rush home from work to spend time with their families, the evening is the only time that they can finish things up. They talk to their kids, look over homework, put them to bed and then — they retreat to their home offices or their laptops to get to whatever they didn’t get to earlier. They mostly have to do this all the time. And for some other women, the evening also is the only time they get to spend time with themselves and breathe free.

Now, this is where the problem lies. How many of you have had an argument with your husband about being on your computer at night and not paying him attention?

Because of the ease in which we can log back into work from home, it’s tempting to let our work creep into our evenings.

I will hereby point out that as a man or woman, to have a proper balance in your personal life and work, a proper decision making and objective settings which has to be SMART – specific, measurable, articulate, reliable and time related, have to be made. Choose a path, make priorities, pay more attention to your priorities and do not shut down your personal life – it serves as a backbone to success.