Work can be fun and exciting, giving you a warm feeling and a very good reason to cheerfully wake up each morning.
Nonetheless, no matter how fun your work is, you need to have some time off to work on your personal life.
This applies not only to office workers and employees, but also to forex traders. Lack of balance between your professional life and your personal life is likely to lead to burn out, loss of morale, unhappiness, high stress levels, and reduced productivity.
Here are simple steps you can take to restore and maintain a healthy life-work balance as a trader.
1. Prioritize
What do you want most in life? It can’t be just “more money”, there must be a reason you want that much money.
Find out what your real underlying priorities in life are and list them from the most important to the least. Once you have that figured out, the rest should be easy.
2. Track Time
We all have 24 hours in our day, the only difference is how each of us utilizes that limited amount of time.
Track your time for a week or two to find out how you really use your time. Critically analyze the results and remove those activities that do not align with your priorities.
Increase and decrease time spent on different activities to align them to your life goals and ambitions.
If your family is important to you, then setting aside an hour before dinner to bond with them should be a priority over sketching stochastic oscillators. Learn to delegate what you cannot eliminate.
3. Quit Multi-Tasking
Having a conversation with your wife as you hurriedly type on your computer may seem like you getting the best of both worlds simultaneously. While multi-tasking is touted as strength, it usually frays relations.
Your loved ones feel left out or unimportant when you give them undivided attention. Even if you do not have family, choose to only do one thing at a time. Rest when it is time to rest and work when it is time to work.
4. Schedule Some “You” Time
Moving between work and other social and family activities can prove hectic. It may also get very stressful over time.
To counteract this stress pile up, schedule an hour each day for an activity you enjoy doing on your own.
Whether it’s shopping, a walk on the beach, watching the sunset from your rooftop, or whatever it is you feel calms your nerves and clears your thoughts.
5. Protect Your Schedule
It is very difficult to get a dedicated trader away from a great trade setup unless you have a dire emergency, like someone in the neighborhood just got shot and needs your help.
That kind of focus is good for your trade, but this should be replicated with time set for other things. Make a decision not to let any trading emergencies disrupt your personal and family time.
6. Take Care
Some personal habits in a trader’s life make it difficult to achieve a proper life-work balance. For instance, persistent insomnia and poor nutrition will disrupt your life patterns and even put your long term health at risk.
Eat well, take enough fluids, exercise regularly, and have enough rest each day.
7. Vacations
Psychologists suggest a minimum of 2 weeks total rest from work per year, while most strongly recommend at least 30 days. It is important to take annual vacations.
They rejuvenate you and even inspire you to become a better trader. Vacations also give you something to look forward to and work towards, thus giving your year-long trading a purpose.
When you finally take that vacation, make it a point to totally switch off from trading. Ignore trading news, switch off your work phone, and avoid your work-related most visited websites.
8. Engage Support
Talk to your spouse, lover, friends, fellow traders, brothers and sisters, parents, or even your church group about your intention to have a better work-life balance.
Share with them your plan and firmly but politely insist that they respect it.
9. Consult Professionals
A personal life coach can work wonders in assisting you achieve your desired work-life balance. Such experts know what to look out for and the associated pitfalls and will advise you accordingly.
10. Dim the Tech
A major cause of conflict nowadays is personal use of technological gadgets. We all know that one person who is always busy updating their Facebook status or twitter and instagram.
You might have also come across another that never seems to stop texting. Whether you are that kind of person or not, make a conscious effort to limit your use of these devices to only when and where it is appropriate.
Your daughter’s poem recital is not the place for you to be walking out each minute for extended phone conversations.
During such important moments, switch off your gadgets or leave them in another room far away and in silent mode.
11. Find a Mentor
In your social or professional circle there might be an individual who always seems to have it all. That person seems to have a career that is always on an upward move coupled with a terrific personal life that everyone admires.
If there is one such person in your life, engage him or her to help you find a similar work-life harmonious balance in your own life.
12. Mentor Someone
You may not think you are there yet, but if you are making the effort to balance your trading and your personal life then you are already on the right path.
The next thing you should do is identify someone who seems overwhelmed by their work or personal life and mentor them into achieving perfect harmony.
This is not only rewarding in itself but also makes you accountable in your own life. It will give you that extra impetus to stick to your plans.
