Work-life blending: this is how you get more out of life

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Work-life blending
So you get more out of life

© Olena Yakobchuk / Shutterstock

Stephanie Ernst

by Stephanie Ernst

Work-life blending mixes the professional and private areas. You can read here what advantages the concept has and how you can best implement it.

Work-life blending: what exactly is it?

You've probably heard of work-life balance – a strategy that we love protects against excessive demandsin which, despite a lot of work, we do not forego sufficient leisure activities. So we don't rush into our job and forget hobbies, friends and the like. However, this concept assumes that Job and private life completely separated run away from each other. As if there were two weights that need to be balanced.

The so-called is a little more contemporary Work-life blending: This is where professional and private areas of life merge. This is exactly what we are experiencing more and more often – if only through the increased Opportunities in the home officein which we work for the job in our home. Work-life blending can bring some compelling benefits, but it also comes with a thing or two risk.

Examples in everyday life

Read according to GFU 42 percent of businesspeople work e-mails also in your free time – This is where work-life blending begins. This demonstrates where the new trend is actually coming from: The origin of the movement in work-life blending is clearly this digitalization.

Mobile working Thanks to laptops, tablets and the like, we no longer have to work from a specific location. This also loosens that up traditional 9-to-5 time patterns, because it is often not checked who starts when or who stops working when. With work-life blending, we dissolve the clear distinction between work and private areas. How exactly could that look in everyday life? These scenarios are typical:

  • We meet up with our colleagues after work – maybe even make friends.
  • We work at home, in our familiar home. This mixes work and private areas.
  • We opt for flexible working hours. As a result, we may even work at unusual times that suit us (in private life). We decide when to start and finish work.
  • We quickly do a few work tasks in our free time – whenever it suits us.

By the way: some Employers advocate work-life blending. At Netflix, employees can determine their working hours and the number of vacation days themselves at an early stage – a good example of work-life blending.

Work-life blending: the advantages

More and more people are choosing work-life blending. This often happens unconsciously – without noticing it, we mix business and private life. Work-life blending brings some benefits with himself. This includes:

  • you work more flexibly
  • you can live by your priorities
  • Times can be allocated more freely
  • you do a lot without feeling like you are constantly working
  • your professional network is growing
  • you can make your day more individual

For everyone who likes to do their job, but would like more self-determination and flexibility, could benefit from work-life blending.

Work-life blending: the disadvantages

As nice as all these advantages sound, work-life blending also brings a few challenges that should not go unmentioned. The many freedoms and the high flexibility can also disadvantage mean, namely:

  • it is harder to finish the job
  • it threatens to be overwhelmed
  • on the other hand, distractions are greater – procrastination can occur
  • work is omnipresent as it merges with our free time

Those who are not passionate about their job could feel stressed and overwhelmed by the mixture of job and leisure time. Perfectionists should also be careful: Since work is integrated into leisure time, it can be difficult to complete tasks (and not work through into the night).

Is work-life blending an option for you? or do you prefer to stick to the classic distinction between work and leisure? Hopefully the presented advantages and disadvantages helped you with this question. Whether the concept fits your own lifestyle can of course only be decided individually. If in doubt, try it!

Here you will also find out how you can increase your productivity and how a vision board brings you closer to your dreams – whether professionally or privately.

You can also find other exciting topics related to career, job and personality in the BRIGITTE Community. Have a look!

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