Five ways that buffer time can improve your work-life balance
Assantewa HeubiWriter & Content Creator
Five Ways That Buffer Time Can Improve Your Work-Life Balance
Buffer time is useful in many different ways: it can reduce stress levels, improve efficiency, and help ensure that each and every appointment is properly supported with the right time allotment. However, one of the best things about buffer times is that it can drastically improve and enhance your work-life balance.
Let's take a look at five simple ways that you can use buffer time to enhance your productivity by investing in your wellbeing.
Number One: Staying Hydrated.
It's so easy to forget to drink water. Even if you have an app to remind you, it still might not happen if you're rushing from meeting to meeting without any breaks in between. You can use buffer time to ensure that you have enough room between appointments so that you can take a moment to drink water and rehydrate. Remember, 73% of your brain is water, so if you're dehydrated that could negatively impact your ability to function in an impactful and effective manner.
Number Two: Staying Fit.
We often think about fitness in terms of going to the gym or having the time for a hike or a long walk. However, fitness is something that can happen in informal and bite-sized moments. Just scheduling an extra five-minute buffer between meetings so you can stretch your legs and your back can make a world of difference. Staying in one position for hours at a time tends to place undue stress on the body, so even taking two minutes to shake things out can help you reenergize.
Number Three: Practicing Mindfulness.
When you're busy, you're always thinking about the next thing. When you're always thinking about the next thing, you're not necessarily going to be existing in the moment. You can use buffer time to ensure that you have a few moments in your day where you can refocus and center yourself. Sometimes we forget what we're working for and all that we have achieved. These feelings can lead to a decrease in morale and impact your effectiveness. Buffer time can help ensure that you have a moment or two during the work day to acknowledge all that you have accomplished so far. It might not seem like much but, a minute or two of appreciation and reflection can be transformative.
Number four: staying nourished.
We all have different dietary needs. Some people need to eat more than three meals per day. This means they might need to take multiple short snack breaks in order to help maintain their blood sugar levels. Buffer time can help make sure this happens. If you need to take five minutes to eat some protein every 90 minutes, you can use buffer time to ensure that's possible. Remember, buffer time is here to help ensure that you meet your body's nutritional needs, whatever they are.
Number Five: Maintaining Your Health.
We all have different things that we need to do in order to maintain our health. Some people might have medication they have to take every few hours; others might need to regularly check in with their support network. It's easy when you're a highly ambitious person to let your health fall to the wayside. However, it doesn't need to be that way. Utilizing buffer times can help to ensure that you are in tip-top performance condition, by making crucial health related tasks part of your work schedule. Your health is critical to your performance and impacts the degree to which you can support your team. That’s why it needs to be accounted for just like any other essential work related resource such as proper ventilation and lighting.
As you can see, there are lots of different ways that buffer time can be used to make work-life balance an achievable, practical reality. One of the best things you can do to start utilizing buffer time sooner is to use an app like Cal.com that supports buffer time features.
