Allowing yourself high quality me-time is not a bad thing especially after the busy holiday season and now starting to get back to work. A latest study has found that high quality me-time can improve your psychological wellbeing as well as making you a more engaged employee.
Two studies investigated whether the quantity and quality of me-time can be associated to a better work-life balance, wellbeing and engagement at work. The first of these studies involved 18 professionals to complete a daily diary on their perceptions and experiences of me-time over a month. The second took 344 professionals and required them to fill out a questionnaire regarding work-life balance, family relationships, engagement at work and life satisfaction.
What the studies found is that those who experienced higher quality me-time than others enjoyed better work-life balances, wellbeing and were more engaged at work.
“Overall our research suggests if people take time out to recharge their batteries and experience the time taken out as high quality, this reaps benefits for their own psychological wellbeing, their family relationships and for their employers as they are more likely to perform better at work,” says Dr Almuth McDowall.
Me-time however can be different for everyone according to Dr McDowall, “Me-time is a much talked about concept usually because people lament that they don’t have any. Interestingly we found that me-time doesn’t have to be solitary and is more beneficial if it involves freely chosen activities. Opinions varied whether mundane routine tasks, such as housework, count as me-time — doing the washing up does not reap benefits for everyone.”
