We all work in some form for a large portion of our lives. We need to work to pay bills, put food on the table, and generally support ourselves and our loved ones. Some people even enjoy work on a personal level, finding satisfaction in being good at what they do and wanting to grow their careers further. With all of this, it can sometimes be hard to separate our work and personal lives. This has been further elevated with how easy it is to access our work emails and do our work from the comfort of our homes. Combine this with the fear of losing your job and no longer being able to support yourself, and work sometimes feels like it’s overtaking us. As you can see, we must have a good work/life balance. We need to be able to separate ourselves from our jobs and enjoy life. Here are a few reasons why work/life balance is important.

We Work Harder

When there’s a clear line between our jobs and our home lives, we tend to do better work. We’re more present and engaged during working hours because we’re not overworked or stressed about our jobs when we’re not there. A survey from 2006 found that a business with highly-engaged employees had an almost 20% improvement in operating income with a 52% gap in performance improvement in operating income. Having that clear separation of work and personal lives greatly affects how much harder we’re willing to work, as we’ll come to appreciate our jobs instead of resenting them.

Healthier Lives

When work begins to overlap with our home lives, it can lead to all sorts of health problems. It’ll likely start with stress and exhaustion, but those problems can lead to worse ones after a while. Overexhaustion and stress can cause us to lose our appetite, have heart-related problems, or even make it easier to come down with illnesses like the flu. Our health should ultimately be what’s most important to us, and if we let work affect our personal lives too much, all we’re going to do is fall ill and then not be able to work.

Stronger Relationships

When work bleeds into our personal lives, we start to become detached from the relationships that ground us in life. By overworking yourself, you’ll not only have less time to spend with your loved ones, but the time you can spend with them will likely be less fulfilling due to stress and exhaustion. As humans, we require genuine personal connections with those around us, and by letting work control your life, you’ll miss out on this integral aspect of your health and happiness.