A Forex Trader’s Survival Guide: The Work-Life Balance

The following guest post is courtesy of New Zealand based Forex broker Titan FX.

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Success is not all about working round the clock.

Though it is important to be dedicated to trading, it is also essential to practice healthy work-life balance. Work-life balance is the concept of giving the right time and energy for both work and lifestyle. It involves an effective approach to planning out daily activities to improve career and wellbeing. To juggle work and personal life, master work-life balance for optimal forex trading.

When you are in the business of forex trade, it can be easy to forget about work-life balance. Aside from monetary risks, you are also exposed to threats for both physical and mental well being. To fight these risks, apply healthy work-life balance and continue to grow your career.

Why is work-life balance so important?

Having an effective work-life balance is valuable in a forex trading career. For long-term success, good work-life balance enables suitable prioritizing of work and lifestyle activities. Here are the top 3 reasons to apply work-life balance into your trading strategy:

For strong mental well-being

Forex traders need strong mental well being. To go through the challenges of a volatile market, emotional wellness can encourage better outlook. It also creates a proactive work environment especially when facing trading losses. Through an effective work-life balance, you can recharge and reboot from inevitable anxieties of the job while boosting mental well-being.

For digital detox

Making time for good work-life balance encourages forex traders to take a break from the digital world. This means making time away from the desk. Forex traders can minimize digital eye strain as well as physical strain from long hours of sitting. Digital detox also means data detox. With the amount of information to take in, you can relax the mind from processing excess data. In the long run, forex traders can prevent any burnouts.

For better stress management

Whether you are trading full time or part time, the natural anxieties in forex trading are constant. The best strategy to fight anxiety in a forex trading career is to apply work-life balance. When balancing work and relaxation, forex traders can better manage stress. Eventually, lesser stress leads to fewer health problems. This also leads to an increase in performance and productivity.

Guide to Optimal Work-Life Balance

With high demand for both time and energy, forex trading is a career that should include proper work-life balance. It is the only way to face risky trades or hours of analysis. It is also the best way to ensure strong emotional well-being. For optimal work-life balance, get to know facts and steps to creating great harmony between trading and personal time.

The definition of successful work-life balance

Work-life balance is a challenge in personal mastery. In forex trading, being your own boss allows you to effectively manage the right schedule for yourself. The concept planning balanced hours for work and leisure is highly applicable for traders. To attain successful work-life balance, you will need to create a schedule that allocates both rest and work. In the end, an effective balance will show in a healthy point of view towards work and personal life.

Top 5 Must-Haves for Success in Work-Life Balance:

1. Effective and calculated forex trading strategy
2. Proper execution and understanding of time management
3. Planned exercise to control stress during both work and breaks
4. Allotted “flextime” for unforeseen market movements
5. Optimized energy management that includes an effective sleeping schedule

Your lifestyle choices

Lifestyle plays a big role when balancing work and personal time. When taking a break from the forex market, plans for relaxation goes a long way. This is where your lifestyle choices can help improve or disrupt your work-life balance.

An optimal work-life balance typically accommodates the following lifestyle choices:

• Health
• Personal relationships
• Leisure
• Relaxation
• Gratification

To make the most out of time off, forex traders need to relax and enjoy. For optimal balance, make sure your lifestyle choices are healthy and improve your physical and mental well-being. For long term success, it is highly beneficial to learn the ways to manage forex trading lifestyle.

Manage and assess through the “Wheel of Life”

The Wheel of Life is a great self-assessment tool to help review and optimize your current work-life balance. It is an illustration that shows the important areas of your life and how you currently manage them for better balance. Used in settings goals and coaching, the Wheel of Life is an effective tool that gives insight on current time management and personal satisfaction. When used consistently, this exercise can maintain good work-life balance.

Everybody’s Wheel of Life is unique. To see how balanced you are, make sure you begin the Wheel of Life exercise with a clear mind. As a guideline, follow these steps for setup and evaluation:

Step 1: Prepare a simple wheel diagram.

Step 2: Note down different areas of life that are highly valuable to you.

Step 3: Categorize these into the major key groups like career, health, relationships, growth etc.

Step 4: Once you have your categories, rate every area from 1 to 10. 1 being the lowest and closest to the the center of the circle. 10 being the highest and nearest to the circle’s edge

Step 5: Take a step back and look at the overall picture. Are you satisfied with our key categories? Is this your ideal “wheel”?

Step 6: Explore and enhance areas you want to improve for better balance.

Step 7: After execution of changes or improvement, do another Wheel of Life exercise.

The Wheel of Life helps you achieve your desired work-life balance. By rating areas of life that are important to you, you are assessing the way you are handling different aspects where you spend most of your time. Using the insights from the Wheel of Life exercise, learn to practice and apply proactive decisions for better quality trades and stronger forex trading character.

After all your efforts, how can you tell if you are balanced? Here are off-hand indications that you are achieving good work-life balance:

• Your Wheel of Life is improving
• You have lesser anxiety during executions and long trades
• You are not physically or mentally overwhelmed
• You immediately apply proper damage control during losing trades
• Your schedule is well-balanced for both work and leisure
• You have a stronger sense of satisfaction towards work
• Your choices are deliberate and calculated for the better

Begin to balance today

Achieving true work-life balance is the key to an enjoyable career in forex trading. Depending on individual circumstances, practicing proper work-life balance differs for everyone. Whether you are a full time or part time trader, balancing trading and relaxation is a personal feat. Because of this, it is important to remember that work-life balance does not need to be equal. In the long run, having an effective work-life balance simply requires a practical schedule optimized for both health and achievement. For absolute success in forex trading and personal time, apply work-life balance to your forex trading strategy.