Ready to snap? Try this to achieve work-life balance!
Even the greatest desire and effort is not powerful enough to make us be able to clone ourselves so we can attend that game-changing meeting and our best friend’s baby shower at the same time.
Recent technological advances in the field of telecommunications and IT did not help our cause. Those constant beeps from our smartphones, iPads and laptops make, announcing that we are needed and have a crisis to solve, make it even harder to leave work in our offices and give undivided attention to our families, friends, hobbies or ourselves.
With time, constant checking of our e-mail and social media profiles in fear of being left out of the loop if we disconnect for a few hours can become a habit. By constantly being available and thinking about our work, we spend much more time working than what our office hours show (and they often show quite a lot) and fail to get much needed rest.
How do we change that? Is work-life balance the answer or is it just an over-used and empty myth?
Is there such thing as work-life balance?
Most critics of work-life balance concept point out that many of us may feel pressured to achieve “balance” we don’t actually have a need for, just because everyone else is so hyped about it. On the other hand, they raise a question if is it even possible to completely separate our work and lifestyle personas into neat little boxes. And if it is not, do we even have a basis for talk about achieving balance.
I will side with critics that believe work to be an integral part of our life and that as such can not be observed and treated in isolation, but that its influence on other parts of our lives can be put under control. That’s why, I will not write about achieving balance but of taking control of our life.
Research done on 3,850 executives and leaders at companies and nonprofits around the world shows that their efforts for controlling their life at work and outside of it are mostly focused on:
1) Defining success for yourself
The most important thing in taking control of our life is knowing what we want from it – knowing what would make us successful by our own definition and our life fulfilling and meaningful. Ask yourself:
“What is the ultimate thing I wish to achieve when it comes to my work, family, friends, hobby, spiritual life, community involvement or any other aspect of life I consider important?”
Once you do that, prioritize. Having strong vision is important for organizations and individuals alike because it inspires us, shapes our decision-making processes and presents a well of strength and motivation when things get tough.
2) Managing technology
Next step is keeping your inbox under control and deciding when, where and how to be accessible for work. Many executives stress the importance of undivided attention for task at hand – be it writing a report or working on a decoupage box for your father.
Occasional un–plugging can be beneficial for taking time to reflect and allowing your coworkers to stretch their wings. Not to forget, the best way to build relationship and trust is still through face-to-face contact. After all, you cannot maintain meaningful relationships with your friends over phone, and it is not the best way to manage a team either.
3) Building support networks at work and at home
It can be quite easy to get lost even if you have the course set.
That is why each of us needs support at home and at work to help us stay on the course by providing us with emotional and technical support when needed and keeping us accountable for decisions we make.
By keeping people close to us involved in making important work related decisions that will affect them too, we get valuable input about what our alternatives, and their implications are and ensure their support.
4) Traveling or relocating selectively
While having international experience in your CV can often signal open-mindedness, sophistication, skill diversity and willingness to go above and beyond, accepting assignments that require relocation of not only yourself, but your new family, is not an easy decision to make.
It is crucial to evaluate the short-term or long-term impact of the available choices on our life and its alignment with our priorities.
5) Collaborating with your partner
The presence of strong emotional support in our life is indispensable. Partners are often our greatest allies – our sounding boards and toughest critics – no one is as selfless and as concerned about our wellbeing as the members of our family.
They can keep us focused on what matters the most and remind us to make healthy life choices. They take on our share of work at home when we are not able to. But most importantly, they are working alongside us towards achieving the shared vision of success you have set for your family. Remember to say thank you and to always value what you have!
But things often don’t go as planed, and that is ok.
In the end, it is important to note that things often don’t unfold as we plan it – life happens – but it is still possible to set a broad course for our lives that will help us stay on track and ultimately achieve the balance, or controlled integration, between different aspects of our lives.
Sometimes we must abandon the pursuit of the ideal of perfection – of being a perfect employee, perfect friend, perfect partner, etc. Sometimes life would get much easier if we just relaxed a little, breathed more and allowed ourselves to be “good enough”.
What are your thoughts on the topic? Are you struggling with work-life conflicts and how are you solving them?
Now, let me follow my own advice and leave you with a quote from William Ernest Henley’s poem “Invictus”, beautifully illustrated by Ana Varela.
The goal of this blog post is to spread the values of self-appreciation and importance of taking care of ourselves, which are going to be embodied in “ME Day” celebration on March 16th, 2015.
