Even in this economy, work-life balance is important. Maybe even more important as many of us are challeged with growing our businesses and working more with unpredicatble futures and higher stress levels.
Another blogger inspired me to write this blog — Darren Root of Rootworks blogged about Work-Life Balance and it resonsated so I thought I would share. I can’t link to the exact blog post so I’ll copy it below for you.
1. Figure Out What Really Matters to You in Life. To me, this is more of an “age” issue than anything else. In our 20s, we’re establishing our careers, while the 30s are spent over-achieving for success. I’m not sure anyone can truly figure out what matters in life until he or she has lived life. This can certainly happen in your 20s and 30s, but most likely, you’ll realize in your 40s what really matters and where you really want to be.
2. Drop Unnecessary Activities. “Everyone Loves a Volunteer” still rings in my head whenever I commit to outside endeavors. What’s wrong with saying “no?” My advice is to prioritize your activities and rank them from 1-5, with “5” as the activities you really want to pursue. Drop anything below a 3 and I think you’ll get to a more even balance. This works well for work tasks if there are some that can be put on the back burner.
3. Protect Your Private Time. I have a friend who worked for a company that implemented “private time” – an employee could not be disturbed by phone or e-mail for one hour each day. Yes, you can imagine, this lasted all of one week before reality took over. However, you can establish boundaries at work and at home. When you’re concentrating on something in the office, learn to turn off your e-mail client and put your phone on DND. At home, take a minimum of 30 minutes all to yourself. The kids may scream and the spouse may grunt, but you deserve that time to collect your thoughts and rejuvenate.
4. Accept Help to Balance Your Life. Professionals like us are more likely not to ask for assistance since we prefer to take control and figure things out for ourselves. Who wrote these rules? Not anyone I know. Learn to ask your boss for guidance on how to achieve a better balance. Ask your employees how you can help them achieve this as well.
5. Plan Fun and Relaxation. This is life – and you should have fun! Step back, take a deep breath and figure out your next opportunity to shake it up. Don’t be stressed by the 959 e-mails waiting for you; have an assistant or co-worker monitor your e-mail while you’re gone to lighten the load when you return. You’d do the same for them, right?
Darren’s post was inspired by a different post on WebMD called: 5 Tips for Better Work-Life Balance. And now I’m inspired by Darren’s post. Funny how these things work.
I’d love to hear your comments on how you search for work-life balance or if you search for it at all.
