Tips to getting the Work/Life balance
Sunday, April 4th, 2010
Blog Post Disclaimer: I warn you now. The above title is a tad misleading as I am a workaholic this post is about achieving the work/work balance.
The Post: These last few weeks I have not been very good at getting the work life balance – in-fact I have been terrible. When you are working on a Career it seams the job can never be finished and it can consume your whole life.
While im not going to ignore the fact that a successful career can be very rewarding and a worthwhile investment. It is also important to consider that devoting your whole efforts into your career may only result in being stuck in the rat race forever. Therefore it it important to get the balance just right to ensure you can be fully effective in your life.
If the above sounds all work/work then you may want to maximize your work/life balance to spend more time doing leisurely activities and enjoying the rewards that life has to offer.
This week I have had off from work and it has been so nice to remember how good life can be away from the ‘grind’. Listening to music again, spending time reading, spending time writing, spending time thinking and doing all the good things that makes living worthwhile (im sure you have your own list) and I think to myself – why cant it be like this all the time.
I have decided to give this some more thought, and plan a strategy how I can become for effective to maximize the work life balance, below are my top tips:
Top Tips to getting the work/life balance
- Be an early riser – If you work at 9-5 then the brain is most active early in the morning and you can achieve a great deal of productivity during this time, however this time is spent at work. I recommend getting used to being an early riser and using the early hours in the morning to complete your most taxing of personal challenges and as Benjamin Franklin said “‘Early to bed early to rise makes a man healthy wealthy and wise’”
- Plan your work days – during your working day you will get lots of opportunities to tick off a few personal next steps. Even if this is simply to make a phone call during your lunch break or to draft a blog post.
- Use technology - technology is there to make life easier. I would be lost without my Blackberry because I can check my stock portfolio while at work, clear my inbox while at work and even write a blog post while at work. This is a fantastic tool because otherwise I would be doing all this during my home time. Although I stress this does work both ways as I find myself all to often responding to work related issues at home. As Homer Simpson says “DOH!!)
- Look after your health - if you are unhealthy when you get home all you may want to do is crash out on the sofa. If this is the case then you may need a little exercise in your life to bring back the spring in your step.
- Utilize your idle time – similar to planning personal activities to fill free moments of your working time you should also be thinking of things to fill idle time in general. For example what could you be doing in that Post Office waiting line or that Dentist waiting room? Stop spending time waiting and start spending more time doing.
- Clear the inbox – learn that tasks do not go away, they just pile up. So it is important to keep actively ontop of your to do’s – no matter how boring they are!
- Minimize travel time – I am personally traveling about 2.5 hours per day to and from work, I have learnt that if i leave and extra 2 hours early and stay late I can minimize this to around 1hour 45min. This is still a very long time to be traveling. When I add it up i think to myself what else could I do with an extra 50hours per month? The lesson learnt here is to (A) leave an extra two hours earlyer or (B) move closer to work!
- Don’t waste precious time – review how you are spending your free time. At the moment I am spending allot of time watching repeats of “only fools and houses” although i totally love the show. I think to myself – what new life experiences is this giving me? how productive am I being? and the answer to my questions is that im probably procrastinating from doing something effective.
- Do all chores on work days – If you have weekends off then its not a productive use of your time to clear the inbox, do the washing or do tasks you could have completed in the weekday evenings. You should be planning to have your chores/inbox cleared and have yourself loaded up with rest ready to hit your days off as hard as possible and get maximum effectiveness from them.
- Learn to say no – It is important to know when to say yes, and maximise your profile with your friends/family/coleagues. You should also know when to say no as you dont want your free time filled up with other peoples jobs and tasks. Remember to “only do what you can do”
- Rest – not resting and staying up late working is essential sometimes but longterm is is a false economy because it will just make you tired and less productive when you do actually have free time. If you know you have a weekend off then Wends and Thursday you should be planning to have an early night to gain a good dose of sleep leading into the weekend.
- Don’t work yourself to death - take a break from time to time, even just to clear your head. You may not feel like you are being productive but remember there is more to life than just work. I personally work very hard and even harder to work effectively so I can enjoy a good life in the years to come. But if you dont take a step back and think to yourself that you should take the time out to enjoy life then that could mean your whole substance is just work related. I hold the mirror up when I say that last comment.
