This is something I rememeber my Dad always telling me when I was (still am?) growing up – Balance.
You can break work and life into more granular pieces. Life – immediate family, extended family, friends and self for example. Work – subordinates, superiors and clients. The simple concept is not to let any one of these, or “Work/Life”, to dominate your time and energy for an extended period of time. You may work 65-70 hours in a given week, maybe even 3 weeks in-a-row – you will be out of balance for a period of time. The key is to stay balanced over a long period of time – their will be ebbs and flows.
A blog I read on a fairly regular basis, The Art of Manliness, just did a piece on the Work/Life Balance. While their target audience is men with kids, the concepts apply to both genders.
How do you deal with the Work/Life balance? Leave a note in the comments.
- Bill Weber
photo credit: star5112
Posted by Adam Cohen on December 24, 2008 at 9:08 am
In my prior life (think Big 4 consulting), I served as a board member on a national Great Place to Work initiative. One of the challenges the group had was facing the term “work/life balance,” which inherently implies an equal ratio of time spent on each. Just given a 5 day work week that’s impossible, let alone the demanding work challenges we face, so the group rebranded the term to “Enjoy Life, Work Smart.” In a way I agree with the rebranding – often times we find ourselves working very hard, but not focusing our energy on the right things. Teams tend to band together when in crunch mode, but we have to protect against just everyone working late or weekends to feel part of a team vs. being effective. What kids of things would help influence you achieving balance at work – or at a baseline, working smarter?