Labor Day is a good time to ponder such things as the role work plays in our lives and how much of our lives we give over to paid labor.
I first became aware of the term “work-life balance” in the 1980s when I was juggling two or three jobs while trying to complete my bachelor’s degree. At that point, things were balanced in my life as long as I kept working — sometimes up to 70 hours a week.
Since then, I’ve learned that balance means more than meshing multiple job schedules. I’ve also come to appreciate that overworking and underworking are both “in the eyes of the beholder” kinds of ideas.
These days, putting in a tough week sends me scrambling to recover my time the next week. The evolution in my approach to balance can be boiled down to the fact that I have a home life now that I didn’t have when I started out.
Fortunately for me, being my own boss means that I can usually make adjustments to create my own kind of balance each week. In my case, self-employment doesn’t mean I can stop working altogether for any stretch of time. Indeed, I still work more than full time, but the flexibility gives me advantages that even some part-timers don’t always have.
It’s probably evident that I don’t think work-life balance boils down to counting your hours at home or work, so much as measuring your satisfaction with where your time is going. If you feel that hours are practically being stolen from your life, then that’s clearly a problem. But if you feel your time is being well-spent, then it’s possible there’s nothing broken in your current situation.
Just in case, let me present tips for approaching the issue of balance between your work and personal lives. If something does feel akilter right now, perhaps one of these ideas will help you rejigger the situation.
1. Calm the chaos. In some cases, it’s not the hours at work or at home, per se, but the drama involved. Are you having end-of-day deadlines that segue into hairy commutes and frantic day care pickups, only to culminate in cranky meal preparation? Identify where things collide in your life and try to solve the logjam.
2. Talk with the boss. I constantly hear from otherwise brilliant people that they have no control over their work lives. And yet, in the same conversation, they’ll tell me about someone at work who gets all the breaks. In truth, they’re often describing someone who knows what they want and asks for it. This could include a change in work duties, a more flexible schedule, etc.
3. Reduce the demands at home. Some demands are easier to ignore than others, but your first line of defense is to identify what’s on your plate, and why. The next step is to get rid of something. You can do this by lowering standards (clean half as often, for example), by delegating or hiring out, or by eliminating the chore altogether.
4. Put a time limit on the situation. It may be that your out-of-balance lifestyle needs to be tolerated for a while. This could happen if you’re managing multiple goals that are equally important to you. For example, you may need all the hours you can possibly work while you pay down a debt or simply make ends meet; simultaneously, you may be determined not to miss certain aspects of your family life.
If you choose to maintain an impossible schedule for a period of time, you must also choose a date by which to resolve the clash.
5. Remember to enjoy yourself. This is still your life. Take frequent breaks at home and search for the funny side of things at work. If you can keep your mental and emotional balance intact, work-life balance won’t matter as much.
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