Fighting For Your Work/Life Balance

balanced rock in arches state park utah, a photo by Tim Pearce, Los Gatos on Flickr.

Fighting for a Work/Life Balance

When I hate the job I’m in, I focus on my private life. And if things are awry at home, I seek the solace of immersing myself in my job.

The truth is—I want to love my job all the time. Over the years I’ve made incremental career moves that ticked off as many boxes on my happiness factor list as I could possibly muster. The key is knowing what your criteria are.

Opt for clear boundaries.  Most workers will say that doing stimulating work is their number one general goal when they look for work. You also have to finesse separating your work time from your personal time—and to do this, you have to set clear boundaries. Since we’re all electronically wired into our roles these days, it’s too easy to pick up the Blackberry at 8PM when we want to read our children to sleep. Challenge your boss’s expectations of you being on call 24/7.

Find a boss who cares about your results vs. your methods.  Does your manager care more about how many hours you put into the project, instead of the final results? Is she more concerned about face time in the office vs. how you successfully talked that new client off the ledge? If you’re good at what you do, the logistics should be secondary.

If you’re burnt out at your job, try cutting back five hours a week.  Monitor yourself. Did the quality of the work change? if not, adjust accordingly.

Allow your personal work style to compartmentalize your day.  Do the tasks that come easily to you in the morning, if you’re an early bird. For me, research flows better during the early, uninterrupted-by-phone calls hours of the day. For you, it might mean balancing your team budget in the evening. If you’re stressed when the work day is over, find peaceful moments in between the end of work and your arrival home. Listen to books in the car on a long commute home, or choose silence—a scarce commodity.

Your vocation can be separate from your personal interests. Like you, I have a lot of items on my bucket list. And I think it’s fine if they have nothing to do with my career. Many people (especially entrepreneurs) reach for the blend and refuse to settle for anything less than a hobby or personal talent that morphs into a paying career.

I’m okay with pursuing my writing and my art  after I leave the work day behind. It’s a personal choice and there’s no shame in enjoying a career that is just your career. 

Then, the rest of the time, you can explore what makes you human.