Health & Fitness
Work to live, don’t live to work. Figure out how to make your work and life “fit” together.
The ever elusive quest for the working parent: How do I achieve work life balance? Or is the better question: How do I make my work and life “fit” together? Can there ever be true balance?
A few years ago, I attended an information session at work where a senior level executive provided her perspective on how to maintain work life balance. For each person it will be different, but as working parents we can all learn from one another. The following tips she shared with the group were invaluable:
Top 10 Ways to Maintain Work Life Balance
1 – Know (declare and stay committed to) what is non-negotiable
2- Schedule and make happen your must have “Me” time – jogging, train reading
3- Build and reward your support network (parents, friends, spouse, etc.) – make time for them and take time to say thank you
4 – Choose leaders who value you what you do and ask yourself very once in a while “does my job make me happy” and if not “what do I need to do to change that in some small way so it does”
5 – Prioritize/Prioritize/Prioritize – Focus/Focus/Focus
6 – No regrets policy – if you think that you are going to regret a trade off, you will so don’t make the trade off
7 – Have time management rules
* Minimize external lunches – they take too much time
* Manage to one night a week maximum for business purposes
* Build a moat around weekends
* Carve out time to get work done during the day (meetingless Wednesdays)
8 – Compartmentalize – I generally don’t mix business and personal ( ie. colleagues over for dinners, etc.)
9 – Have a “trusted” outlet – there will be times where there is more work-life pressure than usual and you will need to vent – have a trusted source(s)
10- Always remember that your kids have much longer memories than your colleagues.
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This talk really spoke to me. There is a lot of great advice from a top level woman executive who strives toward work life balance or “fit” as we all do.
Work to live, don’t live to work. YOLO – life is not a dress rehearsal. Enjoy it!
