Balancing Your Work and Your Life

              Balancing work and life has been a challenge for decades. Since the rise of cellphones and the internet, creating that balance has been made even more challenging. Some companies have gone as far as to say that you shouldn’t have a work life balance that it should be a work life integration. I’m here to tell you, absolutely not. We’re not doing that anymore. This week we’re talking about how you can balance your work with your life in the age of the internet and constant connection.

              Before we get into the concrete steps you can take, first recognize that you’re not alone in feeling the challenge of this. More people than not have struggled to honor the other parts of their life. For you to want to do things differently does not say anything about the kind of worker you are, it just suggests that you want to be able to attend to all parts of you. Now, on to concrete steps:

              First, identify your ideal working hours and set a boundary with your team.  If your company has flexible hours, identify what hours fit your job and your brain the best. Tell your team that those are the hours that you’re going to be keeping and provide them with alternative ways to get their questions answered during your off hours. If your company does not have flexible hours and you just find that you’re working later and later, decide your drop dead time to finish working, and STOP WORKING at that time. Even if there is still work to be done. There will always be more work to be done and learning to sit in the discomfort of that is paramount.

              Next, in support of that, take the notifications off your phone. When you’re outside your defined hours, the most common way I hear of people continuing to work outside their boundaries is in response to texts, calls, or emails that come in during off hours. Remove your email and work phone notifications from your phone. It’s not enough to swipe the notifications away because at that point you’re already emotionally and mentally engaged with work. You want to create a system where you don’t even see it.

              Create times and rituals where you opt in to interacting with work. Because you’re removing your notifications, you get to decide when and how you’re in a headspace to interact with work notifications. For many people this looks like starting their workday checking their emails for anything that came in after their previous day’s working hours. This helps to create a firmer boundary around working hours and non-working hours.

              Finally, take your paid time off and actually be off. Since the rise of remote work, it has become more and more common to go on working vacations. This is great for flexibility, but not great for being present in the non-working parts of your life. When you go on vacation, do yourself a favor and leave your work at home. You may need to arrange for coverage while you’re away and that’s okay. You do not need to opt in to your emails, texts, slack, or other work related content all of the time. By taking time away that can lead to being more invigorated with your work upon your return.