Every job that I have ever had has claimed to value “work-life balance,” even going as far as to proclaim it as one of their organizational beliefs and writing it on their wall, to make it real official. Each job gave me the “we encourage our workers to take time off and want everyone to make sure that they are truly taking care of themselves and their well-being,” spiel. Yet, I have come to question the tangibility of work-life balance in today's fast-paced work environments, mainly because every job I’ve ever had has had either a never-ending, unrealistic list of tasks and projects to do or become increasingly demanding as the weeks and months go by.
Additionally, when I’ve put in a vacation request, implicitly or explicitly they've given me a hard time about taking time off because of all of the tasks and projects still left to do. Then, when I have taken the time off to recharge, rejuvenate and reboot, within less than a week of returning back to work it felt as if I never went on vacation in the first place. How many of you can relate to the overwhelming amount of emails, that all need your attention immediately after you’ve returned from vacation or after your weekend is over. How many of you can relate to still doing work while you’re on vacation? Finally, how many of you can relate to the fear of taking a vacation in the first place because of how much more work you’ll have to do, on top of what you're already doing, when you come back? Naturally, in order to meet the rising demand, we extend the amount of hours we work and we neglect to take care of ourselves.
So what do we do, since time is limited and working longer hours over a long period of time is not sustainable? According to Catherine McCarthy and Tony Schwartz, the key is to focus not on the amount of time that you have but on your energy levels because “energy is a different story. Defined in physics as the capacity to work, energy comes from four main wellsprings in human beings: the body, emotions, mind, and spirit. In each, energy can be systematically expanded and regularly renewed by establishing specific rituals — behaviors that are intentionally practiced and precisely scheduled, with the goal of making them unconscious and automatic as quickly as possible.”
Below is a summary of how they broke each category down mixed in with my own additions on how you can increase each energy level.
Physical energy
This is about increasing and maintaining your physical energy levels.
– Eating properly, that includes drinking enough water.
– Exercising regularly
– Getting enough consistent sleep, we actually need somewhere around 7 to 9 hours of sleep every night.
Emotional energy
This is about increasing and maintaining the positive emotional energy because I know that when I’m feeling negative emotions, I don’t focus as well and it affects the quality of the work that I produce. Here are some ways that you can increase the positive emotional levels:
– Part of this is learning about your triggers, and having strategies in your back pocket for when stuff goes down because we can’t control those around us. We can’t control how they act or what they say, but we can control our emotional responses. Some of my own strategies include breathing, taking a walk outside, meditating and counseling.
– Taking preventative measures as well. Speaking daily positive self-affirmations, watching motivational videos throughout the day, creating and listening to your own "I'm Amazing" playlist. mine includes "Formation" by Queen Bey, of course, and FUBU by Solange.
– Giving out genuine compliments.
– Changing the narrative in your head – you know that negative voice that can run rampant if you let it. Check that voice.
– Lastly, if something really bothers you and/or makes you upset, address it! Don’t deny it, but take some time and think about what are some things that you can do personally to address the situation. Do you need to talk to someone in HR, your supervisor or a co-worker?
Mind energy
This is about your ability to really concentrate because research shows that multitasking actually decreases productivity. Here are some ways that you can do that:
– Maybe that means that you work away from your desk and find a new spot in the office where no one can find you.
– Turn off your emails to limit the amount of times that you stop and go answer your emails. Instead schedule specific times for checking your email.
– Set a timer for 15 minutes if you find it difficult to get started.
– Let your phone go to voicemail and schedule specific times to make calls.
– Try having only one tab open at a time and bookmarking the other tabs for later.
– Learn how to prioritize – take the time to see what activities are actually producing results and what activities aren’t and getting rid of the activities that are not producing results.
– Schedule time for those really challenging tasks and projects when you feel most energized.
Human Spirit (spiritual) is more so about purpose. For awhile I was finding it increasingly difficult for me to do my work and a huge reason was because it wasn’t aligned with my true purpose on this planet. It’s no secret that you’re more productive and able to accomplish more when you actually find meaning and purpose in what you do. But this sort of recognition takes a certain amount of self-awareness and introspection. Some things you can do in this area include:
– Taking personality tests to learn more about your own strengths and interests. Some of the more popular ones include the Myers-Brigg and Strengths finder.
– Think about your core values and write them down.
– Think about your hobbies, causes you care about, things that you do and almost always lose track of time while doing.
– What do you spend a great deal of time daydreaming about?
– What don’t you enjoy doing?
– Why did you leave previous jobs – what was it that you didn’t like? What don’t you like about your current job?
– After spending time thinking about these questions – does what you do align with your answers? If not, is there a role in your current company that does align with that. Can you create your own opportunity within the organization that can create this sort of position? Or is it time to start your side hustle or look for another opportunity?
– Lastly, engaging in activities on a daily, that feed your Spirit, that inspire you and have nothing to do with work. For me, that means going to concerts, poetry slams and having deep conversations with friends while eating delicious food. It also means that when I’m not at work, I’m not doing any work.
Therefore, if we can find a way to increase and maintain our energy levels throughout the week, we can be more productive and efficient when we are at work and also be able to engage in activities that we enjoy outside of work without feeling stressed out or guilty. But it starts with establishing and creating rituals and habits that will help address each of these areas.
Truthfully, it’s both your employer's responsibility and your responsibility to make sure that each of these four areas are being taken care of to varying degrees. Yet, I know that there are many work environments that won’t change overnight and implement this sort of strategy or culture, despite the plethora of benefits. But you can do something about this today by starting small. You don’t have to start addressing every area. I included some examples above of things that you can do but there are so many other resources on the interwebs like Hey Fran Hey, that can provide more tips and ideas.
There is much more that can be said on this topic and my goal is not to have anyone feel discouraged because they feel that achieving this sort of balance, is unattainable. But my goal is to get people to think about this more carefully and to also spend some time doing at least one thing a day that will at least address one of these areas. Like I mentioned before, start small, you don’t have to do it all at once. It doesn’t have to be complicated or involve a lot of steps. Nor does it have to be what everybody else is doing. I encourage you that as you embark on a journey to have work-balance that you be patient with yourself and forgiving, especially when things don’t go according to plan.
