I hate the expression “work-life balance;” I prefer to call it “life-work balance.” I think LIFE is the title, and WORK is in the subtitle, like “LIFE: Family, Friends, Food, Work and More.” Work is to Life what the Pipps are to Gladys Knight, in the background, snappin’ along.
In my day job, I espouse the value of offering employees greater life-work balance options. But the truth is:
- The term “Balance” trips-up a lot of people
- “Balance” is difficult to define, and
- “Balance” is different for everyone. One person’s crazed schedule is another’s dharma.
When people think of balance, they often think of an image like the scales of justice. In order to be “balanced” the weight has to be evenly distributed across both sides. Employers hate this, because (understandably) they want work to be more important that anything else. Jack Welch - who speaks for all Pale, Male and Stale (“PMS”) in corporate America said so in his book, Winning.
But nothing in life is ever really “balanced” at any one time. If you’re married, you know this: sometimes you’re giving more to the relationship, and sometimes you’re receiving more. With money, sometimes you’re flush with cash; other times you’re borrowing it. With your weight, sometimes you’re gaining; other times you’re losing.
I think the point is to acknowledge that moment to moment, life is not balanced. Every meal doesn’t have to be perfectly balanced, but over the course of a week or a month, we need to get “enough” of all the things that are good for us, and not too much of the things that aren’t.
On balance, we need to be in balance.
Balance is different for everyone, but here are some techniques that seem to work for a lot of of knowledge workers, and I use them myself:
- If I’m in my head a lot, I get into my body. My job is cerebral, so if I’ve had a particularly heady week, I need to get into my body. I play basketball with the boys, hit tennis balls, go on loooong hikes or bike rides…anything that will get me out of my head and into my body.
- If I’m doing a lot of travel, I make sure that I take time to be still. A friend taught me a lovely meditation to do on airplanes which has made me look forward to flights and stay “grounded” at the same time.
- I’ve become aware of “monkey mind,” the term Buddhists use to describe a mind that is overly active and jumping from thing to thing. When I recognize my “monkey mind,” I push away from what I’m doing (usually at the computer.) Sometimes I set a two minute egg timer and just breathe. Other times, I read a chapter in the book, Awake at Work . Then I ask myself, “What’s the next ONE thing I need to do?” When I feel like I have enough focus to do that single thing, I do it. Then I ask myself “What’s the next ONE thing I need to do?” and so on…
- I drink water. Most of my headaches and a lot of my fatigue are caused by not getting enough water. I love coffee, but I start each morning with a large glass of water, just to give my body a little “rinse” from the inside-out.
- I adhere - as best I can - to David Allen’s Getting Things Done (“GTD”) protocol, which requires a Weekly Review. In GTD parlance, the Weekly Review is the “belt that hold the pants up.” If I want to stay on top of my work and feel calm and focused, I need my Weekly Review.
- One of the single most euphoric feelings I can achieve at work is when my email inbox is at zero. Thanks to Merlin Mann , another David Allen fan-boy, here’s a great video on how to get there.
What do you do to keep yourself in balance?
Postscript: This blog was originally posted at another of my blogs, which I’ve recently closed. One life; one blog.
