All Work... No Play

5 Simple steps to get your life back in balance  

 DOMONIQUE BERTOLUCCI

1. Get a LIFE! 

The most important thing you can do if you find that you are having no life outside of work is to create a life outside of work.  Start making plans for your recreation time and stick to them. Enrol in that class you have always wanted to take, arrange to meet a friend for a movie or commit to a gym class or personal trainer.

 

The trick is to schedule these events into your diary and then commit to them in the same way that you would any other appointment during your busy week.  

The more reasons you have for finishing your working day, the easier it will be to finish your work for that day.

2. Get Clear About Your Priorities 

Whether you work for yourself of for an employer, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that work is the most important thing in your life.  There are deadlines to meet, customers to keep happy, issues to resolve and bills to pay.

It’s important to remember that work is what you do, not who you are; it is just one of the many roles you play in life. You need to take the time to honour the other roles that you play and to make time for the wide range of activities that are part of being a well-rounded person.

3. Manage Expectations

One of the most important things that you can do to bring more balance into your life is to manage the expectations of others.  Just because your clients, customers or boss says “jump”, doesn’t mean that you have to say “how high”!

Get proactive and start informing people of what they can reasonably expect from you and by when.  Develop the habit of saying ‘I can get back to you with that quote tomorrow’,  ‘I can get that report to you within the week’ and ‘I’m really happy to take that (project) on, but I will need to reprioritise some of my other tasks’.

Remember to under-promise and over deliver. That way everyone will be happy, including you!

4. Get Creative 

When you are working at a hectic pace, it can feel like there literally is no time to fit in the other things that you would like to be doing, like catching up with friends, exercising or simply taking time out to relax.

Look at different ways you can keep your social life going. You could meet a friend for breakfast before work, or combine socialising with exercise by asking your girlfriends to join you for a power walk at lunchtime, or a group personal training session.

5. Aim for Overall Balance 

Don’t worry too much if every single day of your life is not in total balance. What you want to aim for is overall balance.  Aim to achieve balance over the course of the week, the month or even the year.  

You could work late on a Tuesday night, so that you can finish work early on a Friday.  If you have to work long hours one month, you could schedule a series of long weekends the following month, and if you find that your whole year has been crazy, make sure you book a long holiday or even a sabbatical the following year.

It’s important to remember that there will always be more work to do, and that there will never really be a good time to take time off – so just do it!  You will feel so much better in the long run.

First published in Working Woman Magazine - Winter 2006