Work life balance is a myth

I am putting together a presentation for a client of mine on work life balance and as I sit here I am compelled to write about the fact that there is no balance. How did we come up with this crazy concept? The term suggests that we actually have a balance or equal hours at work and home.. how unrealistic.

And the amount of training that is available on getting work life balance is quite interesting. Sadly one size does not fit all; an ideal week may provide you with some structure in how you manage your work day but probably not the balance you are looking for. And here is the real cruncher what is right today in regards to balance more than likely will not be tomorrow.

How often have you had to give up on your gym appointment because a meeting ran over time? I had a chat to a collegue about this very issue yesterday and my question is.. would you miss an appointment with a prospective client? If the answer is no then why miss an appointment with yourself?

So what is the answer? Perhaps we need to start thinking in terms of flexibility, high degrees of it! Reduction in how much we may procrastinate, saying NO and the king of them all get great at delegation.

Whenever I start to feel a little overwhelmed by what is occurring around me I go back to the concept of looking at my life in 4 quadrants. Family, Work, Friends and Me. How much time am I spending in each?

Here is what often happens, I have a bad day at work and I immediately call my friends to go have a drink, keep this up on a regular basis and two parts of the quadrant starts to suffer –family and me. Often I will have a serious chat to myself as to how much time I am spending in each quadrant and can I perhaps do better.

Instead of focusing on whether my life is balanced or not what I do is look at what I have achieved in a day, people whose lives I have impacted on and how much fun did I have along the way.. did we laugh?

Map it back to the four quadrants – family, work, friends and me – what have you achieved, whose lives have you impacted on in a positive way and how much fun did you have along the way.

Perhaps as you drive home tonight assess it from this prospective and you may be surprised as to how much life balance you actually do have.