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05.11

Restoring Balance to Your Work and Life

If you're one of those fortunate people whose life is in balance, you may wonder just what is the ‘big issue’ about work-life balance. If you're not one of those people, chances are that you believe achieving this balance may not be possible. In either case, you should step back from time to time and evaluate your situation.

Although the degree of balance you experience can change from week to week (or some say from hour to hour), a few questions can help you to gain insight on what contributes to your sense of being in or out of balance. Even though it's not a scientific assessment, the following eight questions can provide the starting point to gain insight and make informed choices:

1. How much pull do you feel between work and family or community activities, hobbies, etc.?

2. To what degree do you feel pushed by your boss or co-workers to work more hours or to work harder?

3. How often does your family forego or limit activities because you need to work?

4. Do others refer to you as a workaholic?

5. Do you feel as if you are just “spending” time?

6. To what extent do you believe that your job conflicts with your long-term goals and desires for your life?

7. To what extent is your work energizing?

8. To what extent do you believe that how you spend your time is your choice?

The next important step is to determine just what balance means to you. If you were actually experiencing the ideal work-life balance, what would that look like? Answering this question will tell you whether you are “on track” with those often-unstated goals that relate to family, contributing to the community, pursuing a hobby or sport, continuing your education, or pursuing career advancement.

As you think about what balance means, think both short-term (this year or even closer in) and long- term. Remember that you are making choices now that impact your future.  Primary choices are those that represent major commitments in your life:

• What are your career aspirations?

• How much time with family or friends is important to you?

• How do you want to interact with your community?

• How committed are you to leisure hobbies or sports?

Supporting these primary choices are secondary choices (large and small) such as:

• Will I go back to school?

• Will I accept a job that involves a lot of travel?

• Will I continue my membership at the gym?

• Will I accept an office in the homeowners association?

• Will I join the new product development team?

As you think about choices, keep in mind that most choices are not irreversible, but each choice is likely to require a tradeoff. Often this tradeoff is time invested now to help accomplish a larger life goal versus time “spent” in the manner that seems easiest or most attractive in the moment. Believing that you have a choice is a critical aspect of making good choices.

Throughout a day or a week, you will have many opportunities to choose how you spend your time. Years ago, someone gave me a model that describes choices about time. Think of a 2X2 matrix with “urgent” on one axis and “important” on the other. As you look at how you allocate your time, where does it go — to things that are truly important to you or to those things that pop up as fires to fight today? Often those things that do not seem urgent (e.g., “I’ll check out a master’s program”, or  “I’ll join the community service group.”) may be most important because these can have the biggest impact on your long-term sense of satisfaction and fulfillment.

If you are to gain more balance by investing your time on those things that are most important to you, you must be clear about the high priority goals in your life. Goals serve as the “level” that helps you know when you are out of balance.

Other strategies for gaining more balance include focusing on relationships — both work relationships and non-work relationships — and recognizing what stresses you and what energizes you.  Most likely, you are not overly stressed and do not feel out of balance even during times of heavy workloads if that work is energizing.

Finally, keep in mind that balance occurs over time. It is not something that is likely to be visible every day, week, or even month. Over the years, however, balance can emerge.

Peggy Hutcheson, Ph.D, is the founding partner of the Odyssey Group, a firm specializing in products and services for organizations and individuals to connect people to changing work roles. Currently she serves as co-chair of the IEEE-USA Innovation Institute, and she is past chair of IEEE-USA's Employment and Career Services Committee. Peggy is a speaker and author, having co-authored Helping Employees Manage Careers, published more than a dozen articles, presented a half dozen invited webinars, and contributed to five books.  Her contributions have been recognized with leadership awards from ASTD, IEEE-USA, and Georgia State University.

She can be contacted at p_hutcheson@odysseygroupinc.com.

Comments on this article may be submitted to todaysengineer@ieee.org.