Can you have it all? Can you have a great job and a fulfilling home life?
According to 70 percent of professional men and women across the
globe, the answer is yes. In a survey for a March 2013 report from
Accenture Research, a majority of executives from 33 countries said they
could have a successful career as well as a full life outside of the
office.
If you haven't quite found that perfect work-life balance, here are five ideas to try.
1. Determine your priorities
Identifying your priorities doesn't mean choosing work over home life
or vice versa. Instead, it means recognizing both contain many tasks
and not all of them should be on your to-do list.
For example, in your home life, you may be a room parent at school,
take a few classes at the local gym and volunteer at a nature center. At
work, you may be part of an ad hoc committee while heading up a new
initiative and mentoring the office intern.
Some of these activities will be priorities simply because they are a
basic function of your job or a necessity of life. For everything else,
record a log of how you spend your time for a week. Don't forget to
include such things as watching TV or surfing the Internet.
Note how much time you spent on the activity and how you felt
afterward. Did it leave you exhilarated and satisfied or exhausted and
angry? Items in the former category are likely to be your priorities.
2. Cull your schedule of unneeded and unfulfilling "busy work"
If you look over your log and realize you are one busy person, there
is probably a reason for that. Although conventional wisdom says excess busyness
leads to lower life satisfaction, a study published in 2010 by the
journal Psychological Science finds that people actually prefer to be
busy.
Now that you have a log of your activities, pinpoint which ones are
meaningful and which ones are simply filling time. Maybe you volunteer
in your child's class because you think you should, or perhaps you took
on the ad hoc work committee because you can't say no. Eliminate these
activities to make room and save energy for those things you truly
enjoy.
3. Have clear boundaries for work
To have the perfect work-life balance, you can't let your work
overwhelm the other aspects of your life. And that means having clear
boundaries between work time and home time.
Depending on your type of work, you may be able to leave your job
behind completely when you leave the office. Other positions may require
you to finish up some tasks at home and on the weekends.
In these situations, set aside a specific time to work, and once the
designated time is done, pack everything away for the evening. Unless
you are on a hard deadline, tasks can probably wait until the next day.
In addition, resist the urge to be "on call" outside of work hours.
Unless it is an expectation of your job, save return calls and emails
until the next business day.
4. Outsource and delegate when you can
If you find there is simply no way to keep up on your work without
logging in long hours at home, it may be time to outsource some of your
tasks.
Unless you are a supervisor, it may be difficult to unload some of
your job duties onto others. In that case, interns can be excellent
resources. What may be a menial task to you may be interesting to them.
For example, interns may be happy to scan trade magazines, file
paperwork and do data entry.
While it may be tempting to dump all your busy work on an intern, be
sure to make this a win-win arrangement. Find out what they are hoping
for during the internship -- such as learning a certain skill -- and
make sure they have the opportunity to do so.
5. Unplug at least once a week
Unplugging from your computer and phone is a sure-fire way to avoid having your work overrun your home life.
You could shut down the electronics for an entire day on the weekend
or a shorter period of time each day, such as after 7 p.m. each
weeknight. If you don't know you have 12 work-related emails waiting in
your inbox, you won't be tempted to answer them.
As an added bonus, a 2012 study published in the online journal PLOS
One found unplugging and getting outside helps spur creativity. That may
mean unplugging can do more than help you achieve a perfect work-life
balance; it may also give you that "aha moment" that could take your
career to the next level.