Work Life Balance: Blessing or a curse “12 steps to work!”
'I dare you, why not find out how technology can help you'
Balancing how much of your life you are willing to concede in favour of work has always been something I have struggled with. I am often questioned by my clients when I diligently respond to their needs, are they really expecting a response from me at 11:30pm on a Friday night or have I created that expectation?
Modern technology certainly hasn’t helped curving my addiction to work. I have 2 different smart watches that I use and they have made it easier to see who has contacted me. I can just glance at my watch face rather than pulling my phone out of my pocket. Nice and handy for me or am I now the ignorant one who thinks he has a better way of checking his email than having my phone at the dinner table, really am I that guy???
When doing it recently I was called out by my friends who stated “are we not special enough for your attention?” This smacked home a point that my wife has been making for a number of years. A mate I have had for near 20 years who runs his own very successful business can turn off so why not me?
Maybe the fact that I work from home means I am always at work? The lines they blur between work starting and stopping. I only take 12 steps from my bed and I am at my desk. My wife is a busy lawyer so I tend to work until she walks in the door of an evening and then it is 20 steps to the lounge.
Get Liberated! It wasn’t until during our recent trip away to Tasmania where we had a week of no technology, my wife and I came to realise how liberating it can be to switch off from work and just be in the moment. And like all good ideas, we decided to buy a weekender. Something that was just close enough that it wasn’t a hassle to get to but far enough out that you weren’t connected.
Now, this doesn’t always work out if your firm doesn’t give you the technology to be mobile or manager who can appreciate the need to unwind from the stresses of work, but then if you never ask you never find out…. both our respective employers embraced the idea to allow us to be a little flexible about the lunch break on a Friday.
Technology now plays a bigger part in our life and has allowed us to be available when required and yet still be in a location that allows us to stop and enjoy our time outside of business hours. So as I head down the coast again I know it’s easy to take calls, and I can use my BigHand Go for my proposals, notes or first draft of emails to prospects and clients whilst in the car so that when I arrive it is ready for me to just proof and send as soon as I am safely online.
There is no down time for my clients, and I am still capable of putting in a full day of work. Come beer o’clock, I am off down the beach to enjoy the sand between my toes and the cool spray against my face.
We will always have things that come up and urgent deadlines which can’t be turned off. However, work that we would normally estimate to take a couple of hours gets done in thirty minutes, there are no disturbances, we are in a relaxed atmosphere where we both can think and my wife’s biggest concern is only is where to sit on the veranda so that the sunlight glare doesn’t become an issue with her laptop.
Work/life balance is becoming a reality that I am happy to embrace, so I dare you, why not find out how technology can help you! Have a great weekend and enjoy the picture at the top which is my view for the weekend!