Work/ Life balance

Episode 1. Take a step back and ask yourself:

• What is currently causing me stress, unbalance, or dissatisfaction?

• How are these circumstances affecting how I perform and engage with my job?

• How are they impacting my personal life?

• What am I prioritizing?

• What am I sacrificing?

• What is getting lost?

It’s usually a life-changing event (such as the birth of a child, or the death of a loved one) that makes us wake up and realize/recognize that we need to @

• take a step back,

• become aware of the mismatch between our current professional situation and our personal priorities,

• begin to denormalize our habit of working long hours.

 

Episode 2. Pay attention to your emotions

When you gain full awareness of your current situation, examine how that situation makes you feel.

Ask yourself those 2 questions and the answer them candidly:

• Do I feel energized, fulfilled, satisfied? or

• Do I feel angry, resentful, sad?

We need to have some understanding of our emotional reflexivity.

• Emotional reflexivity is the capacity to recognize how a situation is making you feel.

• Being fully aware of your emotional state is necessary in order to determine the changes you want to make in your work and in your life.

• That is why, you should answer the previous 2 questions candidly so that you change what really needs to be changed, and not something else.

 

Episode 3. Reprioritize

• Increasing your cognitive and emotional awareness gives you the tools you need to put things into perspective and determine how your priorities need to be adjusted.

Ask yourself:

• What am I willing to sacrifice, and for how long?

• If I have been prioritizing work over family, for example, why do I feel that it is important to prioritize my life in this way?

• Is it really necessary?

• Is it really inevitable?

• What regrets do I already have, and what will I regret if I continue along my current path?

 

Episode 4. Consider your options

Before jumping into solutions, first reflect on the aspects of your work and life that could be different in order to better align with your priorities.

Ask yourself:

• Are there components of your job that you would like to see changed?

• How much time would you like to spend with your family, or on hobbies?

 

Episode 5. Implement the change

• There is no right/wrong answer to whether you should do a public or private change, as both of them can be really successful if you implement the change in a sustainable manner.

• For private changes, this could mean setting limits for yourself (such as refusing to work in the evenings, on weekends, or during holidays and sticking to your decision) or declining demands typically associated with your role (such as new projects or travel requests, even if you are under pressure to accept them).

• For public changes, this could mean securing support from key mentors, partners, and co-workers, or even officially applying for a new internal position or a flexible working scheme.