Tips to Improve Your Well-Being
Ways to win back your time:
1) Plan your meetings well
2) Set a “Good bye office” alarm on your phone or your computer each day so you know it’s time to go home.
3) Set a “think break” alarm during the middle of the day for some fresh air.
4) Limit sources of communication with clients and business colleagues to two outlets during the day: Phone and email are suggested (text messaging in business tends to cross into personal).
5) Revisit your calendar and schedule to see where to improve your productivity.
6) Set yourself up with a daily “I look forward to…” message so you don’t miss out on you.
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A couple of times per year, I catch up on business and life with a long-time trusted friend. Though we work in different industries, our discussions over the past few years have revolved around how to manage today’s workforce. We discuss new tools and training programs in the development and implementation stages at our respective organizations. Yet our greatest challenge is a solution to this question: how to manage a better work/life balance with the constant presence of technology.
Let’s reviewing history from a contemporary point of view for a moment, with our work/life balance in mind. If we look back over the last 30 years, people mostly pursued careers of interest or a career in which they had a talent. Most enjoyed what they were doing, even when facing challenges or long hours as they believed in what they were doing.
People had time to volunteer in their local communities. They found they had time for their own interests and pursuits that, in turn, made them more productive in their day-to-day lives and work.
How will we view, in generations to come, the impact of the technology revolution? We will, no doubt, remember that the original promise was to make life easier, more efficient and more productive -- with less hours spent at work.
Today, however, that promise has faded into the background of non-stop communication blur of business and personal. We are challenged by too many hours at work— a phone that receives emails and texts at all hours of the day. Plus, many companies have office environments that are better than home: conversation nooks, game rooms, pets that roam, an ample stock of snacks and nap rooms. They bring extras to you like gyms and a trainer. While on the outside, you’ve got a great work environment, the fact that you are not missing anything from home means you are spending way more hours at work than your predecessors.
This blinding array of employee perks rubs away at the boundaries between professional and personal lives and this is a cause for great stress among the workforce. In a recent article, “The Hidden Costs of Stressed-Out Workers,” (Wall Street Journal) companies often don’t realize how much they pay for lost time and productivity from unhealthy workplace dynamics. But there are ways to lower the stress level. Author Jeffrey Pfeffer cites several studies that show how effectiveness and productivity drop and health problems rise, when hours lengthen.
As a workforce, we have embraced invasive technology but now we are facing the overload of our once manageable addiction. Often when a person is asked how they are doing, the response is always “busy…busy.” No one ever quite catches up on the business hamster wheel.
If we look back on our history, we will see that we often had a work/life balance. Before personal computers and cell phones, we knew that once we left the office, it was okay to turn things off, visit with family and friends, do something creative, workout, volunteer or just sit back and think.
Let’s take a lesson from history and let’s make a pact to “turn it off” and set boundaries by closing the door on electronic noise. Make room for your personal interests and passions that help you feel alive every day.
