You are your own greatest asset, so protect yourself
Work is critically important to your life, but it should be complementary and not be to the detriment of it, writes Wavemaker’s Tim Grady.
One of my good friends told me to put myself first. So, after spending a week away on a coastal holiday, it would be remiss of me to not to reflect on the past year and what I’ve learnt. I spent a week away with nothing but my own thoughts (and a set of golf clubs) and it was the best thing I’ve ever done – I wish I had it done it earlier.
2018 was an extremely tumultuous year, one which could be defined as bittersweet. From a professional sense, I couldn’t be prouder of what I was able to achieve in conjunction with my colleagues. However, from a personal point-of-view, my time management, prioritisation and decision-making could have been infinitely better.
It’s amazing where clarity can come from and mine came from reading Chris Kyle’s biography. Kyle’s personal priorities were religion, country and then family and upon first reading this, I did view these as warped but then came the realisation that these had quickly become mine over the past twelve months. How could I view these to be wrong when I was following the same values? Kyle had become disconnected from his personal life, as had I. The penny dropped, something had to change and the key to having a successful year in 2019 is to achieve balance in my life.
Good on you Tim for recognising the problem and committing to improving your balance. To be your best (at work and at home) you need proper separation and time away from the computer, phone, office.
Mumbrella, the ad “go large” on the sides of this article made it almost impossible to read the piece. terrible user experience.
Well written Tim, and so very true. Taking a step back to have some ‘inner reflection time’ is invaluable. There is a take-away in your article for everyone, from entry level through to senior management – well worth the 2 minutes it took to have a read (in my busy day)!
100% yes we should all take control of our own lives and responsibility for balance, but it’s important to balance this argument and POV with the that sometimes this industry doesn’t allow us balance, ever when we are stressed, even when we say we need it or ask for help… and there is a real responsibility on management, and leadership to have the courage to say no on your behalf. It’s the same argument we’ve had for years, yet burnout and turnover is still increasing all the time.
The default position is that many businesses and the leaders within them promote the idea of “you have a choice”. In some instances by all means you do, but the choice should be about where you allocate your time and the achievement of KPI’s.
In reality, the situation of choice is often boiled down either “do the work” or “let your career be impacted, in some cases no job”.
Nobody walks into a role that has work/life balance, it’s a nice dream to do so but our industry in Australia is well down the river now.
Need a good old cleanse
Great piece, Tim!
Worklife balance is so important, especially when a lot of people are now juggling longer commutes than ever and also additional study to enhance their careers.
I think that rather then us rocking up to work for 9 – 5 hours, we need to be embracing flexible working arrangements better. Some people might be better off starting early, leaving early, then jumping back on later. Or others might benefit from doing a 5 day week in 4 days working 8 am – 6 pm; or instead of offering a pay rise with every promotion we offer a 9 day fortnight.
There are a lot of ways that work-life balance can be achieved outside of running out the door as soon as the clock strikes 5 pm.
Great article Tim. As leaders we need to model flexibility and healthy attitudes towards work-life blend (as I see it less of a see-saw balancing act and more of an integration!).
I agree with Stephanie that true flexibility is something we need to embrace in order to truly accommodate people’s ability to “work to live”.