Birmingham Small Business.com

Courtesy of SlackerManager.com:

Ask yourself: Am I ready, willing, and able to change? Are you serious about creating better balance or is it just something you’d like to do, involving a passing thought as you gobble fast food at your desk and miss your child’s basketball game while you work 60 hour weeks?

Put life before work. I detest the term work/life balance. How did work ever get put before life. Turn this phrase around and see it as life/work balance. Get your priorities straight: Put life first, for without life there is no work.

Think dynamic balance not static balance. Static balance is a state you achieve and can hold for a long time. In the flow and flux of life and work don’t expect static balance, rather monitor when work gets out of balance and make constant and continual dynamic corrections.

Know you no’s and affirm your yeses. We must be able to say no to work in order to say yes to family. If work is becoming too consuming and your manager is asking for even more what would happen if you said, “no”?

Don’t B.S. about who you are working for. I have heard a few people who overwork say they are doing it for their families yet I don’t hear their families asking them to work more. More often I hear their family saying they would like to have them around more.

Apply instant empathy to gain valuable perspective. If you are overworking and have a family pause before the next task and think about how each of your family members (spouse - children) are experiencing the impact of your work being out of balance. Is there something you need to be doing differently? Right now?

Don’t tell a four year old that you are spending quality time with them. Don’t justify your lack of time with your family by claiming that the time you spend with them is quality time. Quality is good but it is not a substitute for quantity especially with a four year old.

Talk your way out of teetering at work. Talk to a trusted advisor or mentor to get help if you are out of balance. Talk with your family. Talk with someone from your employee assistance program. Talk with your manager. Talk with yourself. And even more important, listen to what they say and act on what they tell you.

Do you remember the TV series 8 Simple Rules? John Ritter, the actor who played the father in the show, died in 2003. He was a key character but the show went on without him.

The show will go on without you. What role do you really want to play in your work/life balance?