General Life Balance Tips

Work Life Balance Starts here

In life balance surveys done across many job categories, including construction, service industries like hotels and restaurants, small business owners and corporate moguls, a large percentage of those surveyed said that they felt they needed to improve their time management skills so that they didn’t need to spend as much time at work. Many wanted to reduce the time they had to spend reworking tasks they had already performed because they had done it wrong the first time. You will find a few simple tips below, to get your time under control. If you do these things, you will find that, even in the most stressful and time-consuming jobs, you can reduce the hours you spend at work, and arrive home in a less stressed, more family-friendly frame of mind!Make a ‘To Do’ List – Then put these items in order, starting with the most critical.  If you could only get one thing done today, what would be the most important?  Cross the items off the list as you complete them, and don’t be distracted.  Stay focused!

Since we all have interruptions, be sure that, if you don’t accomplish the items toward the bottom of you list on that day, you add them to your list the next day so you don’t drop them.  Use a daily planner if that makes things easier. Don’t Waste Time – Use your spare minutes well.  Take the train to work instead of driving and use that time to read critical reports you may have to review, or read your new equipment training manual on the bus on the way home.  If you are going to take a break during the day and there is someone you have to see, stop by their office and grab them to go for coffee, then talk about the issue and resolve it while you are walking out in the sunshine and enjoying your java.  You’ll feel like you took a break AND got something accomplished at the same time.

Just Say ‘No’ - If your boss wants you to work late and you have a family engagement, but you could work late the next night or come early in the morning, suggest alternatives and see if those will work.  Don’t be so quick to accept the command without probing to find out if there is another way to handle it.  If a co-worker asks you to lunch and you MUST finish a report by 3:00, politely decline the invitation and suggest dinner or coffee later instead, and get the report done.  That way you don’t have to give up the pleasurable experience, but you won’t be stressed out and working until 9:00 p.m. with your boss standing over your shoulder bemoaning the delay.  If the project your boss dumps on your desk is a ‘rush’ but she already gave you something that must be completed today, ask for clarification on priorities and give your boss a reasonable projection of how long it will take to do both projects and whether you can do both.  Don’t just take the project on and then not finish the other task she gave you, or you will both be unhappy.  Speak up!

Get Enough Sleep – Your brain can operate on a short nap for a day, but if you are not sleeping enough, you will not think well or process information and you’ll make mistakes and end up staying late to fix them.Get Organized – It is impossible to manage your schedule if you can’t find things or if you have to recreate work or reinvent something because you lost it.  Take that Action List to heart and, starting today, put a task at the top of the list to organize files, or to rearrange the store or inventory so it is easier to stock or to find things.  Once you have things organized, don’t let them get out of control again.  The only way to justify the work involved in that reorganization is if you KNOW you will never have to go through it again!

Keep a Realistic Perspective - Setting unrealistic goals is a mistake – whether it is the completion date of a software project, or the time you think you can deliver that report to your manager, if you underestimate the time required to get the work done, you will end up working late and you’ll look bad to your boss.  Be realistic about when you plan to complete tasks and do your homework to be sure that you can accomplish the task in this timeframe.  Consider other ways to get the job done if you think these considerations will help you meet the deadline faster, but don’t promise what you can’t deliver.