How to Begin to Achieve the Work-Life Balance You Want.

‘Work Smarter not Harder.’ Quote by Allen F. Morganstem. He was the creator of the work simplification program in 1930’s to increase the ability of people to produce more with less effort.

“I ended my last blog with the question “Have YOU ever felt that you are drowning under a mountain of work with no escape of any downtime in sight?” This is a position I found myself in when I began a new Headship a few years ago. I had become a workaholic without even noticing and it was in fact members of my family and my friends who began to make comments like: “ Surely you have done enough this week”, “It’s the weekend…stop working and come over for dinner.”

It probably wasn’t until after my first Ofsted inspection at that school that I allowed myself to pull my foot off the accelerator. I joined in September 2012 and our Ofsted was May 2014. We had a good outcome and I felt I had a benchmark to work from. I was proud with our achievements and felt that now we were truly a team. As luck would have it the inspection was the 2 days before the May Bank Holiday and I had booked a holiday to Ibiza with my daughter to visit my son who was working out there. I will always remember waking up each day in the apartment and thinking ‘”Wow, it’s done!” It was such a relief and I needed the break!

When I returned to work I had an opportunity to rethink my work- life balance. The holiday had provided a much needed ‘brain break’ and now I needed to re-evaluate what was important in my life. I spent time researching more effective ways of working. I read ‘ 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ by Stephen Covey and it really did change my life.

‘How?’ I hear you ask. One of the most valuable points I took to my heart was the ‘eulogy exercise’ from the chapter ‘Start with the beginning in mind’. I always encourage my clients to work through this activity as I believe it highlights to yourself what your true values are. If you have not heard of this exercise, it basically asks you to think of yourself at your own funeral and write eulogies by people from different walks of your life: a family member, a friend, a work colleague. As you write what you would hope they would say about you it makes you question how you are living at this point in time and whether there are changes you need to make.

For me I realised I was not living a well-rounded life, I was missing out on fun and I was being too hard on myself. Sure, I was proud of my achievements in life but when lying on my deathbed would I be telling myself I was glad I had worked so hard or asking myself if I had spent enough time with my family and enjoyed the fun things in life?

This was such an eye opener for me I began to read about ways to ‘work smarter’. I began to prioritise more skilfully, I found interesting activities to try which were not related to work and I put those in my diary, before I added the work meetings and appointments. I read about how our brain works and how to be more efficient with tasks, eg) work on tasks which need the most thought in the morning and leave emails until the afternoon. I read about the importance of healthy eating, good sleep and taking more exercise…(OK I am not perfect and this is still the last thing on my list!)

I continue to pick up ideas to support time management and work efficiently but I also do not feel guilty anymore if I spend a Saturday reading a trashy novel or watching a boxset on Netflix. I understand how important ‘downtime’ is. I also try to make as much time as possible to meet up with friends and spend time with my family. I still work incredibly hard and enjoy my job but I have learned to realise it must not be the only aspect of my life.

Idea for today: Listen to the ‘funeral exercise’ from Stephen Covey’s ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ and then write the eulogies you would like to hear.

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• Want to Explore this Further?

Read ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ by Stephen Covey

• Take Action

If you want to work with me to improve your work-life balance contact me on isabel@norfolklifecoach.co.uk

Or visit my website https://www.norfolklifecoach.co.uk