How to balance your life : practical ways to achieve work/life balance

164 Pages·2009·1.26 MB·English

by  O'Loghlin

James O’Loghlin
Practical ways to achieve work/life balance
First published in 2009
Copyright © James O’Loghlin 2009
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contents
Introduction

A definition
part 1: why you should balance your life
1 Why people don’t lead balanced lives

The whinge / action discrepancy
Obstacles to achieving work/life balance (and how to
overcome them)
2 ‘Let’s go bowling!’—the creeping growth of the
workplace

Why workplaces want more than work
There’s no such thing as a free bowling night
It’s not about the bowling
3 The benefits of balance

Regrets
A world full of choices
But what if I get bored?
Me
The kids
Acquiring skills
Who do you want to be?
Personal growth via nappies
A very important job
Health advantages
Motivation
part 2: how to balance your life
4 What do you want?
5 How to reduce your working hours without reducing
your income

Increasing your productivity
Rearranging your work time
Leaving early and rearranging your day: does the boss mind?
Staying motivated
What if you are overworked?
What if the boss says no?
6 Is your income negotiable?

Money
Negotiating with partners and spouses
7 Rebalancing when your income may be negotiable

Part-time work
Negotiating for less
Promotions
Leave without pay
Maternity and paternity leave
8 What if nothing works?

When it’s time to move on
Long-term planning
9 Why employers should encourage work/life balance
10 Rebalancing for the self-employed

The quiet times
11 Making the most of your time

Talk
Chill
Controlling stress
The end, or the beginning
‘The unexamined life is not worth living.’
Socrates
introduction
A lot of people are dissatisfied with their work/life balance. They think they
spend too much time working, and not enough time enjoying the other things life
has to offer. Many want more time with their families. On weekdays they see
their kids only during a rushed, busy breakfast time, and then again after work
when they snatch some more hurried, tired moments in the window that opens
when they get home and closes when the kids go to bed.
And yet while many are dissatisfied, a far smaller number actually do
anything to try to change their work/life balance. It is this discrepancy between a
seemingly high rate of dissatisfaction and a low rate of action to change things
that has motivated the writing of this book. If so many of us feel that our lives
are not properly balanced, then why aren’t more of us using our intelligence and
imagination—which we employ every day in our jobs to benefit our employers
and clients—to improve our own lives?
Some, perhaps, don’t know how to go about altering their work/life balance,
or feel that there is actually nothing they can do to change it. Others may suspect
that there are changes they can make, but are dragged away from focusing on
them by the continual need to cope with whatever crisis each day throws up.
Humans are very good at accepting the status quo, particularly if it is not that
unpleasant. If you have a job, a home, enough to eat and drink, and a bit of free
time in which to go for a walk, watch a DVD or play with your children, it is
tempting to think that you are lucky. And you are. Hundreds of millions of
people have it a lot worse. But that’s no reason not to try to make things even
better.
The one thing worse than being dissatisfied with your work/life balance is
to not be dissatisfied with it.
Too many people know that their life is unbalanced and that work takes up too
much of their time, yet they do nothing to try to change things. They just keep on
accepting all of their employers’ demands in obedient silence. If you are one of
the obedient majority who goes to work each day and gets home just in time to
read your kids a story before they fall asleep, the first thing to do is to get
dissatisfied. You are missing out on a lot. You deserve better. Your family