“How” to Balance

I’ve received a lot of feedback on the “Balance” blog from yesterday and most of it was coming from people having a hard time letting go of work once they are at home.

It’s a common challenge, but what works and has worked with the people I’ve coached is a couple of things:

1. Make time for YOU where you are “unavailable”. I’m not talking about if an emergency comes up, but time for you to take that nap, read your book, watch TV, or just decompress in anyway you like to and not be available for work, thinking, phone calls etc…just declaring that you are unavailable does wonders to put your mind at ease without guilt.

2. Make plans so that you replace thinking about work with other things. The plans can involve family, friends, barbecue – whatever will allow you to balance. Also declare this time to be “YOUR” time guilt free.

The fact is, the root cause of not allowing yourself to “balance out” at home by having fun or doing nothing is guilt = you think should be doing “something” to be productive, but understanding that doing “nothing” IS charging your battery so you can be raring to go back on the job and be more effective when you get there while having more fun while home!

Yours in Guilt Free “YOU” Time – Coach

3 Responses to ““How” to Balance”

  1. MaxAir

    Leaving work at work is very challenging sometimes. I chose to use my driving home time to evaluate my work day and plan for tomorrow’s work day. My drive home is 15 minutes. Once I park the car; work is left behind.

    Thinking about work away from work will not help you improve or complete any tasks. Thinking about it too long on your time away is just going to make tomorrow longer, because your mind has never really left work.

    Also, many times thinking about work is causing you stress. We all know prolonged stress leads to many problems.

    With the continuation of health week in mind stress will make your body retain fat cells.

  2. mdisbrow

    My time to “get away” is hard to do because of the position I’m in. I was on call 24/7 for a year in the Tech support department. The hardest thing I found was to let go and trust the people I have trained and worked with.

    Now I get to my car after work I set my phone to phone only. I have the security of knowing that if anyone has a question that they need an answer to they can reach me.

    If the time I am away from work goes smooth I Don’t get any calls and I can relax. This seems a bit odd but it gives me the peace of mind that everything is going well at work.

    This in turn lets me relax and enjoy the time with my family (wife and puppy) with out guilt.

  3. lmiglietti

    I just wanted to let you know that after reading the books 212 & Self
    > Works I have noticed a change in how I deal with all the stressful
    > situations in my life. I’m new to Zappos and still in training but I
    > have already benefited from your e-mails. Thank you.