We all want work-life balance. We all want less stress and more happiness. We all want to enjoy our lives, enjoy our work and be well. But how do we get that?
If you were alive and working in Britain during the 18th century it’s likely you were working 10 to 16 hours a day in a noisy, dangerous factory. If you were a child, you were probably working too.
In the UK, this started to change in the mid-1800s when the short-time movement or the eight-hour day movement, led by Robert Owen made an impact. The goal was to have eight hours of work, eight hours of recreation and eight hours of rest.
(Owen wasn’t the first though. Philip II of Spain start a similar campaign in 1593.)
In Australia, workers started gaining an eight-hour day in the 1850s but it didn’t become law until the early 1900s.
Nowadays in Australia when we have a public holiday for Labour Day, it’s a celebration of the eight-hour working day. To commemorate this, you might see the numbers ‘888’ added to an old trades hall – like this one in Fremantle.
Now, that was one hundred years ago. And you’d think that now we have more money, bigger houses, faster cars, healthier food etc we’d be better off, right?
Wrong.
Contrary to popular opinion, the key to work-life balance is not about longer working hours.
By most stats, working hours in OECD countries have been falling since the 1990s. In Australia, the average working week across all workers is now 31.6 hours per week. That’s an average – which means some people are doing more hours and some are doing less.
Given we are typically working less, what went wrong? Why are we more stressed by our work than ever before?
I think my Mum has the right question… Every year that I’d go down to visit my Mum for Christmas, she would ask me, “Did you get all of your work done?”
My answer is always, “I never get all of my work done. There is always more to do.” I could be reading more books, writing more posts, talking to more people, making more videos..
This is the nature of knowledge work: Knowledge work never finishes.
Have you ever finished all of your emails? I know I haven’t.
Further, when you’ve finished doing factory work, you can just switch off the machine and go home. But when you do knowledge work, you can’t just switch off the machine, because that machine is your brain.
Plus, there is another problem. And it’s likely there right in front of you staring at you as you read this. That’s right, I’m talking about your smartphone and your laptop. There are two issues here:
But, wait, it gets even worse.
When we stop doing work, we click over to social media for some light entertainment.
But the problem with this is that while we think we’ve finished work, our brains are saying ‘OMG – now I get to sit at this damn screen for longer clicking on things and reading things just like work’.
In other words, our brains see social media as more work. When we think we’re switching off, we’re not.
We’re no longer doing eight hours of work, eight hours of rest and eight hours of play, we’re now open 24 hours. In other words, we’re always on.
I think the real issue here is that people have the wrong impression of what balance means. Let me ask you, what is balance?
How you define balance will determine whether you think you have work-life balance or not.
Most people think of balance as a set of scales. You put one thing on one side and you even up the weights on the other.
But if you try to have work-life balance in this way you will fail. You will be constantly chasing a mirage. While scales is not a great metaphor for balance, the good news is that there are three other types of balance that do work.
Yoga done well is a beautiful thing to watch and even better to practice. It’s strong, elegant and majestic. The goal here is to practice and perfect the form. The principle is static balance. You are trying to get things in perfect alignment – and holding it there.
And I’ll be honest with you, for people that work from home, or people that have their own business that they’re doing on the side, there’s got to be there’s almost a gray area in between, and you just have to have the flexibility. And don’t be too strict on yourself, you know, because we don’t live in a perfect world.
Gavin Sequeira, Break Free From Corporate
The goal is not to live a perfect day. Instead, it’s to focus on a single moment and be in balance in that moment. You can stop at any time – including right now and take a breath. Here’s how:
This is how you can have work-life balance at any time. You can do that throughout your day to centre and ground yourself to stay in balance or put yourself back in balance.
I often have issues with that term, you know, because work-life balance sounded very strict. Like you have to have a work and a life two very black and white components.
Gavin Sequeira, Break Free From Corporate
When we look at the world as a set of scales, we’re trying to have black and white balance.
While a seesaw might look like a gigantic set of scales, the way we play with it is very different. When you use a scale, you’re looking for equals – for static balance. But when we’re on a seesaw there is movement, interaction and adjustment.
Most of the time in our work-life balance we are off-balance. The seesaw metaphor acknowledges this and says, ‘I’m off balance and I need to adjust a little to get back into balance.’ And this is the constant adjustment we are always making to our changing environment and our changing situation. ‘Oh, I’m off balance again, I’d better add another tweak.’
Plus, the seesaw metaphor also acknowledges that there is something that it knocking us out of balance.
When we identify the specific thing that is knocking us off balance we can choose how we respond to it. Use the seesaw metaphor throughout your day to keep making tweaks to your balance.
Remember that a seesaw is found in a playground and to play like a child on your work-life balance seesaw might be the best tip of all.
So I think the biggest thing out of what we’ve been talking about, as far as this work life balance thing goes is be authentic to you. Like, don’t worry about what other people are doing. Don’t compare yourself to anyone else.
If it works for you, great. If it’s not you be yourself, you know. So just try to be authentic. And put a schedule that works for yourself. If it’s not working, see where you can make little tweaks, and just constantly refine and be open to change.
Gavin Sequeira, Break Free From Corporate
Do you remember what it was like to learn to ride a bicycle? (I do and I have the scars on my elbows and knees to prove it.)
Riding a bicycle is our third metaphor for work-life balance. It’s all about staying in balance as we go from one place to another.
We can ride fast, ride slow, go up hills, down the hills, around corners and in straight lines. Most importantly, we can ride for minutes or hours. And we can ride alone or with others. Riding a bicycle is work-life balance as a journey.
The trick about riding a bicycle is to manage your energy and effort levels.
When you travel in a car there is no physical effort required. But when we ride a bicycle…
This is a great metaphor for work-life balance for your career. It’s all about riding at the right speed, with the right people, in the right way for the terrain you’re on and the destination you’re seeking.
When you’re looking for longer-term balance in your work and life, consider the bicycle metaphor in your planning. These questions might help:
Where are you riding to today?
Let’s wrap up what we’ve covered here…
Remember, work-life balance may be part of your journey but it’s not your destination.
Now get on your bike and start riding.
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