This Scientific Short is part of a series on laboratory personnel management.
When I encountered the term work-life harmony I liked it better than ‘balance’ as it has the sense of many parts coming together to form a pleasing whole which is perhaps more than simply the sum of the parts. We have many identities and roles in our lives and due to a pandemic I had needed to overinvest in one of those areas (i.e. - work). It turns out this is common, we often need to overinvest for a season (e.g. - new parents, a big work deadline, illness, or other significant life changes). I realized I needed to start reinvesting in other identities and roles to transition back to a more harmonious life. As I began to delve into reading on this topic I realized that at it’s most essential all of the literature comes down to one major goal:
Live a meaningful life.
How we define a meaningful life maybe different for each of us, but usually this is what we’re after when we start pursing work-life harmony. Popular culture’s ideas of a meaningful life usually feature pictures of a person alone in nature. Maybe that is a meaningful life for some people, but I think for most of us our relationships and our small contributions to the world are what make life meaningful for us. Unfortunately, that means life is messy. So, in real life we’re being thrown a whole bunch of balls but haven’t ever learned how to juggle. We usually don’t want fewer proverbial balls in the air. Yes, we need to decide how many we can juggle, that number is not infinite, but it does require juggling. I’d like to share three of my favorite tips that I found for ways we can learn to juggle successfully.
Tip #1: Write out an ideal-real day. This tip helps me reality check my expectations for what is reasonable in a day and find ways to add in a bit more fun. It needs to be a workday, include usual responsibilities, and should include hour by hour plans. It is a concrete way for me to come to terms with the nebulous expectations and ‘shoulds’ (eg – I ‘should’ put in 4 hours on that project when I already have 6 hours of meetings.) from all parts of my life that I expect myself to complete in a day.
Tip # 2: Create a back up slot. For things that are important, create a backup time slot. Big work deadlines, getting together with a friend, or time to pursue creative work are all items that are easily squeezed out by emergencies, but a backup time can help to allow for the unexpected, and the unexpected is inevitable. This one can be tricky if overused, as procrastination rather than emergencies can creep in, but if used for high priorities it can ensure that we’re making time for the most important things.
Tip #3: Prioritize on Friday. Take 20 minutes on Friday afternoon to list out the most important 1-2 things for next week in each of three categories: personal, relationships, work (5 min). Then spend 3 minutes scheduling these things in the calendar, and another 5 minutes sorting out logistics needed for the next week. Spend a quick 2 minutes editing out things from the week (maybe we don’t really need that meeting?), and lastly, enjoy 5 minutes planning the next weekend. While no week goes according to plan, having what is most important front and center every week for all parts of my life helps me make choices aligned with my priorities in the next week and allows me to respond more quickly to changes. This has allowed me to shift from responding to everything happening to prioritizing what helps me progress and feel fulfilled.
Creating a meaningful life is difficult, as it is not a project with a clear end but rather a continuous endeavor…and it turns out that is part of the fun!
References
- Vanderkam, L. (2022). Tranquility by Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters. Portfolio.
- Burkeman, O. (2021). Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.