Work-life balance is like a cocktail!

Ever tried balancing on your hands through an hour-long presentation? I thought as much, it’s completely unrealistic. Think about it, the amount of effort and energy you exert to achieve balance in this state, makes no sense and yet you achieve nothing. The same concept is true for work-life balance. Perhaps its time we start thinking of this as a cocktail rather than scales. Instead of attempting to balance the two sides of the scale, we should look to find an almost perfect blend that we love the taste of.

Before the arrival of technology, our work lives and home lives were separated. We counted the time we spent in both worlds, attempting to achieve balance much like you would on a set of stilts. The problem is, that model is difficult to manage and maintain. It makes us constantly feel stressed as we chase an elusive balance that few, if any of us, can actually attain.

Do we blame technology?

We can always put the blame on technology, which encourages us to bring home to work and work to home. What’s worse is, it tags along to the beach, the mall, our bedrooms and even our holidays. This means our public and private lives are constantly blended together.

So what really is work-life balance? In my world; it’s about managing your energies rather than balancing time. Identifying when your energy levels are high vs. when they are low helps you apportion your tasks to match your energy levels. For example, I know my energy levels are at their highest in the morning, this is where I whip out my treadmill, running shoes and towel, after that I’m super powered to tackle the days tasks. However, when energy levels are low, this is when I choose to wind down and relax. I have compiled a few ingredients that I have used to blend my work-life cocktail, to give it a sweeter taste than before:

Ingredients to the work-life balance cocktail:

Identify your goals in life and each day and manage them according to your energy levels.
Regular 5 minute breaks or simply looking into the distance helps your mind regroup.
Meditation – No humming with your fingers please! Let’s try focusing on one particular thing, like your breath, or a body part like your nose. You soon realize that your mind drifts. Bring it back. your mind drifts again, bring it back again. Just keep bringing it back. But the power as you may have noticed is in making sure your brain always comes back to thinking about this one particular thing! Try it, 20 minutes each morning and you can start welcoming a more calmer you.
Eating right – remember your mother saying you need to eat your green vegetables, well she was right! Green vegetables are proven to better manage your energy levels for longer. Maybe now is the time to invest in juicers, blenders to sustain you through the day. Eat less, more frequently, every 3 hours.
Get decent rest – there are chemical explosions that happen in your sleep, that you would never get at any other time. This is when your brain is at work, and a lot happens then from deleting whatever you were not thinking about in the day to choosing to commit to all the stuff you experienced! Make sure that when you sleep, the room is dark enough and there is no light or else these reactions might not happen. Better yet, remember that technology we spoke about earlier, now is your chance to detach from the gizmos. Lets hope by putting your devices in the other room or switching it off, you don’t develop a twitch from withdrawal symptoms!

Smaller investments in things that matter – improve the quality of your life today!

I’ve shared mine, tell me your amazing ingredients to your favourite work-life ‘cocktail’…