Do you wake up in the morning, get ready for work, and then spend the whole day looking forward to being at home and unwinding?
We often hear about work-life balance – having a good balance between work and personal time. Whilst this may sound like a smart idea, it can also imply that we should dedicate at least half of our time to work–and sacrifice time for our “personal life”.
To me, that seems… off balance. Because, the truth is, it’s nearly impossible to split your time equally between the two. And, you may end up stressing out if you’re not able to meet that expectation of balance.
Instead, why not think of having work-life harmony instead?
With this mindset, you can integrate work into your life in a way that feels more complete. This way, you don’t need to view work and having personal time as separate.
So, how do you achieve work-life harmony?
Work-Life Harmony Explained
The difference between work-life balance and work-life harmony is pretty simple. With the former, there is an implication that you have to sacrifice your “life” for work. But, this is the worst way to go about things! How can you truly be at peace in life if you dread 8 hours of your day?
Work-life harmony, on the other hand, allows your work to be a part of your life. This means that you can choose to be happy both at home and at work! Work no longer needs to be seen as a ‘bad’ or un-fun activity.
Having work-life harmony also ensures you’re truly present in whatever place you find yourself.
Just take a look at Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon for example.
He uses a nontraditional approach to work by making time for breakfast every morning with his family, doesn’t set his alarm before going to bed, schedules surprisingly few meetings, and still puts aside a few minutes every day to wash his dishes.
He believes that all his staff should stop trying to achieve a ‘balance’ in their work and personal lives as that implies a trade-off. Instead, he envisions a more holistic relationship between the two.
As the world’s richest man, he must be doing something right!
Case Study: A Hard-Working Nurse Whose Life Is Falling Apart
Ryan was a nurse who worked in the hospital. Although he found his work meaningful, he sometimes doubted how much he could do to help the patients as a nurse because he found that many patients needed mental support more than physical one. Having to work for long and irregular hours, he had his mental and physical energy all drained. Worse, he didn’t have the time and energy to spend with his girlfriend, and their 5-year-relationship was on the edge of separation.
He came to Lifehack to seek inspiration and advice. He took our Life Assessment and got the following result:
Looking at the result, my team and I understood how rough the time had to be for Ryan. Ryan also told me that he felt like his life was falling apart. It was like nothing in his life was going well.
I encouraged him to stay hopeful, and that my team and I would help him to get out of this rut and be happy again. Ryan wasn’t sure but still took a leap of faith and enrolled in our Full Life Framework Course.
After the first few sessions of the course, Ryan was able to rediscover what he wanted for life most – he wanted to help people, and being a nurse wasn’t the only way! He recalled how much he was into psychology and he wanted to give people mental support.
Then with the help of our coach, he started to figure out ways to achieve this new purpose in life. Two months later, he found a clinic where he could be a part-time nurse. So he quit his job in the hospital and signed up for a counseling certificate course.
Now Ryan is still studying for the counseling certificate. He isn’t less buy, but he feels more energetic because he finds what he does meaningful and is hopeful about his future.
What about his relationship? You may ask. After he quit his hospital job, he felt he had a clearer mind and decided to face his relationship problem. He mustered his courage to talk with his girlfriend openly about their relationship issues. He loves his girlfriend so he knows that together as a couple they must tackle all these relationship problems together, instead of letting the relationship gradually end. They talked things out and promised each other to make their relationship work together and would always support each other.
Do you see how being clear about what you truly want in life matters now?
How To Achieve Work-Life Harmony
Rethink Time Management
Now, when we think of striking a balance, we usually associate it with time, don’t we? How much time are we spending at work versus how much time are we spending in our personal lives? Are we taking enough time to be with our loved ones, to do meaningful activities with others, or even for ourselves, or are we just dedicating all our time to work?
This is the so-called balance that many struggles with.
With work-life harmony, we learn to rethink time management. By re-assessing how you manage your time, you’ll have a lot more of it. It’s incredible how much time can get wasted over a day–especially when you’re not accurately tracking it.
Unfortunately, unless you’re consciously making an effort, your brain is not always the best at making accurate judgment calls when it comes to prioritizing. It tends to have a bias towards short-term benefits and short-term costs.
As there are often many more options our brains link to short-term benefits; when you’re trying to focus on a task that gives you a long-term benefit, that task usually becomes a low priority. This is otherwise known as Priority Chaos.
To overcome this and be in better control of your time, identify the tasks that need the most focus to get accomplished. If it’s a big task, then it’s good to break it down into smaller bite-sized actions that will provide you with a clearer short-term benefit.
When setting up tasks, give yourself a time limit. The brain has a bias toward short-term benefits, and your attention span is limited, so if your tasks are going to take ages to complete, you’ll end up losing focus… and wasting time.
Once you have all your tasks written down, it’s time to prioritize them. Since you have a time limit, your focus should be on the top priority tasks. By doing this, you will already be able to get more done in less time at work!
Have Passion for What You Do
Managing your time is important in achieving that work-life harmony. But, perhaps of greater importance, is loving what you do in life. One of the most effective ways to achieve work-life harmony is to enjoy or find a purpose, in what you do for a living. Even though everyone isn’t always lucky enough to find a position that pays them for pursuing their passion, you can strive to find meaning in what you are already doing, or pursue something new entirely!
For example, say you work at an office that sells paper. While many people wouldn’t consider this a world-changing pursuit, I beg to differ. Think of all the individuals in the world that rely on paper. From creative types to quantum physics experts, your role at your workplace brings incredible value to many many people all over the world. You will have, without a doubt, helped bring a new idea into existence. Several new ideas to be precise.
So, think about what you’re doing now. Is it something that allows you to embrace your passion?
Or perhaps you might not even know what it is that you love or enjoy doing. Why not explore and reflect on what gives you joy and contentment? Is there an area or industry that you could see yourself exploring to experience that fulfillment?
Can you find a deeper purpose in what you’re already doing?
When you’re able to find meaning in your work, you’re that much closer to achieving work-life harmony.
Don’t Be Intimidated By Obstacles and Limitations
Creating work-life harmony is also about understanding yourself–which includes your limitations and past obstacles–as this allows you to become more resilient.
If you never had to experience struggles, challenges, or setbacks, then you would never be forced to adapt and mature. So in theory, having to face obstacles in life is quite necessary.
Most of us think of setbacks and obstacles as negative. Though, if you’re able to maintain an optimistic attitude, you’ll almost always have a higher chance of success in overcoming those obstacles to reach your eventual goal.
Your attitude towards setbacks will define the outcome of whether you rise from the challenge or remain stuck in it. So, to achieve work-life harmony, it’s important to have a resilient attitude as challenges will always come your way–especially when you strive to integrate work into your life, and not a separate or dominant part of life.
Delegate When You Need To
Of course, when you want to increase productivity and minimize the time or effort spent, a great way to do so is to delegate!
If you spend a lot of time doing tasks on your own that could be delegated to others (whether at work or home) you’re losing a lot of precious free time that could otherwise be spent elsewhere.
At the end of the day, we all have a limited amount of time. So we should all be striving to create a harmonious work and living situation where we can find meaning in all that we do.
While an overall goal may be meaningful, not all of the milestones or tasks needed to get there may be meaningful. That’s because we have our strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes. Not every task is going to be enjoyable or easy to complete. That’s where delegation comes in.
Delegation simply allows you to leverage time from an external source, thus giving you opportunities to increase your quality of time. Keep in mind that delegation should be done with deliberate attention, otherwise you may end up over-relying on others.
If you find that you’re running into the problem of over delegating, then it may be time to re-evaluate your motivation for doing whatever it is that you’re doing.
Embrace the Circle and Become Happier and More Productive
Living in harmony is about feeling good about how you spend your time, despite how busy you may be. Your switch from work mode to a more personal mode should be effortless. It’s about integrating your personal life and the things you love into your busy work life!
It all begins with the shift in perspective. Understanding what your passions are, and learning to be resilient, before taking a different approach to the way you manage your time and everyday tasks.
