Work-life balance. A myth?

Are you struggling to create a balance between work and home life? Perhaps the ideal of work like balance is just a myth. Has anyone really achieved it? I haven’t seen it. Perhaps it doesn’t exist so people are getting frustrated with themselves trying and not succeeding. There is no doubt that working from home has seen many people achieve a better blend between their home and work lives, less travelling, more time with loved ones, etc. I like the idea of a blend, mixing the demands you have at home with doing a great job at work.

Sometimes it’s just the simple things - the school run, loading the dishwasher, eating healthier home food, being there for the repairer, doctors and dentists appointments. These things are so hard when you are in the office 24x7 or having to book time off which eats into precious holiday allowances just for the mundane. Even worse, some people get tempted to ‘pull a sickie’ to help work life blending which can be career suicide.

A danger or working from home is that its easy to forget that you have a duty of responsibility to your company. They are paying you for your skills and time and often it’s the customers who are let down if you are not diligent. Missing meetings, being late for calls, customers etc. Not acceptable in the office nor working from home.

A few tips:

1. Plan - manage your work and home time carefully and diligently.

2. Don’t take your employer for granted or with disrespect. Communicate!

3. Make the most of the your working from home time. Do the school run, eat more healthy food, exercise more.

4. Don't become a hermit - social interaction is important for mental health

5. Continue networking. You do this in the office, make time for it when you are working from home.

Above all, enjoy

the benefit that work life blending brings.