Developing work and life balance

I'd like to offer you a different take on an important idea. Work life balance. To be honest, work life balance is one of the most popular business ideas in the last 20 years. And most of what they tell you about work life balance, isn't terribly useful. In fact, most of what's called work life balance advice is really just productivity advice. Things like setting your priorities each day and tracking your time. Easily half of the advice about work-life balance is simply rehashed ideas about time management.

By the way, time management is hugely important and if you've not examined your time management practices in a while, now might be a good time. The other half of the work-life balance market does offer up some useful ideas that are actually about achieving balance. Here are two quick examples. Remember to schedule downtime. That's time spent not doing your job, but instead having fun, whether with your family and friends or working on a hobby. But it on your calendar and don't neglect it, because the more you neglect good downtime, the easier it becomes to continue to neglect it.

Another great tip concerns protecting your down time. For example, don't allow your family time to be constantly interrupted by checking new emails on your smart phone. Make sure you give your down time the focus and integrity it deserves. I like those ideas and think they can be honestly helpful to you but I still don't think they represent the most important work life balance advice. You see there's an assumption underlying most of this discussion. The assumption is that you don't love your job. I hope that for you, that's a bad assumption.

If not I hope you'll take my advice. The single best piece of work life balance advice you'll find anywhere. Work very hard to achieve better and better fit in your career. Fit is a comfortable alignment between your interests and skills and the needs of the job. With high fit a job doesn't feel like work at all. In fact most people with high fit view work as enjoyable fulfilling and fun. The next time you evaluate new roles or jobs that come your way, don't get lost thinking about the prestige of the company.

Don't get lost thinking about how nice the raise sounds. Instead, ask whether or not this opportunity honestly moves you towards a higher level of fit. There are great tools you should be using for time management. There are also a few really good tips that help you avoid feeling like a workaholic such as scheduling down time. But the holy grail is finding work that generally fits you. Take the risks and do the exploring. Find fit. When you do, you won't have to search for balance. When you enjoy what you do, feeling balanced is an every day experience.