Many Americans didn't have time to recover from the "dot com bomb" before the "attack on America." Whether we wanted to or not, many of us are forced to take a long, hard look at life and realize several bitter truths:
o What seems highly logical may turn out to be completely ridiculous.
o What you see today may be gone tomorrow.
o Who you think has all the answers may be totally wrong.
o Why you expect to succeed may be the very reason you fail.
Eighty hour workweeks, two hour commutes, and a family who never sees you...these are just some of the hallmarks of the past dot com business craze where high-tech entrepreneurs sacrificed their time, their health, and sometimes their family for their pursuit of "overnight" riches. As these business-minded individuals worked tirelessly to capitalize on the e-business revolution, their dreams often materialized briefly and then quickly turned to dust. Looking back now on this past business craze, we can all learn one important lesson: working harder and longer is just plain dumb!
This is not to say that we should all sit back and live a life of idle laziness. On the contrary, not working at all would be just as bad as working too much. It simply means that we need to create a balance between our professional and personal lives so we can reduce stress and be happy.
Focus on What's Important The first step to a balanced life is to determine what's important, both at work and at home. While obtaining the corner office and the front parking spot may be your ultimate professional goal, is it worth the price of sacrificing your personal goals, such as attending your child's school play or taking that vacation you've been promising your spouse for the past five years? Prioritize the events in your life and determine which ones you can't bend on and which ones are flexible. For example, you may decide that you want to attend every little league game your child plays in, yet your job requires you to work late several nights of the week. Perhaps you can opt to attend half of the season's games, thus allowing you ample time to complete your work projects while still spending time with your family. When you evenly devote your time to the various aspects of your life, you create a win/win situation for yourself, your company, and your family.
Organization is Critical to Balance Your ability to accomplish anything in life is tied to your ability to find what you need precisely when you need it. If your office is buried under a mound of papers and you waste precious time each day searching for materials, it's no wonder you can't make time for your personal endeavors. Research shows that the average person spends 150 hours a year - almost six weeks - looking for misplaced information. Organize your office so you can use those 150 hours for more important activities, like picnics, beach outings, and relaxing family dinners. All your information should be organized in such a way that all people have access to what they need at any time, whether it is located in your office, in a central filing location, or in an off-site location. When people can find what they're looking for, you reduce their dependence on you and the interruptions they make to have you help them locate something. While working harder and longer is dumb, working smarter is not. Enable yourself to work smart by keeping everything organized and in its place.
Create an Intentional Environment Be conscious about the decisions you make as to what you choose to surround yourself with. When you keep your surrounding free of clutter and build up, your stress level decreases. And the less stressed out you are, the more productive you can be. Did you know that 80% of what we keep we never use? So why spend time, money, and effort to continually move and keep track of things you'll never need or use? For each piece of paper, ask these questions: "Does this require action or was it for information only?" "Does it exist elsewhere?" "How difficult would it be to get again?" "Is it recent enough to be useful?" and "What's the worst thing that could happen if I don't have this piece of paper?" If you can live with the results, toss it and free yourself from additional clutter and stress.
Balance is Attainable No matter how indispensable you think you are to your company's success, no matter how much you want to impress your boss with your amount of overtime, and no matter how fast you want to climb the corporate ladder, sacrificing your personal life for professional success simply does not make sense. While working harder and longer may give you some short-term rewards, they'll mean nothing if you have no one to share them with. As you go through your day always remember that what you see today may be gone tomorrow; who you think has all the answers may be totally wrong; and why you expect to succeed may be the very reason you fail. Keep your life's activities and priorities in perspective so you can achieve the balance that's necessary for a productive, profitable, and most important, happy future. That brings me to one final glorious conclusion: When it seems that everything is coming to an end, it may be just the beginning!
© Barbara Hemphill is the author of Kiplinger's Taming the Paper Tiger at Work and Taming the Paper Tiger at Home and co-author of Love It or Lose It: Living Clutter-Free Forever. The mission of Hemphill Productivity Institute is to help individuals and organizations create and sustain a productive environment so they can accomplish their work and enjoy their lives. We do this by organizing space, information, and time. We can be reached at 800-427-0237 or at www.ProductiveEnvironment.com
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