We are all familiar with cliche "work life
balance" and almost all talk about it. What I have observed is we really
don't know when we are balanced, because this is always an act where either
side goes up or down. We get confused on where to put right focus in the act of
balancing out work and life.
Recently, I attended a discussion where I saw a paradigm
shift on this view. The speaker was talking about "Work Life
Integration" rather than “work life balance". I felt this was a very powerful concept. When
we focus on balancing work and life it always becomes a compromise. It is not
win-win when we go for compromises in life, we always loose.
With Work Life Integration, we look at how we get the best
out of our everyday life, keeping both work and personal life moving smooth.
I have observed that it is practically difficult to follow a strict regimen of 9:00am
to 6:00pm working hours and then 6:00pm to 9:00am to be completely dedicated
for personal purposes. We are social beings and it is not easy to switch modes
at the tick of a clock. There are many days where we are interrupted with
personal stuffs during work hours and vice versa. When they happen, we just
cannot keep a closed eye towards them. We need to attend to these, be it
work or personal stuffs. The beauty of Work Life Integration is that we find best timings of the day that will help us focus on priorities of our life and
then actually putting it into practice. For example, in my case, I mostly start
work early and I prefer to have a silent time during mornings where I am mostly
undisturbed. This helps me putting more focus on important stuffs. Since I
prefer less distractions, being early at work helps me get more stuff done.
Above example is something that works for me. For each of
us, we need to understand what will work for us the best and accordingly organize
our day. This will help us become more productive and ensure that we achieve what we want to achieve in life.
For me, it is not “work life balance”, rather it is “Work Life Integration”. Just think over this.
Hi Vineesh,
ReplyDeleteNice post. Just recently started reading your blog;
This is a topic, like you said, loads of us complain/discuss about, especially in the IT industry, where timelines overlap, as people work together from different timezones in the world.
Personally, I'd like to go home thinking I did good work today, and deserve the bread and butter I earn for my family (currently, just for myself) is though hard work and innovation and not by doing anything.
However, while it is a totally personal view of the situation, I'd say it's inevitable that personal life will always end up taking the higher priority, one way or another.
While it is important to be dedicated to work, and earn the money/appreciation you deserve, and while it's also important to have the 'work satisfaction', it all ends to how/why/when you want to spend that money, be it on you family or friends or just yourself going on a lonely trek, basically whatever makes you happy and keeps you motivated to earn more of that 'money from work'.
That, and while there's always an opportunity for the 'work' to change, changing your 'personal life' isn't as easy as applying for new friends or family, but rather, you're born with your family and grow up among friends, which is a reason enough for them to be considered bigger than anything else.
So without talking too much nonsense :), I just want to say that, while being good /focused at your job is very important, if the opportunities to spend the 'spoils of your work' on your personal choices are limited, that is when the motivation to 'earn more spoils which you're not sure how/when you'll spend' would possibly decrease.
Interesting thoughts Arun. I do agree that personal life has a higher priority than work :-).
ReplyDeleteWork satisfaction is as well very important, since that gives us that extra kick to come back the next day for work