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Work-life balance essentially describes that you have a professional and a personal life and that these two aspects need to be in perfect balance. The term became very poplar at the end of the last century and employees were told that this is what they need to strive for.
However, not only sets this an unrealistic expectation of keeping work and life in perfect balance, but it also suggests that work and life are different worlds, that they are separated and independent from each other: In other words, work is where your energy is drained and life is where you do the things you enjoy and refill your batteries.
For me, however, there is just one life, which I like to enjoy regardless if I am at work or outside of work. Life doesn’t start when I leave work!
Work-life integration.
For me successfully combining work, family commitments, and personal life is rather a dance and rather reflects my ability to find my rhythm in everything I do. This means being in sync with myself and to focus on how I spend my energy.
Instead of looking for perfect balance, I see it rather as an integration of all my different life domains: in other words, my capacity to bring in my whole self and to remove the boundaries that separate work from life, to increase the overlap, and let them intermingle.
Work-life balance sets an unrealistic expectation of keeping different roles in steady equilibrium. Instead, I suggest striving for work-life rhythm and bringing your whole-self to work.
Bring your whole self to work.
I strongly believe that for us to thrive professionally, especially in today's world, we must be willing to bring our whole selves to the work that we do. This means bringing all components of what makes you, “you” to the workplace: your passions and strengths, your side projects, your vulnerability, your complex, messy, awesome, whole, and unique personality. Show up more true to yourself, honest and authentic, take risks, speak up, ask for help, admit when you don’t know something, acknowledge when you have made a mistake; in essence, allow others to see you fully.
All of this takes courage and requires you to embrace vulnerability. But if you do that, you will be more engaged with your work and you will unlock greater creativity, connection, and productivity, as you waste less energy concealing important parts of your identity. When you are true to yourself at work, there is a sense of peace that comes with it.
Find your rhythm.
Having a work-life rhythm means accepting that there are highs and lows and ebbs and flows in your life. Hence, it is very important that you improve your self-awareness about your personal rhythms: When is your peak performance time in the day? What gives you energy, what drains it?
Research shows that you work best in cycles: 90-120 minutes of deep focused work is followed by times of rest and renewal. In order to have energy left when you get home, you need to replenish this energy throughout the work day. Remember to treat rest and relaxation as important parts of your productivity. You can find more details how you can renew your energy via intentional breaks in my previous LinkedIn article “Need instant refreshment? 7 tips that will work for you too!”
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/need-instant-refreshment-7-tips-work-you-too-volker-hack/
Being able to find your rhythm, being in sync with yourself will allow for more flow in your life at work or outside of work; this will allow you to find the joy and happiness in anything you do.
Be a role model.
According to Brené Brown (Dare to lead, 2018): “If we want people to fully show up, to bring their whole selves including their unarmored whole hearts – so that we can innovate, solve problems, and serve people – we have to be vigilant about creating a culture in which people feel safe, seen, heard, and respected.”
Especially during these unprecedented times of uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure it is important that you lead with vulnerability. You may believe, being vulnerable will decrease your standing with your team, but actually the opposite is true. While vulnerability can be scary and hard, your openness will allow the team to feel safe and it gives them permission to do the same driving increased connection.
You may not achieve a great balance, but if you bring your whole self to work, understand your rhythm and replenish your energy throughout the day, you will create some flow that makes you happier, more productive, a better leader, partner, and parent.
Volker Hack is an Executive Director at one of the largest Contract Research Organizations and dedicated to Improve Health. He is an advocate for incorporating mindfulness into the work life.