Is ‘WORK-LIFE BALANCE’ what I really want?

It has been a long time, since I have posted anything here! I have been very busy, and for a person who warns people to guard themselves against getting burnt out, I often thought I was spreading myself out too thin! I committed myself to 2 new projects – one, a fundraiser for children with cancer (Masquer-Aid 2014), and the second, a First Lego League (Robotics) team in Cornwall. Both are going great, and are bringing me immense pleasure and satisfaction. The downside has been that I have not been able to keep up with the blogging, and the website updates. Also, my house sometimes looks like the tornado just passed through, and I do fall behind on many a chore. The one thing I do make sure I am caught up with, is my work. Thank goodness for EMR, I have very little paperwork pending, and I catch up with my billing quite regularly.

The one question I have been asking myself lately is, how can I keep myself from burning out? I do find myself physically quite exhausted, and often mentally drained too. As for work-life balance, there really is none, in my life. If I do well in one area, another definitely suffers. On a day that I do the robotics program, I do nothing at home. The day I do house cleaning and laundry, I cannot go outside the house. When I have meetings after work, I cannot attend the robotics meetings. With all these new commitments, my coaching practice has been a little slow. When I have a medical student with me, my paperwork piles up. Something always has to give way for something else to be done well. I do not believe in doing anything half-heartedly. So, whatever I do, I do well. I just put off those things that don’t have a deadline, until I can do it well.

If I were to try and ‘balance’ things out, and do everything equally, I would end up either not getting anything done well, or not completing anything at all. What is worse, if I believed it was important, I wold stress out over it, and that would certainly lead to burnout.

I have therefore, come to the conclusion that it is most important to do things that make us happy. It is certainly important to have something outside of work that excites us as well. How can we make the best of it all, and prevent burnout? Here are a few tips:

1. Make sure you always plan time off, well ahead. It is best to have the entire year planned, with important days for self, and the family set aside right at the beginning. These dates should be non-negotiable. if they are blocked off ahead, then it is easy to ask for these days off early when schedules are being made.

2. Try not to fill the day’s schedule to the brim. Always leave a little free time, to adjust for the unexpected – the urgent, unscheduled patient who needs to be seen, the inpatient who takes a turn for the worse, the flat that needs to be changed, etc.

3. Following the 80:20 principle, 80% of the satisfaction comes from only 20% of the things we do. Similarly, 80% of the things we do give us only 20% returns. We could take some time to reflect on those 80%, and determine which of them we could totally eliminate from our schedule – either cut out completely, or delegate, or hire somebody else for. We could then focus more on the 20% that bring us the greater satisfaction.

So, what are some of your strategies for staying sane in this life? Do send me your suggestions and comments.

Related articles

• Harvey Bowden’s tips for keeping a good work life balance. Written for The Guardian. (harveywatersofteners.co.uk)
• How to: Achieve a work/life balance (reed.co.uk)
• Are You Struggling with Work Life Balance? New Study Suggests Gender is a Factor (projecteve.com)
• Work-life balance: all employers should encourage it [infographic] (sandglaz.com)
• Achieving Work/Life Balance Means Changing How You Think (lifehacker.com.au)
• The Key to Work-Life Balance: Delegate (blogs.wsj.com)