Slacker Manager

Life/Work Balance: Are You Turned On?

by David Zinger on January 24th, 2008

Can you turn yourself on? Perhaps even more importantly, can you turn yourself off? How well do you psychologically navigate from home to work and back again? Can you be fully where you are so that you experience high levels of engagement? One of the most powerful ways to maintain life/work balance is to be fully present to whatever situation you are in.

When you are at work be at work and when you are at home be at home.

For some people this is simple but many of us find thoughts of work enter our homes like cold blasts of air from a winter night, giving us a chill and keeping us awake.  Or thoughts of home distract our brain at work like a broken water tap that goes drip….drip….drip….drip….

To prevent this we need to become masters of transitions.

William Bridges is a change expert who emphasized transitions. Transitions begin with an end. To get to work we need to let go or end our focus on home and to get home we need to end a focus on work.

I believe the most powerful method to do this is to develop a simple and powerful transition routine or ritual to signify the end of what was and to begin a focus on what is.

Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz talk about the effectiveness of ritual in The Power of Full Engagement:

Principle 4: Positive energy rituals - highly specific routines for managing energy - are the key to full engagement and sustained high performance.

I have been working with business people for over 15 years on their rituals to get in and out of work. One thing that stood out to me is that many people have rituals but are not aware of them. Their transition ritual could be having a steaming cup of coffee and reading the paper or always taking the dog for a twenty minute walk as soon as they get home. I think mindfulness in the ritual process makes these transitions even more powerful.

The key to a successful ritual is that it brings what was to an end and guides you into what you are currently doing.

Do you have a routine or ritual that helps you maintain balance every day between home and work, and back again?

Here are a few samples:

• One woman in my course walks to work - the walking is part of the transition and she listens to rock music on her headphones as she goes to work and classical music on the way home.
• One man always reads fiction on the bus as he goes to work and comes home.
• Some commuters sleep or meditate on the subway or public transportation.
• Many parents make sure when they leave home to hug their spouse and children.
• Many couples debrief in the car on the way home.
• One gentleman ends work as soon as he turns the computer off.
• One person always showers as soon as she gets home to wash work stress away.
• Donald Meichenbaum, a cognitive psychologist, shared an example about a teacher who loved teaching but found that she was always thinking of the children even after she left school.  She would be interacting with her own children but thinking about the students at school. She managed to end this by developing a ritual of “kissing the bricks goodbye” when she left school. She literally planted a kiss on a brick as she physically and psychologically left work where it was loved.

The key point for you is to determine a simple ritual that will work for you. You know it is working when you are mentally, emotionally, and spiritually where you are physically.

In the present moment, there is no stress. ~ Stephan Rechtschaffen

Write a comment about your personal routine or ritual to make the transitions between work and home. Is it working and how did you develop it?

Photo Credit: on/off button by http://flickr.com/photos/fazen/4836672/

David Zinger is focused on the present moment as he developes www.diehappytoday.com.

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