Work/Life Integration?

I am about to experience the most dramatic life change I have gone through so far. My wife and I are expecting our first child in September.  The excitement and anticipation are beyond what I thought they would be. My wife and I are in our thirties and we meticulously charted our course to parenthood.  As we make our final preparations for Emmett’s arrival we have crossed many taskes off our checklist: nursery—check, leave plans—check, day care—check, birthing classes—check, baby showers—check, mother/mother-in-law visitation schedule—check, work schedule to accommodate our little guy—uh oh!

I have always approached work with the attitude that I can make up for my weaknesses by simply working harder.  Friends and family tire of hearing, “I have a work thing.” A typical week consists of three to five coffees (before 8:00), one or more board meetings (often in the evening), five business lunches, two or three dinners or evening events, and catch-up work on the weekend.  I think a lot of you are in this boat.  Fifty hours is now largely considered the regular work week and few will even blink when you say you worked sixty hours in a week.

As I prepare to take on my most important role in life, I have tackled this task in the same way that FlashPoint would recommend to a management and leadership development client.

1. Know yourself —I know that I can’t “spread out” things and need definite breaks to focus on one or the other. I also know that if I do not have a minimum of 30 minutes of “down time” before I try to sleep I will not sleep.
2. Prioritize commitments—What things am I willing to give up in order to be more effective with my other commitments?
3. Learn to say “no”—This is hard for me as I am motivated by helping others. Again, it is about prioritizing commitments.
4. Plan personal events as you would professional events—Spontaneity is great and should always be a part of life, but it doesn’t hurt to do a little planning. After all, we plan for the things we think are important.
5. Use your work calendar to block off your personal commitments—I learned this trick from a team member who does a great job keeping her personal and professional commitments. When personal commitments are on your calendar it provides you with a more realistic preview of all of your commitments.

 While professional jobs may require more “time” to get all of the work done, many organizations (like FlashPoint) have flexible scheduling which makes it easier to integrate work and life commitments. It seems that the key is taking some time to prioritize and organize.  For me, the test starts around September 19th—check back with me in October to see how I am doing.

Jeremy King is the Business Development Manager at FlashPoint.