Work, Life, and Balance


A lot has been said and done about Work-Life Balance lately, and in the past as well. I will keep this short, I have no patience and time to go on blabbering for pages and pages of philosophical crap.

To begin with, I have had day jobs just like you, definitely not perfect, and where work can be so demanding at times that you feel like hating it all. But, I have been appropriately satisfied with my life definitely (if not so much with my work). I think its partly also because I don't give a damn about my work after a point of time, but never-mind.

Admit it, you hate your work routine. It's ruining your life. You don't find time for yourselves, or your friends, family, your favorite sport or to learn new ninja skills.

But at same time, understand that your company won't help this sort out for you. It's really your problem and you need to kick some ass to fix it. Take charge, and nail it.

Here are a few things I apply sub-consciously:

Find the passion in your work

You can't balance apples against oranges. You need to be as involved/concerned about your work as you are about rest of your life. You might not be perfectly satisfied with your job, but hey, nobody is. Find things you truly love in your work space. Don't let work kill your passion about your dream work. Hang around with the coolest people around your desk. If you can find a little corner of your heart for your work, things will automatically become a lot easier. You won't mind the occasional extra hours, you'll be more productive, and you'll come home with a smile and energy to really have a fulfilling life.


Do at least couple of those n things daily

Make a hit-list of what you really want your life to look like: hitting the gym, writing a blog/book, learning new stuff, reading a book, picking up your kids from school, preparing for your Oscar Award's speech, whatever it is. Find some time to do at least one of them each day. I do not trust you if you tell me you can't find time for it. Make some time for it, this is what you are working for. If you still think your work comes your way, take a deep breath, close your eyes, and say this loud inside 'Fuck It', and go ahead and do it. Your work can wait, trust me, it can (all that project management shit will take care of it!).

Little Hacks

Hack around to make more time by keeping things organized like cutting through commute time by starting early for office, procrastinate stuff that can be put off, order your groceries online instead of wasting time standing in queues in malls, fight in project management meetings to get extra time buffers (you are smart enough to know how to do this), automate stuff, and so on.


Long post already, I would like to close this here on this note:
Prioritize your life alongside your work, not ahead, not behind, alongside.
Keep your work fun, so that it doesn't haunts you all the time.
Hack it all.

Cheers!
Location: Bangalore, Karnataka, India

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