Re-energize. Unplug.

In a recent article in The Des Moines Register, Dana Hunsinger referenced "the epidemic of  overwork, over-scheduling and time famine in America's workplaces." Think of how many business people you know -- including yourself, more than likely -- who routinely work 50-60 hours a week. Even when we're not at work, we're hard at work...on our cell phones, laptops and Blackberries. This is especially true during tough economic times when fear drives us to put in even more hours.

For decades, we've questioned the wisdom of being continually "plugged in." Remember Stephen Covey's analogy of "sharpening the saw," stopping periodically to renew physically, mentally, socially and spiritually? Without that renewal time, like a saw, we become dull and ineffective.

John deGraaf, Executive Director of Take Back Your Time, talks in the Register article about how essential time off is to our health. He says that men who don't take regular vacations are 32 percent more likely to suffer from heart disease than those who do, and women are 50 percent more likely.

During the recent election, for the first time, both campaigns listed work+life issues as part of their economic agendas. President-elect Obama specifically sees work+life as a mainstream economic and social policy issue.

Ultimately it comes down to individual choices though, doesn't it? Maintaining a conscious balance between work and personal life so that one doesn't dominate the other. Balance does not mean 50/50. It's not about clock time.

Balance is about how we use the time we have. It's deciding, "What's a reasonable balance for me?"

• Is it a few hours a week unencumbered by work worries? Unplugged physically from the Blackberry, emotionally from the to-do list? Plugged socially into family and friends, spiritually into the silent chambers of our souls?
• Is it taking four breaks a day to walk around the block, to sit for a few minutes beside a sunny window, to read a few pages in a favorite magazine?
• Is it some solitude every evening between dinner and bedtime?
• Is it playing more with the kids?
• Is it having a real conversation with your spouse, partner or friend each day?
• Is it making time every week in your schedule for a sports, community or religious activity that you care deeply about? 

We have to consciously schedule "time off" into our lives, just like we schedule staff meetings into our calendars. Knowing when not to work is just as important as knowing when to.

Comments

[Andrew B. Clark]

Great, timely post. I've seen the work+life balance get so out of whack that both the business and personal sides suffer dramatically. It's hard to separate WHO YOU ARE from WHAT YOU DO, but it needs to happen, lest those boundaries get blurred. Heck, some say God even took a day off.

Thanks for the reminder and the tips for getting back to center... now, I should probably get of the computer, huh?