The idea of work/life balance is nothing but an illusion put in by the IT industries into the minds of the over ambitious and overworked professionals who want to "have it all". I somehow miss understanding what it all means? Have you ever heard of family/life balance or, eat/life balance or, play/life balance? No right? Because it is all a part of life. Just the way "work" is. Work takes up a lot of our adult age. Our schooling is meant for the very fact of getting a job. Work usually takes a priority over the rest. And why shouldn't it? You need to be at it if you want to secure your family. A future for your kids, security to your spouse and let's face it, self respect. Work confirms our dream and becomes a part of our core identity. Added to our career-driven lives, the mobile technology, our work priorities take a toll over our personal life. When this happens, professionals are putting their relation, mental and physical health and overall happiness at risk.Technology aids is skewing our priorities. Unknowingly, we hand over precious power to alerts and notifications. A distractions ironically set up to ensure we don't miss a thing. Our phones are set up to get notifications from office email, personal emails, facebook, twitter, linkedIn, instagram, blogs, weather alert, shopping alerts. While the alerts I really should be bothered about, is my son's attics. But how do we really know our priorities have gone awry? Is it at the point where the urgency to react to something is disproportionate to its priority? Although technology enables every notification or alert to seem urgent, technology is not the true culprit. I wouldn't blame it all on technology. I would hold our 'relationship with technology' guilty of the crime of throwing us off balance.
Do you miss the gym because you feel compelled to reply to an email first? Do your kids ask you to step away from Facebook? Do unread emails cause you stress even after a 12-hour workday? Do you check your phone at dinner? Are emails the first thing you check in the morning? These are all signs that you have an imbalanced relationship with technology.
How I found my balance?
I had been addicted of checking my inbox even before I am out of bed every morning. I fooled myself saying I would just glance through it but, it always ended up in me working a minimum 30 mins right there with my phone. I got rehabilitated by not having my cell phone by my bedside anymore. Problem solved! Wake up, get the weather updates by standing in the balcony, get updated with the latest happening with TIO as I sip my mocha.
I jotted down my most important personal goals. My boy, husband, exercise, bible, happiness with what gives me my monthly wages. Now I work in sync to achieve my goals. I give them the necessary attention, something less important, but louder is bound to take their place. And when these goals of mine need technology, I sure use it.
I have been hearing about how hobbies help. It's high time I put it to practice. And I don't care if it takes me 30 minutes of waking up early to do that. But yes! my keyboard is out of the dungeon and I spend time loosing myself to the melodies my fingers create. Why? I even use technology on my way to work to learn a key notes!
These are my ways. What's yours? Happy to hear from how you manage your "want it all" ambition.
