Work life balance a key to being an effective Slacker Manager
October 31, 2007 by Phil Gerbyshak
Filed under Business
How’s your management balance? Do you have a management balance, or are you standing on your tip toes, hoping nobody steps in front of you so you don’t fall on your face? I certainly have my days like that, and I find that days like that are among my worst, so I wanted to find some advice on how to be MORE balanced in my life, and hopefully that’ll spill over to my work.
Startup Spark talks about work-life balance, and shares:
“What I have discovered is that if we don’t create a day of separation, sanctuary or solitude, the edges will blur.”
I find the same thing. If I don’t make margin in my day, in my life, it all becomes one big ball of messy goo and life and work and play all blend into one lioray, which means absolutely nothing is complete, it’s all just a jumble of letters and sounds. Good for nothing if you ask me!
Now one thing I’ve thought about to keep the balance balanced, is yoga. My wife says it’s good for me, but I’ve resisted. Then I read Jim’s article at Small Business Boomers about how yoga has saved my life. I’m rethinking my resitance.
Why yoga? Quoting Jim:
“…if my body is in good shape I can contribute more to society. I can be more productive.”
OK, I will try some yoga in the next month. I want to be more productive in society, and I’d say the same can be true for management. The better the shape you are in, the better you can lead your team.
One of the compelling goals I’ve set for myself is to reach 200 pounds again. I’m 5 foot 10 inches tall, so I will be no means be “skinny” at 200 pounds, but I’ll be in much better shape. So I’ll be working on my work-life balance, and hope to do more slacking than managing, at least at 10 PM at night.
What about you? How’s your work-life balance? Are you on or off the beam today, tomorrow, this week, this month?
Let’s take back our balance this month, and report back in 30 days.
I’m Phil Gerbyshak, and I’ve spent more time with his BlackBerry than with my family some days. And that’s all about to change, starting first thing in the morning!
Flickr photo credit to smcgee.
Phil – Your wife is right … you have to try it. I speak from experience here. The great thing is you do what you can do and that my man is all it takes to let yoga do its mojo on both your body and brain.
Thanks Dean. I really am seriously considering it. November looks like a good month to try. I’ll let her know you approve ;)
I always think of work/life balance as a strange term. Why is the common expression work/life balance rather than life/work balance? It seems we put work first in the statement yet without life we could not be working.
Having said that I appreciate the recovery time and rejuvination you are working at Phil. My daughter does Hot Yoga, not for me but I will also workout more in November as I recover from 10 weeks of rest after some leg/back injury. Perhaps I should say back/leg :)
Take care and carry on caring,
David
I can also vouch for yoga being an important part of maintaining the borders. I go to a yoga class after work twice a week. The local effect is that it enables me to totally put work stress out of my mind, and proceed with the “life” portion of my evening without any spillover. The longer term effects are better concentration, better fitness, and weight control. I’ve been doing this for a coouple of years, and am pretty good at getting into the mental groove right away. It may take you a while to get the hang of putting aside the constant stream of thoughts about “what I need to do”. YMMV, but it works for me.
Thanks Pat. I appreciate you agreeing with my wife. I know she does too :)
I’ll give it a shot soon and report my findings back to all of you.