With today's hectic lifestyles, it can be frustrating for busy professionals to find that comfortable balance between life at home and life at the office.
Any doctor or harried mom will tell you, also, that even though it can be difficult, it is imperative that you find a way to get your life in balance.
Work/life balance is necessary for improved health, better peace of mind, and a happier lifestyle.
It would seem that having more leisure time would be getting easier to do, especially with all the new technology available that is supposed to do a lot of our work for us.
Unfortunately, that is not necessarily how it is panning out.
Almost everyone has a cell phone these days.
Are they useful tools? Of course, they are.
Do they also make it way too easy for our boss to reach us on the weekends and after five o'clock? Yes, of course they do.
Computers give us access to information with the click of a mouse.
Does that make information hunting at work easier? Yes, of course it does.
Rarely do most people have to head off to the library and pore over documents anymore, which is a blessing for folks who need to disseminate information as part of their professional lives.
But, does access to a computer from just about anywhere, especially home, also provide an "excuse" to bring work home with us, when such a possibility did not exist a decade ago? Yes, it does.
With technology being what it is, and life becoming more and more frantic, finding that harmonious balance between work and real life may seem daunting; read on to discover tips to balance work with life.
First of all, make firm rules about what hours you are going to devote to work and stick to them.
If you let it, work will interfere with everything.
There is always going to be "one more thing" to do.
Most careers or jobs are that way.
The in basket is always higher than the out basket, so if you don't schedule your work time, it will schedule you.
If your child's classroom needs a "homeroom mom" on Monday mornings, and your boss allows you the time to serve it, don't skip out "just this once" to do something else at work.
Giving in may seem like the only option, but it isn't, and if you give in once, your boss will ask you again next week.
Second of all, unless you operate your entire business from home, keep your computer in the living room.
Putting your computer in the bedroom or home office will only encourage you to go behind closed doors and go "back to the office" by plopping yourself in front of the keyboard when you should be colouring a picture with your toddler.
Keeping your computer out where there are life's important interruptions will make you less likely to feel compelled to ruin your personal life with business.