Work/Life Balance

Can You Achieve True Work-Life Balance?

By Kathy Mendicki, CPA

Every individual has a different idea of work-life balance…

My administrative assistant informed me one day that unless it was 50/50, there wasn’t really a balance. He was picturing the evenly balanced scales. Let’s face it though; most of us don’t work at an 8:00 to 5:00 job and most have commitments to our jobs that require time above and beyond that 8:00 to 5:00 level. 

Clearly, we can make up some of that time on the weekends, but as everybody knows, especially in the accounting profession, an occasional Saturday and/or Sunday is often required work. So what can you do to assure that the things that are important to you actually happen and don’t get swallowed up in this potential black hole we call work or career?

I learned some important lessons when my children were small. I was lucky enough that my firm decided to invest in Franklin planners and in, what was then, the Franklin training and time management system (now Franklin Covey). My firm sent me to an eight-hour training course on time management and learning how to utilize the Franklin planner system. 

The first thing I learned was that the seminar was scheduled in increments that we could all handle. Each session was an hour to two hours long and there were frequent breaks. The way they taught the class is the way we should all schedule our projects. We all have the big project on our “to do” list and we know we need to tackle it, but we can’t manage to get six hours or so to work on it. 

The class emphasized the need to break everything down into manageable increments. Schedule an hour to an hour and a half to work on a project and break it up into four or five pieces. It’s a proven fact that you’re more likely to spend an hour on something than to schedule and spend eight straight hours on a project. And it was really amazing, going through the class, how we stayed interested because the class was broken up into manageable sections. 

I think the most valuable lesson I learned that day was about our “to do” lists and what we actually schedule. Most of us have our “to do” lists, but 99.9 percent of us only put on there what we need to accomplish at work. It’s the same way with our schedules. We may have some things listed that we have to attend for the family on our calendar, but we don’t actually schedule the small things. If you are like most, your calendar doesn’t address “Take Suzy to the movies” or “Go to the playground with Joe.” These are all things we plan on getting around to but, when we don’t schedule them, we frequently don’t ever find the time.

To illustrate the importance of this, our instructor took us through an exercise. He said, “I’m going to have you imagine that I’ve got a 2x4 here that’s about 10 feet long. You’re on one end and I’m on the other end and I’ve got a million dollars and all you’ve got to do to get that million dollars is walk across the 2x4. Are you going to try it?” 

Of course we all said, “Yes.” And then he said, “OK, now imagine it’s a little bit longer and I’ve stretched it out across the Grand Canyon. I’m on one side and you’re on the other and I’ve got a million dollars. Are you going to try to cross it?” We all looked at him like he was crazy. There’s no way we would try to cross that for a million dollars. He said, “OK, I’ve got your son on the other side and I’m going to drop him off if you don’t get here fast. Are you going to try it?” All the moms and dads unanimously agreed: “Of course we’d do anything we could to get there.” And then he looked at us and he said, “So why don’t you schedule time with your children and your family and the things that are most important to you?”

Since that day, I’ve tried to follow his advice. I’m not perfect. I don’t get everything on the calendar. But I do occasionally try to schedule afternoons off just to be at home with my kids. And I’m a better worker because of it, because I know that I’m taking time out for other things that are important to me. And it’s not just scheduling time with the family, it’s also scheduling time for giving back to your community and time for yourself. Work is only a part of our life; our family and friends are going to be there forever. So the best advice is to make sure that while you are working, you are also concentrating on scheduling the other things that in the long run will mean a lot more to you.

So, I would recommend that you attend one of these seminars and start planning your life. Search out the best course in your area. If you’re an employer or a supervisor, who can get the employer to cover the cost, it is probably some of the best dollars you will spend. If you can’t get your employer to cover the cost, consider it as an investment in you and your future. If you learn one or two things that make a difference in your work/life balance, it will likely be worth every penny!