I came across this interesting piece from Fast Company this morning, which includes an interview with an extremely successful business executive. The reason I found it so interesting was her reference to how firstly, she doesn’t believe in the concept of work-life balance and secondly, how she describes her own technique for establishing boundaries between her work and personal lives.
“I gave up years ago on the concept that you could actually have balance in your life, I think it’s a phantom chase.”
As I’ve said before, I think the “balance” in work-life balance is a misnomer and we should really be reflecting on the dynamic interactions between the demands on our time and attention. Balance can never really be attained as the demands we face ebb and flow.
Here, Barbara Corcoran outlines her own technique for separating work and home by simply switching off her work phone in the evening and ignoring it until the following morning. Seems simple, but it also seems to be effective. She compartmentalises her life and this seems to work well for her.
Without a well-defined role (something becoming more and more common, especially for the self-employed and those in business start-ups), putting a boundary in place around the working day could be an effective tactic to help manage never-ending workloads and the temptation to simply… keep on working.
