By: Tyler Saumur, ORT Times Writer
Work-life balance is a skill that needs to be practiced in any job, whether it’s the CEO of a business or a mental health nurse. In academia particularly, a culture of long hours is often advertised and sometimes encouraged to “achieve success.” However, long hours are not the only way to achieve success. This article will discuss work-life balance in the context of each component: work, life and balance.
Work. It can be easy to have work trickle into your personal life, making it difficult to detach from the work environment and relax. One strategy that works for me is setting my working hours and sticking to them—know when you are most efficient and use this as your work shift if your position affords it. One of the advantages of academia is the flexibility to complete tasks with a variable schedule, which can enable you to prioritize critical events in your life if needed. If lingering emails are your kryptonite, remove your email from your phone or have a strategy to determine the urgency of the emails you receive. If it can wait until tomorrow, address it during your pre-defined work hours the next day. If perfection is your downfall and you frequently find tasks taking longer than expected, consider whether it is good or good enough. Will the messaging of your meeting minutes really change if you decide to add an extra indent to each line individually and italicize every title? Probably not.
Life. A life outside of work is important, even if your passion is science and research. Reflect on your values and make sure that you set aside time for these activities. Whether it is family time, watching movies, or playing basketball, make sure you have dedicated time for what matters most to you. With that in mind, allotting time for exercise and sleep is also important to maintain your health and help minimize burnout. Of course, if you experience burnout and become sick, make sure that you don’t come into work. Especially as most of us are working in a hospital setting, the patient’s health is just as important as our own. Rest up and regroup.
Balance. Setting aside time to enjoy your life can often lead to guilt. Maintaining a balance between work and life means setting expectations with those you report to. See if there is flexibility in your schedule if you know that you work better at certain times of the day. Make sure to take your vacation time and when you are on holidays, set an autoreply to your email so that you can remove any guilt you might have around delayed replies.
As mentioned at the beginning, work-life balance needs to be practiced and begins with reflecting on what you value most. This will set the foundation and habits to help manage all of your future jobs.