You’ve heard the term work-life balance, but we at Blaze Your Brain think that’s backwards. Why spend your life working just to live a little? Yet this is the norm for most people, or they forget to live altogether.
Most people work 5 days a week and get 2 days to “live.”
In our opinion, that’s no way to live. We think you should be living 7 days a week.
Work shouldn’t be your life, it should be part of your life.
Yes, we also recognize that your organization may require you to work more than a day or two a week, but that doesn’t mean living has to be on the back burner and you can’t incorporate more fun into your days.
Think about bucket lists. Many people have them, but from year to year the same things are on the list. What’s on your bucket list? Or what we like to refer to as your life list.
Some of the biggest companies like Bumble, Google and LinkedIn gave their employees additional time off to “cure” burnout, but that’s just a myth.
More time off won’t cure burnout.
Why?
You spend most of your time working, with little time off.
When you do take time off, if you’re like most people, you’ll check your email. Then you’ll feel inclined to reply to that email, which starts the beginning of multiple email threads.
Or you might be on the beach enjoying fun in the sun, just to have your mind thinking about work. One thought leads to another and then your mind ponders all the tasks, emails, and calls you have to get to when you return to work. Then you start feeling overwhelmed about returning to work so it keeps you from taking vacation or PTO in the first place.
Here’s how to create more success with putting life before work:
- Schedule at least 15 minutes of fun into each day. Add it into your calendar, as though it’s a date with yourself, and make sure you show up on time.
- Do different things. When you try something new, it allows your brain to actively think, which creates mental stimulation and reduces routines and boredom.
- Find a support system at work. When you want to take time off, find someone at work who can attend to your urgent emails, calls, and tasks while you’re gone, so you can truly enjoy your time away (anything non-urgent will wait until you get to them after you return to work and get settled). When they take time off, you become that person for them.
- Be intentional. If nothing changes in your days, burnout will be waiting for you when you return from time off. People are suffering. The day-to-day tasks are boggling you down. Make sure you have manageable strategies and tools in place to prevent and address burnout in your daily activities.
- Hold yourself accountable. Pick one thing on your life list (bucket list) to do a month, no matter how big or small, and hold yourself accountable to it. You can also find a friend, spouse, or partner to do them with, which will make it easier for you to achieve success in marking things off your list.
It’s time to put yourself, and your life, first and start living more.
It’s all about life/work balance.
What’s the one thing you’ve always wanted to do and haven’t done yet?
Now is the perfect time to begin. You deserve more fun. Stop putting things off.
Put more living into your life…starting now.
What is one way you will incorporate more fun into your days?
