Why Work/Life Balance Doesn't Work - Time Management Article

By:Steve Holloway

I can’t help feeling that using the phrase ‘work/life balance’ reinforces the problem it seeks to address. To describe a need to balance work and life implies that work is not part of ‘life’. If that’s the case then approx 50% of the average persons hours on earth are devoted to non-life – surely that’s dead.

People are not asking ‘how can I balance two opposing areas of existence?’, but ‘how can I live a holistic life; where all aspects of life co-exist and compliment each other and do not oppose each other?’ Balancing things puts them in opposing positions – we reinforce a problem as oppose to deal with it. We need integration not balance.

If you are living a non-integrated life then perhaps you need to make some major changes. Some escape home by going to work and others escape work by going home. Some people feel like two different people. The person at work is not the person at home. If that’s the case, both your team and family are missing out. For some this is so extreme they keep the two parties at arms length. They feel that if the two meet there will be some kind of implosion of realities and life will end. Actually – it’s at that point that life begins.

I believe it is my reasonability as a leader and employer to care for my team. Yes, we have goals, vision, dreams and commitments – but they are meaningless if we destroy lives, demoralize people and deny children their parents input.

Leaders lead people not projects. If we do not care for our people they will not stay around.

Southwest Airlines (the most successful airline in the world!) has some ways they help people live integrated lives. How do they do this? Their office corridors are lined with photos of team members’ families, wedding photos – they even have an area devoted to pets. Their people don’t leave. They are committed to the business because the business is committed to them

I suggest that we need to focus on integrating all aspects of life and not attempt to balance them out. People will happily work overtime to meet a deadline when they know there is a commitment to them as a person coming back.

For more infomation go to the Generous Leadership website - http://generousleadership.com

Digg del.icio.us Blink Stumble Spurl Reddit Netscape Furl

Article keywords: Work life balance, work/life balance, work and home, integration, time management, leadership.

Article Source: http://www.articles2k.com

Steve Holloway is the founding leader of a registered charity with a team of 40+. He is also a professional speaker & author – for more information see generousleadership.com.

Top Time Management Articles
1). Jim Estill's 8 Rules Of Time By : Jim Estill I study the use of time and how to maximize productivity and enjoyment from it. From these studies, I have come up with the following list of time rules: 1 – It is more important to have clear goals than to be efficient. It is more important to work on the right things than to work efficiently. I liken this to the person who wants to get to Sudbury so gets in their car and drives 150 Km/hour.
2). Double Or Triple Your Time! By : Why do some say that time is much more important than wealth? Nearly all biographies and self-help books, by top leaders and speakers from the past decades, all focus on time as being the most important resource available. When we manage our use of time, through self-mastery, success is a natural product of that effort. Success becomes the harvest we reap.
3). Staying Organized! Organize Your Life For Success! By : Jake Sebastian Organizing the content of your life based on your needs is a best practice for managing your time, resources and money and is an essential first step if you are to fully achieve your potential in life. The reasons for this are simple. An organized clear mind leads to clear and objective goals, which in turn leads to you being able to achieve what you set out to do.
4). Habits! By : Dorothy Habits!
5). Your Home Business Tools By : james lowe These are important human and electronic needs to become a successful entrepreneur
6). Time Management for High School Students By : Gord High school student are one of the busiest people in the world. This people study, takes classes, join school activities, and socialize. They have a lot of work in school and at home. Being organized is essential in high school students. If you are a high school student, it may seem like you never have enough time to finish all your work in a day. You may feel that you are always running out of time and all you do is study and never get enough time with your friends and family.
7). Time Management: A Non-Renewable Resource By : Gwen Nyhus Stewart Benjamin Franklin wrote: "If you want to enjoy one of the greatest luxuries in life, the luxury of having enough time, time to rest, time to think things through, time to get things done and know you have done them to the best of your ability, remember, there is only one way. Take enough time to think and plan things in the order of their importance.
8). Time Management By : Kim Olver Time Management
9). Being Organized: Is it Worth the Effort? By : Lila Norden The payoff of being organized goes beyond saving time, energy, and money. Organization increases the likelihood of success in achieving your goals. Here are a few ideas to help you get better organized.
10). Effective Time Management - Ten Top Tips By : Jackie Fletcher Have you ever thought to yourself that there aren’t enough hours in the day, or felt overwhelmed at the tasks facing you? If you have, this article can help you! • Clarify your goals and strategy. Be very clear about your aims and ambitions, both short and long term. Write them down. Once you know what you really want to achieve (and why) it’s easier to make decisions about what needs doing, and to plan accordingly.

New Time Management Articles
1). How to Use a To-Do List to Control Your Time By : Gerri Stone Good time management is simply managing the events and activities of your day. If you feel like your days are getting away from you, you are not alone. Advances in technology have brought more information rushing toward us than ever before
2). Know the Avantages of Maintaining a To-Do List By : Mitch Johnson There are times we are very confused which are the things that we have to complete or do in a day. There are many things which need to be done, but sometimes we tend to missed few things or tend to forget them because we were to busy.
3). How To Succeed With Good Time Management Technique By : Dean Caporella A very successful way to get ahead of the competition is the mastery of effective time management technique.
4). Discover the Secrets to Managing Your Time By : Gerri Stone Each day we make dozens of choices about how to spend our minutes and hours. When we plan how to spend it, we are in control of our time.
5). Personality Test- Your Time Management By : CD Mohatta All of us have heard quite a lot about time management. Thousands of books have appeared on this subject. The objective of time management is - how to set priorities, how to allocate time, how to effectively use it and how to get the best of the given time. After learning all this and implementing, most of the people manage to implement only a part over long term.
6). Time is a Unique Resource By : Terence Traut How many times have you thought or said, “Sure, I’d like to (take a course, take a vacation, work on an additional skill or project, etc) but there just isn’t enough time.” When we say, “There just isn’t enough time,” we’re shirking responsibility. Let’s look at time and I’ll show you what I mean. Time is a unique resource. It cannot be saved, stopped, or replaced.
7). Time Management for High School Students By : Gord High school student are one of the busiest people in the world. This people study, takes classes, join school activities, and socialize. They have a lot of work in school and at home. Being organized is essential in high school students. If you are a high school student, it may seem like you never have enough time to finish all your work in a day. You may feel that you are always running out of time and all you do is study and never get enough time with your friends and family.
8). Business Time Management By : Josh Riverside Time Management, as the name suggests, means activities, ideas or methods that help a person perform the jobs allotted to him or her in a speedier, quality-conscious-manner within a given time frame, be it personal or professional. Business Time Management would simply mean business planning with definite milestones of achievement of overall success.
9). What Would Save You Time? By : Cynthia Morse, CAP We all get overwhelmed from time to time, and sometimes it seems as if 24 hours a day is just not enough to get everything accomplished that we would like. Let's consider this a brainstorming session. Start creating a list of everyday tasks that, if you didn't have to do them, would allow you to have more time in your day. For example, most of us have to do laundry on a regular basis.
10). To-Do list for success. Time management: theory & practice. By : Yola Eve Yola Eve Business Trainer VIP Quality Software Time Management is getting more and more popular day by day. People want to be more successful, proactive and wealthy. It is not new to everyone that there are common time wasters in our lives. Watching TV all evening long, spending too much time on the Internet, having a very long conversation over the phone, and, my favorite one, doing trifles instead of going bed and loosing your precious sleep – these are common time wasters that you already know of.