Life/Work Balance

From time to time, we all need to re-align our work/life balance. It’s often observed that, in spite of the vast array of modern day time-saving technologies, we have less and less free time. Many couples find themselves constantly torn between the pressures of employment and personal life. It can feel as though there just aren’t enough hours in the day or days in the week, and while we rush around trying to fit more and more activities into less and less time, it is often our relationships that suffer.

Relationships need attention in order that they grow. Time to keep in touch with what’s happening in our everyday lives. Time to share our hopes and dreams as well as our fears and failings. And time to have fun. We cannot expect relationships to be perfect when we put them to the bottom of our list of priorities. Children put play to the top of their priority list, why do we lose this when we become adults? We know, deep down, that we want to have fun – see a film, read a book, play a computer game, go on holiday……but these joys are quietly “put away” to the back of our minds to leave room for such pressing issues like doing the ironing, the shopping, washing the car, choosing a new carpet, taking Billy to football and Sophie to ballet. Given the choice, children would probably pick a family activity above other lone activities. Jim would probably pick golf to washing the car, and Caroline would probably say that if she didn’t do the ironing, no-one else would. All these are urban myths.

With better delegation of tasks, better prioritising, and the pairing down of your busy existence can bring about the sense of joy and fun that you last knew in your teenage years. If you are getting drunk on Saturday night, only to feel depressed at the massive array of tasks that face you on Sunday, then you probably have a poor work/life balance. If you dread Monday morning because the treadmill begins again; you may have a poor work/life balance. And remember, the money we work for often ends up easing the hectic work life we have created – a viscous circle that becomes even more cyclic as we create more stress in our lives.