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SALT LAKE CITY — Work-life balance. It's something that is increasingly on people's minds as technology has made it easier than ever before to merge the two, yet it's something that seems unattainable to many.
The term "work-life merge" was coined recently by Facebook executive Emily White to describe a new kind of life: one where work and personal activities are no longer neatly compartmentalized, but rather thrown together in a single heap.
For some, though, finding work-life balance — being productive at work and focusing on family at home — is still a goal worth reaching for. Greg Kratz writes in the Deseret News 26 ways to help find work-life balance, including:
Deseret News:
Balancing act: A year of work/life balance, from A to Z
Instead of just listing my work/life balance resolutions for 2013, this week I'd like to share an A-to-Z list of where I succeeded or fell short in 2012 and what I hope to achieve in the year to come.- Communication: It's important to both work and family relationships, and there is always room for improvement.
- Allow for flexibility in both your and others' schedules.
- Improve your knowledge and skills whenever you can.
- Understand your strengths and use them to help fight your weaknesses.
- Make goals, and take action to achieve them.
Technology, of course, makes it harder to find balance.
"Everyone's permanently checking in, which means the working day has become both longer and more fast-moving: the decision cycle is massively speeded up, as nothing has to wait until people get back to the office tomorrow," Gaby Hinsliff writes in the Guardian. "Snap judgments in the middle of the night, critical conversations taken on the hoof, are the new norm."
Hinsliff said it's important, then, not to treat work-life balance as a competition between two polar opposites; rather, find reasons you love your job, so if parts of it seep into your home life, it won't feel like you're losing anything because of it.
