Ah, work-life balance. Working in climate and nature, more balance is much needed but can feel out of reach.
You try to make changes, but they get scuppered by the next demanding deadline or unanticipated urgent important thing. And after a while, you might even end up dismissing the idea as an impossible, distant dream – not achievable for you, in your role and sector.
While balancing work and life working in the climate and nature takes more work than most sectors, I actually think it’s the term itself that sets us up to fail, if taken at face value.
I’m not dismissing the idea of work-life balance at all – in fact, I think it’s a great starting point for reflecting on what work and life is feeling like. After all, keeping balance in the time and energy we give is so important for purpose-driven people in purpose-driven organisations. But, if you’re looking to find a better work-life balance, I think the idea benefits from some important caveats that will ultimately help that elusive balance feel more in reach.
So, if the idea of a bit (or a lot) more work-life balance is appealing, here are six thoughts from me that might leave you feeling differently about what work-life balance really looks and feels like for you. Have a read, and see what ideas pop up for you.
Life outside work is still work
I think work-life balance implies that the “life bit” is the balancer to work – and when balance in time and energy between work and life is good, then all will be well. Of course we all know it doesn’t work like this. So when we accept that much of life outside of work takes work, effort and energy too, it highlights that the balance may be better kept between what takes work and what doesn’t – whether we get paid for it or not. We can start to think about our overall effort or energy balance instead, and consider what we do and may need habitually in response to challenges and demands wherever they crop up in our lives.
Less scales, more mosaic
Work-life conjures up a two-sided balancing act – one way, the other – as if our life were made of two distinct “sides”. In reality, we know our lives are much more complex and multifaceted – many piece jigsaws or mosaics of commitments and experiences that take or give us energy, enjoyment and purpose. When you think of your life’s components, what image comes to mind? Just imagining this helps situate work in a much bigger, more complex whole that we can step back and appreciate, then perhaps, adjust.
Balance is…active
Imagine for a moment trying to balance on a narrow log. It takes effort right? You’re not static or still – you wobble, one way, the other and back. This metaphor demonstrates that balance is active and ever-changing. The great hope in this is that our experience will shift by making even the smallest tweaks and changes – and these may build to restore a sense of balance. But we do need to actively maintain our experience, responding to external and internal changes over time and this will reduce the chance of us being really out of kilter for too long.
Start with life, see what happens
When looking for more work-life balance, we often start with getting a handle of work – hours particularly. But when our ever-overly-demanding job is liable to take as much headspace, timespace, heartspace as you can give, this can be a tricky place to start. Counterintuitively then, it’s often easier to focus on life outside of work as we seek to establish more work-life balance. When we carve out head space and time for other things – putting more importance on these things – this naturally pushes back on work demands and time, and supports us to feel and be different at work too.
Work-life balance is personal
Each person’s experience and needs are hugely different, so if we go on what seems to work for other’s – then we’re unlikely to find what really works for us. You might have a general idea of what work-life balance looks and feels like and the clearer on this you are the better. What time and energy do you want to give and get from your work, friends, family, neighbours? What bits of life support you to be balanced? What would life balance look like for you? Getting clear on your unique viewpoint is a great starting point.
You’re not the problem
It can be so easy to feel like work-life balance is our problem to fix, when in fact things being out of balance is contributed to by things we don’t have control over. Stepping back to consider: “What’s out of balance?” – whether in your project, team, organisation or the wider world, helps create perspective on what’s going on. This isn’t about being powerless, but rather seeing what we do have power over changing, and responding accordingly.
When we take these work-life balance caveats into account, it can help us to start to work and live in ways that really work for us. I hope you find these reflections on work-life balance helpful. I always welcome hearing your perspective and experience, so do get in touch if you’d like to share.
