Part of the Personal Growth Training Series
Facts and Fables
Aesop’s fable of “The Ant and the Grasshopper” sees a hungry grasshopper—having spent the summer playing his fiddle—begging his enterprising ant friend for food. The ant, who worked hard to gather food for the coming winter while the grasshopper played, denies the impractical, long-legged insect.
The moral of the fable is: Work hard and be prepared for tough times. The grasshopper perishes without food for the winter while the ant weathers the winter with his store of grub.
But what Aesop doesn’t tell you is: The ant dies too. Of boredom. He’s got no fiddle or musical ability. Can’t even whistle. What each of these fabled creatures needed was a little work‑life balance.
Maintaining a healthy work‑life balance is essential in today’s culture. It’s possible to harvest your grains AND practice your fiddle without going crazy.
Here are the secrets.
Burnout Was Not in My Job Description
While some bosses want their employees to put in long hours, work on weekends, be available to answer emails, calls and texts at all hours and give up breaks and lunch hours to meet deadlines, studies prove it’s a bad practice. Overwhelming evidence suggests that working long hours can be detrimental to both employees and employers.
The most common symptoms of overworking and work‑life imbalance include:
Fatigue and lack of energy
Insomnia
Poor health due to stress
Distractedness
Weakened immune system
Grouchy mood and irritability
Weight gain/loss
Family/social life disruption
Greater risk of anxiety and depression
If possible, enlighten your supervisors to the dangers of stress, overwork and burnout. They may be oblivious to the harm these unhealthy expectations can cause.
Achieving Work‑Life Harmony
You’ve got to find the perfect blend of grain-gathering and fiddle playing to make life work. Maintaining the right work‑life balance isn’t just about lopping off activities from your schedule. Most people can make significant strides to achieve work‑life harmony by setting priorities, simplifying schedules and practicing good time management techniques.
These practices help bring “life” up to an even level with “work.”
Balancing Act: Even Out Work and Life
Working hours and life hours need a constant equilibrium.
Click to move the acorns to even out your scale and reveal tips for successful work‑life balance.
Incorporate Daily Gratifications
Gratifications are hobbies and pastimes that make use of our strengths and creativity, fulfilling us and passing the time enjoyably. These activities require time and energy but relieve stress and increase happiness.
Patch Your Energy Leaks
Tolerations are those things in life that regularly drain our energy. These may include messy rooms that require your attention, difficult people you have to deal with or bothersome chores. Set aside some time to address and minimize or eliminate them, giving you more energy for other things and more work‑life balance.
Delegate When Possible
Asking others to ease the burden of your workload by taking on projects is essential to time management. Determine which tasks in your life can only be done by you and which can be farmed out to others.
Examine Your Priorities
Rank your activities and obligations in order of importance. Figure out which are most pressing. Determine what you can say no to so you have more time to say yes to others.
Identify Opportunities for Multitasking
Combine two tasks that don’t require heavy concentration to better manage your time and to-do list. Multitasking is about training the brain to funnel energy efficiently and effectively to accomplish more in less time.
Embrace Leisure Activities
Leisure activities or downtime can reduce stress. By finding time to partake in activities you enjoy away from work, you can manage stress, which in turn promotes productivity and builds resources.
Understand the Meaning of Work‑Life Balance
Having too many obligations that consume our energy, time and resources can lead to burnout. Balance the amount of time and energy expended on work activities with those that nourish, replenish and feel like play.
More Tips and Tricks
How to Maintain a Healthy Work‑Life Balance
Use your time management skills:
Managing time correctly lets you do the right things at the right time. Deliver work promptly and enjoy more free time.
Set career and personal goals:
Goal setting is the development and implementation of an action plan created to motivate you toward a stated goal. Work goals and life goals can keep you organized and motivated.
Prioritize your life, at work and at home:
Knowing your priorities moves you from being reactive to proactive. Give greater weight to those more pressing tasks and activities—whether at home or work—and you’ll achieve more.
Take care of yourself:
Develop healthy eating habits, get enough sleep and exercise regularly. Balance is as much about your body as it is your mind.
Pace yourself:
It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Train accordingly. Aesop knew a thing or two about animal fables. His slow and steady tortoise took down the speedy hare with the help of realistic pacing.
Abandon the pursuit of perfection:
Nobody’s perfect. Perfection isn’t a human trait. Trying to achieve it is only wasting your time and expending valuable energy you could be using to knock out tasks, enjoy friends and family and relax.
Turn off your devices:
Unplug, enjoy nature and fight off technology addiction. Switch off your gadgets for a while and spend time with family, read a book, take a walk or go for a bike ride. Better yet, practice your fiddle.
Summary
The moral of this training is: Work and play in a satisfying balance, keeping life and work in harmony. Don’t let the workaholic ants crush your creative side. But don’t neglect storing grain for the winter.
