Finding the right balance

Everyone that works has to find the right balance between work and personal life.

With the use of mobile devices now, there seems to be more demand on the work life even when you are away from the office. In some cases, I think demand is because even friends and family have a quick way of finding you when you are away from home or even at home. The use of texting, email and other social medic connections means we aren’t really away from work very often.

Years ago when someone had a mobile device, is was normally for work and now everyone seems to have at least one device to keep them connected 24 hours a day. It is always interesting to see some of the younger people using the mobile devices to connect with friends and family. The mobile device does mean that a parent can get a hold of their child a lot easier now compared to before. A simple text or call can immediately get a confirmation of location or even when they will be getting home.

Being able to balance all the demands on our time is very important. One thing that is really needed is some time where the mobile device isn’t the first thing you reach for. In a lot of cases taking a vacation and leaving the mobile device at home or at least off would be wonderful but what about all those pictures that you are taking during your vacation, doesn’t everyone need to see them immediately. These are the balances that I am talking about. You don’t need to show everyone what you are doing all the time. If you are on vacation, enjoy the vacation and then post some pictures upon your return.

If you are away on vacation don’t broadcast to all your friends and family that you are away from home. You are letting too many people know that your home is empty and you aren’t going to be home that night either. In so many cases if a friend or family member makes a comment about your vacation picture you are then communicating with their friends and family that you away.

A balance between work and personal time is also important as those emails that appear after hours need to be evaluated. Do you need to immediately answer them or can they wait until you are back in the office? The emails after hours really depends on your job because there are some people that need to reply at any hour due to their job. IT people are quite often those people because an email from work is normally about an issue that may need immediate attention and can’t wait until tomorrow to be handled.

Making sure that you can find the balance between work and personal life is very important. If you have a job that you are also doing something that you love to do and is also a hobby then you are lucky in a lot of ways. There is the drawback that then you really don’t have a break from work because your downtime is also doing the same thing. Knowing to take the breaks from work is very important because your family and friends are also important and need to know you are around.