Achieving work life balance
Balancing work and life responsibilities is a challenge many members face. Chartered accountants often feel under pressure to work long hours, and striving to succeed in a demanding role can take its toll on your home life.
At one of our events on how to achieve work-life balance, acclaimed life coach Samantha Collins shared her ideas for achieving a balance.
Time management
- Focus on outcomes – ‘What do I want to happen?’ instead of ‘What do I have to do?’
- Don’t do everything – 20% of your actions get 80% of your results
- Schedule preparation and planning time into your diary to avoid ‘overwhelm’
- Take time before you say yes or no to a new project, and have clear decision criteria
- Schedule pockets of ‘open time’ in your diary – spare time to allow for the unexpected
- Take time out to weed your commitments on a regular basis. If you take on a commitment which you don’t do properly, the time spent on it is wasted
- Create a ‘not to do’ list and tick things off when you don’t do them
- Deal with emails at only two set points in the day – mid-morning and mid-afternoon
Find a buddy or mentor
Once you’ve decided that you want to make a change, find a buddy to share your goals with – perhaps someone who also wants to achieve a better work-life balance. Mentor each other and follow up to see whether you’ve each done what you agreed to do. If you haven’t, discuss why not.
About Samantha Collins
In 2000, Samantha founded Aspire, a thriving executive coaching firm for women. Since then, she has received an award from the Queen as one of the top 200 women to impact business and industry.