Top 12 ways to restore your work/life balance

So you took the test and have realized that you are a workaholic.  Or the most important other person in your life has convinced you that you behave like a workaholic.  And you want to do something about it.  Here are 12 ideas for beginning that restoration project.

• Delete tasks from your "to-do" list.  Review Stephen Covey's priorities quadrants, and get rid of all the Quadrant IV stuff.  Delete it, defer it or delegate it - just get it off your plate.  Quadrant IV tasks are not important and not urgent - so don't waste your time on them!  I keep my task list in Outlook, and am in the habit of deleting any task that has been on the list more than a few months with no progress.  (If I haven't touched it for weeks, it probably isn't ever going to get done.)
• Set some rules for yourself, share those rules with those around you so they know what you are doing, and then live by those rules.  For example, leave the office at 5:15 pm every night.  Or refuse to check email after you leave the office.  If you work in a home office, come out of that office at a set time, turn off the office light, close the door, and stay away until morning.  Another rule might be not to take any call during dinner.  (Just leave a nice announcement that asks the caller to leave a message.) 
• Take all the vacation you are allotted.  If you need to, build up to it by taking a few long weekends before taking that scary full week.
• Stop multi-tasking.  Studies have apparently shown that you are less effective - you get less stuff done - when multi-tasking than when focused on one task at a time.
• Build your team.  Hire folks who are smarter than you, make your expectations clear, give them clear accountabilities, then delegate in peace.
• Hold your vision.  What is the big thing you are trying to accomplish?  Then do those things that will move your vision forward and eschew those that will just keep you busy.  If you are trying to build your business, for example, do those things that will attract customers to you.  Don't fiddle around with the color of the office walls unless that's the most important thing you can do to attract more business.
• Ask for help.  Use your network.  Use LinkedIn.  As part of my preparations for Saturday's radio show about workaholism, I asked my LinkedIn network, and others for ideas.  Most of the ideas on this list came from those folks (see credits below).
• Schedule time with your primary relationship.  Marlene Maheu says you need 20 to 30 minutes of focused time every day in order to nurture that relationship.  Make that time happen.
• Exercise regularly and get enough sleep - most references say seven to eight hours per night.  You may be awake one or two hours less per day, but I guarantee you will get more done in those fewer hours than you do today.
• Many PDAs "push" email to you, which means they buzz everytime a new email comes in.  Convert yourself to "pull" email, where you have to query the system for new emails.  Then check it no more than once an hour - and never when you are meeting with someone else!
• Match your time to your values.  Do a T2 audit, and then do something about it.
• Finally, if these steps don't help, consider getting the help of a counselor and/or joining workaholics anonymous.  For many, the compulsion to work is more than we can cure on our own.

Sources and references

Phil Johnson

Cherie Rubenstein

Barbara Buggelli

Jacob Cazzell

Fran Blair

Karen Seeh

Joseph Wang

Jim O'Neill

Phil Gerbyshak

Marlene Maheu

Comments

[Julie Lenzer Kirk]

Kent -

I got so wrapped around the axle with work a couple months ago that one day, I had to WALK AWAY for an entire weekend. Just like an addict, it was hard at first but the more I resisted the seemingly-magnetic pull of my laptop, the easier it got. Your tips are very helpful - thanks for sharing!

Julie Lenzer Kirk
Author, "The ParentPreneur Edge: What Parenting Teaches About Building a Successful Business"

[Kent Blumberg]

Julie, Thanks for the story. Great to hear how well it worked.

[Phil Gerbyshak]

Great advice Kent. I find myself semi-frequently multi-tasking tasks and (worse) people. Focusing on making people a greater priority will boost my balance.

Thanks for the reminders (and for including my T2 audit among your great tips).

[Cherie]

Kent, we really enjoyed listening to your meeting with Audrey Chapman on WHUR, yesterday. Your psychological insights are deep, and your suggestions for solving problems should be very useful for all of us.
I've printed out your "12 ways..." list, and it is posted on the refrigerator! Before doing it, I had the happy experience of clearing off old lists, magnets, and other useless tag ends.
Your resource people list is outstanding. What an inspiring group!
Thanks for all your hard work and great ideas.

[Dan has great work-life balance]

Kent,

This is a really useful post - I've just set up a hub on hubpages on work-life balance and I hope you don't mind that I've added a link into this article from there as I can see you have created a great resource.

You can see the hub page in the link in my name, thanks, Dan.