Writing for life

At this time of year parts of the south west of Ireland are awash with American tourists. Some come in search of family history, others to experience legendary Irish hospitality, still others to wonder at our magnificent scenery – and many to enjoy all of the above. They’re also pretty keen on leprechauns.

Leprechauns, being mythical creatures, are notoriously difficult to spot. Most of our transatlantic visitors have to be satisfied with a consolation key-ring or fridge magnet sporting a likeness of their quarry.

But the leprechaun’s days as king of Ireland’s mythical beings are numbered. Today, at least as far as the indigenous working population is concerned, there’s a much more desirable but equally elusive mythical entity out there. It’s called the “work life balance”. Everyone seems to be looking for it, and you can’t buy it on a keyring or stick it on your fridge either – at least not yet.

Viewed through the fog of a tortuous daily commute and long working hours you’d be forgiven for thinking it an impossible dream, far beyond the reach of all but the very fortunate or the extremely wealthy. But like everything else in life it’s about choices – and about finding what works for you.

We all have choices when it comes to the work we do, the career we pursue, how much time we spend doing it and how much weight we lend it. Finding the “right” balance is a very personal thing. What strikes a chord of equilibrium with you won’t necessarily work out for me. Work life balance isn’t a quantifiable entity – it’s different for everyone.

The trap a lot of people seem to fall into is subconsciously assigning inflated priority to their work. Just because you spend most of your life at work doesn’t necessarily make it the most important thing in your life. You need to look carefully at what’s important to you, and if you’re not happy with the balance (or, more likely, the imbalance) between your work and home life, make some changes.

Simple changes can make a world of difference to your quality of life. Convincing your boss to let you use your new broadband connection to work from home on Fridays and Mondays will save you the dreaded commute before and after the weekend. Flexible hours can help you to juggle work and home more effectively. You could also look at areas where you might work more efficiently: working smarter instead of harder to achieve the same or better results in less time.

If you want to get really radical you could try leaving work on time two or three evenings a week. That’s right – only work the hours you’re being paid to work.

There are times in any job when you need to put in extra effort to meet a deadline or to finish a project. The rest of the time, why not go home on time? It’s results not hours that count – if you’re doing your job effectively your boss shouldn’t care what time you leave the office.

Finding your work life balance is about discovering what works for you, and realising that you have the power to change things. Meanwhile, it looks like I spoke too soon on the fridge magnet front – a quick Google threw up a “Work Life Balance” magnet at www.cafepress.com for $4.99.

That just leaves the keyring….

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