The fast track to professional burnout is built on the foundation of weak time management. We know how to play the long game, and unless your career has a shelf life, you might want to consider making some healthy changes. Here at Atlas Hartmann, we have the keys to help you foster a work/life balance that can go the distance.
Leave Work in The Office
As tempting as it is to unwind from your day with a glass of wine and an hour-long venting session, we at Atlas Hartmann recommend that you leave your work at your desk – physically and mentally. Trust us, those problems and frustrations will still be there come Monday morning, so why waste your weekend dwelling on them? See the closing of your office door as a physical manifestation of mentally compartmentalizing that segment of your life for the day. You are closing that box, to be reopened tomorrow, and not later tonight over your chicken parm.
Shut Down
Availability to clients and responsiveness is critical, but if it is at the cost of your mental health, then it is not worth it. You might consider turning off the notifications for your work email from your phone. The email from your coworker about a spill in the microwave is something you do not need to see in your personal time but, instead, at your desk bright and early the next morning.
Further, here at Atlas Hartmann, we strongly encourage shutting down. We have become so dependent on our phones that the idea of turning them off for the night seems almost reckless and irresponsible, but it truly does wonders for your work/life balance. By shutting down that technology, you are using those hours at home to actually be at home – mentally and physically. We all know that statistically, we spend more hours in the day in the office than with our families, but it is up to us how we spend that time. Whether it be a 30-minute dinner period or a 15-minute car ride to soccer practice, unplug and be in the moment with the people in your life outside of the office.
Take Advantage of Your Office Family
Often times when people consider the work/life balance, they equate the work portion of their day to a prison sentence or an obligation set to ruin their relationships. Understandably, nobody would ever choose to be in the office over spending a day with their family and friends, but that is not to say that a positive community doesn’t exist in the office. Here at Atlas Hartmann, we believe and practice the idea that having a “work family” is key to maintaining a positive work/life balance. You should not have to dread walking through the office doors or making conversation with Katie from HR. When you start to consider the relationships fostered in the office as valid, you may start to find more value in the time spent at work.
From all of us here at Atlas Hartmann, we wish you good luck on the never-ending journey to find the perfect work/life balance. If a Katie from HR is reading this, sorry.
