Self Made: NASE's Blog

As Autumn is underway, it's as good a time as any for new resolve about your business. Everybody talks about work-life balance, right? But what does it really involve? Master these six components and you’ve got it made.

1) Self-management
Sufficiently managing yourself can be challenging, particularly in getting proper sleep, exercise and nutrition. Self-management is recognition that effectively using the spaces in our lives is vital, and that available resources, time and life are finite. It means becoming captains of our own ships. No one is coming to steer for you.

2) Time management
Effective time management involves making optimal use of your day and the supporting resources that can be summoned. You keep pace when your resources match your challenges. Time management is enhanced by setting appropriate goals and discerning what is both important and urgent, versus important or urgent. It means knowing what you do best and when, and assembling the appropriate tools to accomplish specific tasks.

3) Stress management
By nature, societies tend to become more complex over time. In the face of increasing complexity, stress is inevitable. More people, distractions and noise require each of us to become adept at maintaining tranquility and working ourselves out of pressure-filled situations. Most forms of multitasking ultimately increase our stress. Focusing on one thing at a time should be your goal.

4) Managing change
In our fast-paced world, change is the only constant. Continually adopting new methods and re-adapting others is vital to a successful career and happy home life. Effective change management involves making periodic and concerted efforts to ensure that the volume and rate of change at work and at home does not overwhelm or defeat you.

5) Managing technology
Make sure that technology serves you, rather than abuses you. Technology has always been with us, since the first walking stick, flint, spear and wheel. The rate of change is accelerating, brought on by vendors seeking expanding market share. Often there is no choice but to keep up with the technological Joneses, but you must rule technology, not vice versa.

6) Managing leisure time
This is the most overlooked element of the work-life balance. Rest and relaxation are important and shouldn’t be short-changed. Time off is a vital component of the human experience. Curiously, too much of the same leisure activity, however enjoyable, can lead to monotony. Thus, effective leisure management requires varying your activities.