Sunday, February 21, 2010

Forget Work/Life Balance?

One term that I’ve heard a lot is the idea of “maintaining a work-life balance.”

I couldn’t quite put a finger on why I was troubled by this concept until recently.

A few weeks back, I took Paco to his gym class at 4.15pm. I was there with Nadia and we were watching him.

At 4.30, I took a call from a client. We spoke for 5 minutes and she agreed to buy a future piece of work from me.

I hung up and went back to watching the gym class and playing with Nadia.

So, where in the ‘work-life’ balance spectrum does that fit?

Then, I was reading an excellent post by a friend of mine, Shannon Paul, which led to a post of my own on the Never Stop Marketing blog.

I think she hit the nail on the head in her comment when she quoted David Allen (author of Getting Things Done)  “the whole concept of the work-life balance is a fallacy. It's all life.”

Now, maybe, once upon a time, the lines were clearer. Factory work or even ‘going to the office,’ but now, with mobility and communications, the lines are less clear.

I mean, our cleaning lady is on her cell phone talking to her friends while she is mopping our floor. Do I care? No. I care about results.

Sure, there are times when you have to focus on your work, but that’s also a part of life, right?

I’m still flushing this out, but am starting to come around to the idea of the seamless integration between the two, which, I believe will lead to a richer professional and personal experience.

Post was written while listening to: Carmina Burana – Orff

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