This article is part of our exclusive career advice Series in partnership IEEE Technology and Engineering Management Society,
During my 40-year career as an electrical engineer and entrepreneur, I am often asked how I get a work-life balance. Over time, I have come to know that the question – and the way it is implicated – is naturally flawed. So my response to investigation is simple: I want to live an integrated life where work and personal bliss are not in struggle but in harmony.
The key is in transferring your mindset: stop looking at work and life as opposite and start recognizing how they complement each other.
The perception of work-life balance suggests that work and life forces are opposing. Balance is seen as an elusive goal. The implication is that success in one region essentially comes at the cost of another. But what if the struggle is more imagined than the real? Instead of trying to balance two separate institutions, the goal should be to integrate them as a holistic way.
I will not pretend that I have everything. Life is especially with everyday chaos to work, children and a part of a two-age house. But I have learned that there are no two things to balance work and life; They are two sides of the same coin. Instead of compartmenting them, I make them contact them as interconnected parts of a full trip.
There are tips here that have helped me embrace work and life as integrated.
Embrace
Let’s be real, it is chaotic to balance a career with children’s care and to handle daily responsibilities, especially when both husband and wife are working. Children may seem impossible to find time for post -school activities, with domestic work, and between the management of the work deadline. But here is the case: balance does not always come as a completely blocked time. It can come in small, intentional moments.
I have learned to use in between for my benefit.
When I attended my child’s swimming or was waiting for an event to begin, for example, I will hold on to work with my iPad. I was not always working, but in those moments where I was just waiting, I got things. Strategically, you can stay at the top of the work while being present for your family using downtime.
If you can find creative ways to merge the chaos of life with the demands of work, you can feel less overwhelmed, even when it all feels like a juggling work.
Integrated life mentality
When I experience happiness or failures in my work, I share them with my family. By doing this, I bring them to my ups and downs Entrepreneurial journey To run five technology companies. My work is not a separate part of my life, and interacting about it with my closest people allows us to join more deeply.
By incorporating my family members in my professional world, they have grown more than the audience; They have become an assistant sounding board. Integration means that I do not feel constantly torn between my work and my personal life. Instead, I have found harmony in hugging both.
By presenting major figures in my professional life for your partner, I make references for them. This promotes sympathy and understanding, allows my spouse to give emotional support. Transparency avoids unrealistic pressure of “quit at work”. After all, we are humans, and what is in work affects how we feel at home.
For young engineers, this mentality shift is important. Do not look at the work that competes with your personal life. Look at it something that can be shared. The more your loved ones understand your professional world, the stronger your relationship can be.
For working joints, this can be particularly relevant. Coordinating to give each other “catch-up time” helps both partners make a place to manage commitments without renouncing family experiences. This is not about being perfect in both areas. It is about being present where you are.
Missing work and travel
Another way that I have achieved the integration of work and life, traveling for business and bliss is to combine.
On family holidays, I do not treat time as full break from work. I usually start my day in the morning, I catch everyone on the email before getting up. By the time my family is ready for breakfast, I have usually handled my work responsibilities and can be fully present with my spouse and children. The approach allows me to enjoy the stress-free of day, knowing that I have placed with professional demands.
Work-life integration at a personal level is also important. On business trips, I always build extra time to detect the field. These mini holidays transform my work trips into tedious experiences with tedious obligations. I often visit places within a small flight from my business destination, turn a regular journey into a adventure.
All adventures should not be shared to meet. Sometimes single experiences can make you as fresh. The approach works for my spouse and I, because we find our ways to recharge each before reunion.
Rejecting the work-life balance myth
It is important to schedule downtime, as it can make you more productive in a long time. Taking a few hours to rest without guilt is actually needs to deal with your next project with clarity. Sometimes after the day of meetings, my husband and wife share a TV show together sharing each other’s company. In other days, we plan dinner without any electronics, and we just talk about our day.
I am able to achieve most of my professional goals, but also to create a life rich in experiences and memories.
Life is not a zero-zodiac game between work and personal time. This is about finding the synergy between the two and designing your life so that both parts can grow. As engineers with analytical mindset and problem-solution skills, we are well suited to challenge.
If there is a advice that I will give to engineers and young professionals, this is: do not chase the balance; Chase integration. If you do, you are likely to find out that life is more complete in all its complexity. The experience you make – both work and at home – are definitely rich, and your sense of achievement can only be beyond your career.
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