Latest / Lean Out Podcast / Solocast Labor Day Special: How I Do Work-Life Balance

Transcript

Solocast Labor Day Special: How I Do Work-Life Balance · Lean Out Podcast

• 0:01
  Welcome to the lean out podcast.
• 0:03
  I'm your host, Dr.
• 0:04
  Don baker.
• 0:05
  Are you looking for a new approach to finding authentic and sustainable work-life balance?
• 0:10
  You've come to the right.
• 0:11
  Place.
• 0:11
  For inspiration.
• 0:12
  information.
• 0:13
  and a community.
• 0:14
  community.
• 0:14
  of like-minded.
• 0:15
  Professionals.
• 0:16
  Let's get to the show.
• 0:23
  Hello?
• 0:23
  Hello.
• 0:24
  Thanks for being here.
• 0:25
  I hope you had a nice labor day weekend.
• 0:27
  It's always nice to have a holiday around this time of year when things seem really busy with back to school and also.
• 0:34
  Pretty soon, the coming of Q4 for the year.
• 0:39
  If you look up the history of labor day, it will ironically say something like attribute to the achievements of American workers.
• 0:47
  You know how I feel about the word achievement?
• 0:50
  But if you delve in deeper, it was related to people working long hours in the industrial revolution and then protesting for better work conditions.
• 0:58
  It's so interesting to think about the kind of work done during that time versus the vast kinds of work that people do now.
• 1:06
  Anyway, since labor day is all about work.
• 1:09
  It's a time for you to reflect on your work situation.
• 1:12
  How's it going?
• 1:13
  What do you like about your work?
• 1:15
  What would you like to change?
• 1:17
  I thought it would be a fitting time to do a solo cast on how I am personally practicing balance.
• 1:23
  Today, I'll pull back the curtain on some nuts and bolts of my balance and share four main points or personal philosophies if you will, about work-life balance.
• 1:33
  So let's get into it.
• 1:35
  Number one.
• 1:37
  It's a constant process.
• 1:39
  That's why I named my business practice balance because with a practice you're never done, it's never perfect.
• 1:46
  Practice makes perfect is a dumb saying, by the way, If you're still trying to be perfect.
• 1:51
  You'll find yourself living in a state of disappointment.
• 1:54
  We're going to talk more about perfection later in this podcast as well.
• 1:58
  The same really should be practice makes progress.
• 2:01
  This was in my daughter's homeschool math video lesson the other day.
• 2:04
  And I wrote it down because I liked it.
• 2:07
  I reevaluate my balance at regular intervals, I would say probably on the frequency of seasons because living off-grid in the mountains.
• 2:15
  Some aspects of our lives drastically change because of the seasons.
• 2:20
  I look at what's coming up on the calendar for me and my family.
• 2:23
  And then I start thinking about my priorities from there.
• 2:27
  Number two, it's all about triage.
• 2:30
  If you're in the medical field, you know, about the word triage and how it means to prioritize certain things that are more important than others.
• 2:39
  So this is something that can be applied to macro and micro levels in your work-life balance.
• 2:45
  You need to understand what you really value and then prioritize those things over others.
• 2:50
  And it doesn't mean that you don't care about the other things it just means that they aren't a priority right now.
• 2:57
  For example, I choose to work clinically part-time and I've spoken about this before on the podcast, but when I'm on a clinical.
• 3:03
  Assignment.
• 3:04
  I tend to give myself grace in the other areas of my life.
• 3:08
  I only work on my creative projects if I'm really feeling inspired.
• 3:12
  I try to work out, but only if it doesn't cut into my sleep schedule.
• 3:17
  I still cook food, but I don't make elaborate recipes.
• 3:20
  I just focus on the basics, like throwing some meat and vegetables into the AirFryer, puts them frozen berries in a bowl, top it with some yogurt and be done for the night.
• 3:30
  If you feel overwhelmed by all the things you have to and want to do, try and exercise from my book.
• 3:36
  Write down your to-do list and then categorize the items in three columns.
• 3:42
  The first one is focus.
• 3:43
  The second one is let slide.
• 3:45
  And the third one is ignore altogether.
• 3:48
  If you do this for either a season or a six month period, and then reevaluate it based on your new priorities for the next time period, I think you'll find that it is helpful.
• 4:01
  You may not be working part time.
• 4:03
  So you might say, well, When will I have time to do the slow cooking projects and work on something creative, like a book or a blog?
• 4:11
  If these things matter to you, you will find time when you're not working to fit them into your life.
• 4:17
  I really do believe in not saying I don't have time for that.
• 4:20
  You can make time for whatever you want to do.
• 4:23
  I think the key is letting go of perfection and that leads me to my next point.
• 4:29
  Number three embrace flexibility.
• 4:32
  Not only do I let go of perfection.
• 4:35
  I let go of things.
• 4:36
  Having to be a certain way.
• 4:38
  My home is not pristinely clean.
• 4:40
  For example, it doesn't matter to me as much as other things.
• 4:44
  Another one is my daughter.
• 4:45
  Doesn't wash her hair as often as I would like her to.
• 4:48
  Sometimes I'm away from her on a clinical assignment and I cannot control other people from afar.
• 4:54
  Trying to make everything just so as a recipe for unmet expectations and unhappiness.
• 4:59
  So I have learned to avoid this.
• 5:01
  How do I do it?
• 5:03
  By knowing myself deeply by knowing what I really value.
• 5:07
  By having compassion for myself and also knowing that everyone else is swept up in their own dramas and will likely not even notice my stuff.
• 5:16
  Number four.
• 5:17
  Be an under achiever.
• 5:19
  I did a whole solo cast on this topic about being an anti hustle entrepreneur, which I will link in the show notes in case you missed it.
• 5:27
  In short, I have a business I should be promoting.
• 5:30
  If I promoted more, maybe I'd make a lot more money.
• 5:33
  What if I don't get my ideas out into the world?
• 5:35
  Fast enough.
• 5:35
  Will someone beat me to it?
• 5:38
  I work internally to discard this line of thinking.
• 5:41
  If I'm on a clinical assignment, the last thing I want to do after 10 hours of talking to patients, doing anesthesia in a high alert state.
• 5:49
  And interacting with a whole health care team and everything that goes along with that.
• 5:53
  Is working on my business.
• 5:55
  Instead on those days, I end up throwing together a simple dinner, getting into an Epsom salt bath with my red light face mask and watching YouTube videos about skincare.
• 6:04
  I will say, if you have side interests, whether they're business related or just hobbies, you have to find time to work them in when it works for you.
• 6:13
  And for me, this is usually about an hour or so before bed.
• 6:17
  Some people wake up early, but my clinical work tends to be really early.
• 6:21
  So everybody in my family wakes up early.
• 6:24
  Even on my non anesthesia day, his life often gets in the way, especially because I homeschool my child.
• 6:31
  I fit in the interviews for the podcasts in the mornings as well.
• 6:34
  But the writing and reading and preparation are often done after 8:00 PM The time before bed is when I have quiet alone time.
• 6:43
  It is not ideal for me in a creative sense, because I think my brain is a little more alert in the morning and I'm more of a morning person, but this is the time that I have.
• 6:53
  To get these things done.
• 6:55
  This is more about embracing abundance and a skewing scarcity.
• 6:58
  The work will always be there.
• 7:00
  It will get done in time and I'm not in a hurry.
• 7:02
  And that is very liberating.
• 7:06
  Lastly, I wanted to give you some nuts and bolts and disclaimers.
• 7:10
  I am fortunate to be married to someone with a flexible work location and schedule.
• 7:14
  And that allows me to be gone for five to six days at a time.
• 7:18
  And that person, my husband can shoulder the parenting and household work.
• 7:22
  I understand not everyone has this, but not everyone would want to do the work travel.
• 7:28
  And the on-off schedule that I do either.
• 7:30
  So everything is a choice.
• 7:32
  My point in bringing this up.
• 7:33
  Is that a key thing that I would implore you to do is to look for help.
• 7:39
  If it is family or hired, help, it doesn't matter.
• 7:42
  Get help where you need it.
• 7:45
  I may get lost in a scroll on social media at times.
• 7:47
  But another thing is I do not watch TV shows.
• 7:51
  I don't read novels.
• 7:52
  I don't listen to true crime podcasts and anything that has some sort of a serial component.
• 7:58
  Having to keep up with those things requires a tremendous amount of time.
• 8:01
  And I just don't care about them enough.
• 8:03
  I'm sure that I would like them if I got into them, but I just don't want to spend my time doing that.
• 8:09
  I'd rather spend my non-working time exercising, taking a hike with my family, cooking dinner with them, et cetera.
• 8:16
  Maybe you really love or a particular genre of entertainment, and that is fine, but make sure that you're protective about how you're spending your frivolous.
• 8:24
  Me-time make sure it's doing things that you really enjoy.
• 8:29
  My last point is nothing worth doing is worth sleep deprivation.
• 8:33
  I stopped everything typically around nine or nine 30 and go get in bed.
• 8:38
  For your health, make sure sleep is at the top of her priority list because without sleep, you'll be hard-pressed during the day to be balanced in terms of your emotions, your physical performance, and even your appetite.
• 8:50
  So there you have a summary of how I am currently practicing balance.
• 8:55
  I hope you found this helpful.
• 8:57
  Maybe some of this inspires you and maybe you find some of it to be weird or crazy.
• 9:02
  And that's the amazing thing about balance.
• 9:03
  It's highly individual.
• 9:05
  If you have any questions or criticisms about the things that I'm doing, let me know.
• 9:10
  I'd love to hear your opinion on how I do balance.
• 9:13
  Or share something that helps you keep your balance.
• 9:17
  You can always go to practice balance.com and leave a comment on the blog post associated with this episode.
• 9:22
  You can also find a corresponding Instagram or LinkedIn post about each episode, or just send me a message.
• 9:29
  On Instagram at practice balance.
• 9:32
  Happy labor day and see you next time.
• 9:35
  Thanks for listening to the lean out podcast.
• 9:37
  If you find these conversations inspiring and useful, please forward them to a friend and also leave a review on iTunes or Spotify so that other people can find them easier.
• 9:50
  If you want to get in touch with me, you can find me at my website, practice balanced.com, where you can subscribe to my newsletter and get updates regularly about new podcast episodes, blog posts, speaking, engagements, and coaching services.
• 10:06
  You can also support my work by buying my book, lean out a professional woman's guide to finding authentic work-life balance for yourself, a friend, family member, or coworker.
• 10:18
  Have a great day and we'll see you next time