Latest / The Refrigeration Mentor Podcast / Episode 220. Improving Work-Life Balance (Without Compromising Your Success)

Transcript

Episode 220. Improving Work-Life Balance (Without Compromising Your Success) · The Refrigeration Mentor Podcast

• 0:00
  It all always comes back to you on the decisions you make on what you do, how you plan yourself, schedule yourself. Most people are leaving it up to other people to schedule their life. I've heard this from technician, well, I don't have to say where I go and what I can do. Okay, if that's the way you think, then keep doing that.
• 0:01
  But if you start thinking, well, I can schedule myself, I can do this, I will do this. You'll see a huge change in yourself. Welcome to the Refrigeration Mentor Podcast. This podcast is for busy refrigeration professionals who want to learn faster and achieve more. I'm your refrigeration coach, Trevor Matthews.
• 0:02
  Here we cover everything from technical skills and industry trends to personal development. That is key to your success. And why do we talk about personal development? Because being a great refrigeration professional is key. Isn't just about your technical skills. It's also about your emotional intelligence, your communication skills, your leadership skills, and lifelong learning.
• 0:03
  Each episode helps refrigeration professionals enhance their skills, boost their resilience, and achieve a better work life. Whether you're a seasoned pro or you're just starting out, this podcast is your guide to being the best version of yourself and unlock your full potential. Thanks for tuning in.
• 0:04
  Let's grow together. Let's learn together. Now let's get a conversation going. Let's get into work life balance. I think this is something that I struggle with now. I struggle with that today. Work life balance. And my work life balance is different than your work life balance. And your work life balance is different than someone else's work life balance.
• 0:05
  And it means different to everybody. And this is what I've been learning. So people, I don't know if they complain or criticize about work life balance. If somebody wants to work 24 hours a day and they love it, why, why would you go and say, well, you need more of a work life balance? Why do you work so much?
• 0:06
  Why don't you go out and have fun? Why would, why would you even think that or say that that has anything, nothing to do with you for me? I love working. I love being here. It's 6 40 now, am my time. I love being here, having a conversation with all of you. And there's lots of people that don't want to get up until eight o'clock.
• 0:07
  That's fine. There's other people. That work 10 times the amount of the I work. They get up at 4 and they're working until 11 or 12 o'clock at night. And I do days like that as well. The thing is though, your work life balance has to be something that you want, not what other people want and what other people tell you.
• 0:08
  Because if you want to work 80 hours a week, there's nothing wrong with that. That is totally up to you. If you want to put the work in on the job that you're working right now or the career, And then you want to have a side. Job or side hobby to make more money. Why not? What's wrong with working on the weekends?
• 0:09
  I see this all the time. Why are you working on the weekends, Trevor? Because I love it. I love bringing value to others. You know, and I consistently see me to grow. The more work that I put in, the faster I'm growing. So once again, if you're working 40 hours a week on your career, and you do a little bit of education within that 40 hours while you're at work, versus someone who's putting 60, 80 hours a weekend.
• 0:10
  Say they do 80 hours a week. So maybe it's 40 hours a week at the work, just like you, but they're putting a 40 hours of education in training development. They're doing everything at a way faster pace. This is huge. Some people only like working 20 hours a week, and then the rest of the time they'd like to have their hobbies and their, uh, and fun.
• 0:11
  But you got to really put it in perspective for yourself. So creating boundaries is the first step, because maybe you cannot separate yourself from work. And this is something I struggle with. Cause I've, I like working all the time. I like building training programs. I like training and educating people.
• 0:12
  I love the personal development side. I love educating myself. So even when I'm listening to podcasts on say, personal development, on stress management, on meditation, on whatever it is, that is part of my, my work life. That, that, I put that on the side of part of my work flash, maybe personal life, but that's for my, my growth.
• 0:13
  And I spend countless hours on, on podcasts. But if you want to start figuring out your work life balance, because a lot of people is like, well, I work 60 hours a week and that's not right, and why isn't it right? So, if you feel like it's not right, You need to start setting boundaries. First of all, you got to figure out what's a work life balance to you.
• 0:14
  Cause I work, I deal with CEOs. I've been talking to presidents of companies and I mentioned this already. They're working way more hours than we are. The ones that I know, they're, they're out there trying to develop more business, buy more business, get more people on their team, hire more leaders in their team, and they're going.
• 0:15
  12, 14, 16 hours a day. Lots of people think, oh, these guys don't work. They're just sitting on their big bags of money. They don't care about us. They're actually trying to keep the doors open, the lights on at all times. Most of 'em. There's some that may be not out there, don't get me wrong, that everybody's doing.
• 0:16
  But the ones that I'm working with, dealing with, talking with, these guys are crushing out there and they love, they're working on the weekends. Like I, I had a text from one, maybe two weeks ago, they had a, a leadership development. So all the, the directors and the managers, they, they all came to the, to the office and they had a speaker coming in.
• 0:17
  This is a Saturday morning, it's 7am, you know, and they're doing it for three days. They don't have to be, they get millions and millions of dollars. But they do it because they, they love it. They love serving. They love helping their team. They love the growth of their, their business. And they're putting that work in.
• 0:18
  So their work life balance is going to be different maybe than your work life balance. Maybe you want to get 35, 40, 50 hours in a week. And then when Friday afternoon comes up, then it's just your time, whatever you do. Maybe it's going to watch sports game. Maybe it's watching movies. Maybe it's going out to the movies.
• 0:19
  Maybe it's going out to eat. Maybe it's going to the beach. Whatever it is. If you have kids, maybe it's going to her game, but the first step is understanding what's work life balance to you and how you start to set clear boundaries and people think they tell me, well, while I work a service role, I, I can't, I'm told what to do.
• 0:20
  Here's my jobs. And so if you've been doing refrigeration. Five or 10 years or HVAC doesn't matter. You know, the role, you know, the role don't make excuses that, Oh, well, I'd never know where I'm going to be. I hear this time and time again, you know, all the customers you have, you got the list, you can go find out every customer that you guys service.
• 0:21
  So first of all, it's one of those a hundred stores or 200 stores that you could be at. So it's not like you don't know there's a possibility. These are all certain. Will a new call, maybe come in at somewhere else. That's a new client. Maybe. So, the first step is understanding what work life balance is to you and set boundaries.
• 0:22
  So go work with your service manager. Don't make this up as you go. Start out today. Go to your service manager and talk about them. I feel like I'm struggling with work life balance. Actually don't go today. First, take your time and understand what your work life balance is. The things that are your priorities for both your professional life and your personal life.
• 0:23
  Figure that out before you go in and talk to your service manager or your boss or whatever. And then go in and talk about it, what's going on and say, okay, I, right now we, I don't want to jump into it right away, but I want to start working towards this, whatever that is for you. Maybe it is working 50 hours a week.
• 0:24
  Maybe it is working the weekends instead of working the weekdays. Maybe you like to have Tuesday and Wednesday off. Why can't you work the weekends and you do it at home? Regular time instead of overtime. So you have the Tuesday and Wednesdays off because that's the two days that you like instead of that.
• 0:25
  And then people are going to be like, well, well, I'm in a, I'm in this type of contract and anytime after five or on the weekend it's overtime. Okay, if that's the way you want to think, do you want to not work Tuesday and Wednesday and you don't mind working Saturday and Sunday? You got to think differently.
• 0:26
  If you want to change, you have to. You have to build that change within you. And if you're in a mindset of not changing, that's fine. Just keep doing what you're doing and keep moving on. Build this kind of case for yourself to set these boundaries. Okay, well, I can't work on Wednesday nights during the summer because this is my kid's ballgame.
• 0:27
  I'll have to work with a team member. Say, can you take any on calls for me that are this week, this week, or this week over the summer? Because I have, My kids games on those Wednesdays. And you're not going to take any serious, like any very crucial calls. So you can do some, the maintenance calls, maybe you'll do some condenser fan changing or cleanings on those specific days, because you know, you can pick up and finish the rest of the job tomorrow, when you get into service.
• 0:28
  You start to learn these things you do some people just make it up that they don't but you understand What you can do and how much you a cop can accomplish in a day if you take ten service tickets that day You're gonna be working through that ballgame, right? So you got a plan for it and now this is totally different if you work at a company That is just you and somebody else, you know, it's a small company at larger companies Where there's more resources, you have a better opportunity to build in these plans.
• 0:29
  If you're the business owner yourself, it's going to be even more difficult to do the work life balance. Because you're just on all the time. And I think another one's like, time management. Understanding your time, how long does it take The take to say, to do that job, to do personal development, spend time with the family.
• 0:30
  Like you gotta, you gotta prioritize your, you know, you gotta schedule yourself to schedule your hobbies in your account, schedule your, all the, your sporting events that you do, anything you do with the family, all your personal development, your training, your learning, you got to schedule that stuff. And this is something that's super hard if you've never done it.
• 0:31
  I challenge you once again, to get in the habit of doing that. Just start to schedule the stuff that you do and writing it down. Even if you don't take action on it right now, first step is writing it down. Just prioritizing yourself and your week and start with one day and then do one week. You don't have to do the whole year until you get this.
• 0:32
  Then it starts to get easier because it does get easier. There's lots of challenges in it, but it does get easier. I think another big one for, uh, work life balance is being able to say no, and this comes back to, um, really over committing yourself saying, yeah, I'll take those seven work orders today. But you know, there's one that's two hours away, another one's two hours away from that, and there's another one two hours away that, and that right there, trying to get to your kid's ballgame on that certain evening, and you, you overcommitted yourself already, that is an issue.
• 0:33
  When dispatch calls you up and says, listen, I need to take, uh, I need you to take this call, it's 4 p. m. And you're, you're already done, you sorted it out. You should already have been planned with those dispatch, your service manager, already, they, they will know, they will call you if they're, you build this plan with them, and maybe they will, already you have it set in motion, so if you do get that call, you call that backup person, your buddy, that can go and do those calls for you, and you do a different favor for them, maybe it's taking a week, uh, on call on a Sunday, For that, when they got to go to church or when they got to go to an event, family gathering, barbecue, so this, you can do this stuff, but it's planning, it's doing that planning.
• 0:34
  Last couple of things I really would think is, um, make it time for yourself. I think that's a big thing that we don't do a lot of. We are by ourselves a lot as a service technician. We're in a vehicle, we're driving to sites by ourselves, but that's not making time for ourselves. Making time for ourselves would be like, if you love fishing is going out, getting up early in the morning before the family gets up on, say, a Saturday or whatever day of the week it is, even the weekday before work, getting up at five, getting your line in the water at five 30 going out for 45 minutes before you come back home and wake up the family and get ready for, for whatever it is, or getting to work, whatever making time for yourself is, is key.
• 0:35
  And I believe it needs to be useful time. For example, it's making time to exercise, going for a walk. Maybe it's meditating or, or listen to a podcast, whatever it is. It could be even watching a movie that really. Unwinds you, but whatever, whatever this is, you have to treat yourself sometimes too, and I think that's another thing where you come back to reflection and figure out what I've been doing, what I haven't been doing, because we can get into this, this grind all the time.
• 0:36
  It could be a good grind or a bad grind where it's just go, go, go, go, go. And it doesn't feel like there's any time for yourself. You have to make that time for yourself. It could be early in the morning. It could be late at night. Spend some time and think on that, on the things that would help you in your work life balance.
• 0:37
  It all always comes back to you. On the decisions you make, on what you do, how you plan yourself, schedule yourself. Most people are leaving it up to other people to schedule their life. I've heard this from technicians, well, I don't have to say where I go and what I can do. Okay, if that's the way you think, then keep doing that.
• 0:38
  But if you start thinking, well, I can schedule myself, I can do this, I will do this. You'll see a huge change in yourself, a huge change. I, why, how do I know? Because I've done it. Because the stuff that you're going through, most other people are going through too. But some other people are more efficient and effective on scheduling and learning to say no.
• 0:39
  And, and, and saying no at the right time, it's not saying no when you're in the middle of a job. Okay, no, I'm done. I'll leave this rack down overnight and I'll go home and I'll come back and figure it out tomorrow. That's not, that's not learning to say no. Learning to say no is, is planning and okay, here's your week's schedule.
• 0:40
  Well, no, I can't do it on this. We already talked about this. I've already notified you a month ago. I notified you two weeks ago and I notify you this week already. So there's a lot of heads up. There's emails, there's texts. So prepare yourself for that. Because I really think work life balance is different for everybody.
• 0:41
  And people are going to say, no, it's all the same. Whatever you think, what you, what you think about is what you become. And that's just the way it is. And you decide your work life balance, what it is. Think about work life balance. I'd love to hear your questions or comments. As always, we'll see you again.
• 0:42
  Let's get a conversation going. I want to thank you so much for hanging out with me and the refrigeration mentor podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a comment. Let me know what were your key highlights, what you took away from myself or my guests, as well as if you have not subscribed yet, head over to Apple podcast or Spotify and subscribe.
• 0:43
  And if you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend. Let your friends know that there are people who care, who want to share the refrigeration information to help them get to the next level in their career. If you have not been to the Refrigeration Mentor website at refrigerationmentor. com, go check it out.
• 0:44
  There's a ton more guest podcasts I've been on as well as the event page. Check out the events page because there's a lot more free trainings. Well, it's paid training to really help you grow your knowledge base. Super excited. Can't wait to see it. The next refrigeration mentor podcast. Let's get a conversation going.