Mental Clutter & Work-Life Balance

This week we talked a lot about work life balance. One observation that I’ve made throughout the course is there are some students in the course that could not do without the flexibility that comes with the integration of work and personal life, while there are others that are making very conscious efforts to keep the two separate and are trying to improve this with more self-regulation. The more I read the discussions that unfolded, the more I found myself questioning exactly where I fall on this spectrum relative to my initial post.

One thing I do know for certain is that I am without a doubt a boundary crosser, and have always valued the flexibility of being able to take care of both work and personal matters at varying times of day. The ability to change my schedule on a whim, or do work in the evening after my little one goes to bed in exchange for more playtime before daycare, and the ability to pop out to a doctor’s appointment in the morning without needing to take a sick day. Sounds great, right? And I really think it can be. The trouble is, I think that I have come to rely on this flexibility too much that permeability has suffered, and I’m not able to keep the two as separate as they should be.

Instead of being stressed primarily about work related issues while I’m working, I am also balancing the stress of personal matters: is my son okay at daycare? What groceries to I need? When will I schedule those renovation consultations? When will I schedule time for school work this week?

At the same time, I then spend time thinking about work related issues that I didn’t get to wrap up during the day later in the evenings; a time that would be better used planning life related tasks. This has led me to question if this flexibility actually causes more clutter in my mind? Am I trying to do too much all at the same time, and as a result, am I less productive?

This led me to be a bit more digging into the idea of mental clutter, and how does this relate to our work-life balance. I then came across this great article from Forbes that put things into perspective a bit. Booth discusses how many of the same principles apply for how both physical and mental clutter affect productivity. She points out that when we are searching for an item or a piece of information, whether it’s in a desk drawer or in our mind, that when things are cluttered, it simply takes longer. As a result of mental clutter, we tend to try to do more things at once, and we don’t fully complete tasks. This sums up how I feel at the end of every work day and evening.

Lianne and Dor highlighted two things this week that can really help with managing this: touch things once, and if something can be done within a minute do it right away. Simple tips like this can help us to get rid of some of this mental clutter and help achieve a more balanced work day and home life, by taking away the stress around the little things. At work, this may mean responding to straightforward emails right away or completing small tasks, or steps for bigger projects, before moving on to something else. At home, this may mean responding to personal e-mails immediately when you first open them or paying the bill the same day that it comes in.

Either way, I think my biggest takeaway is that perhaps tightening up on flexibility and establishing some structure and rules to how I manage personal and work related tasks, could work away at breaking down some that mental clutter, and relieve a bit of the pressure of being “on” as an employee, manager, mom, wife, daughter, friend and student at all hours of the day.

Touch things once - my new motto as I try to level the balance between work and life.