According to a recent study conducted by Harris Interactive only 14% of Americans, plan to take a two-week vacation. This is down from 16% in 2006 and a full one-third of American workers don’t use all their vacation time!
All too often we allow demands at work to interfere with our taking time for our self and our family. Granted, the demands at work are intense, but we don’t have to adopt the mentality to just keep on working. I recently gave a presentation at a Fortune 500 corporation and after the program a woman came up to me and said, “I can’t even consider taking a vacation because I’ll be flooded with work when I return.”
Many people are simply taking a long weekend and calling that their vacation, but that isn’t enough. A few days off isn’t enough time to disconnect from the demands of work and daily life and to fully relax and recharge your battery. Think about it, it usually takes at least a couple of days to just distress. You need a good stretch of time to truly unwind and nurture yourself.
Americans are suffering from The Shrinking Vacation Syndrome. This has become so bad that PricewaterhouseCoopers has decided to close its entire national operation twice a year to guarantee that their employees stop working. Now that the 29,000 employees take a vacation the company is seeing positive results.
You need to take breaks from your work to rejuvenate yourself. Your personal and professional lives will be enhanced when you do. The truth is that when you return from vacation, you are a better more productive employee.
Here are some Sanity Saving Solutions for Ensuring Your Vacation is Truly a Vacation:
Set Limits: Let your employer know that you are not going to check email or call into the office during your vacation. Keep in mind that it’s rare that something is so important that it can’t wait until your return to the office or be handled by one of your colleagues.
Fully Disconnect: Leave your BlackBerry at home. Don’t allow yourself to be distracted or concerned about what is going on at work while you are away. Don’t check messages or call the office either! I know, this requires self-discipline, but you can do it. In fact, you must.
Delegate Your Responsibilities: Make sure that your tasks and responsibilities are covered by a colleague or colleagues so that you can fully relax and enjoy your time away
In our 24/7 society it’s all to easy to allow the busyness of life to consume us. But, if you’re running on empty your not doing anyone any good, not your spouse, children, company and certainly not yourself. When you take time off you return to work more focused and productive and in a better frame of mind. So don’t become a statistic, take a vacation.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Friday, June 22, 2007
Leave Your Work at the Office
More than 2,300 Beyond.com Network visitors responded to a poll “How often do you bring work home?” Surprisingly, only 34.71 percent said, “I never bring work home.” A majority of survey participants responded that they bring work home either once or twice a week (23.09 percent), everyday (29.82 percent) or only on the weekend (12.38 percent).
There is no doubt that with our 24/7 work environment there are more demands being made on our time. May companies are requiring their employees to work longer hours both inside as well as outside the office. Despite these new demands you can still find a health work/life balance by working smarter and setting priorities and boundaries to more effectively manage your time.
Don’t get me wrong establishing a good work/life balance is challenging, but here is a Sanity Saving Tip that will help:
Sanity Saving Tip: Maximize Your Peak Energy Time.
There will always be more to do than you can ever accomplish in the time you have available to you.
One of the keys to work/life balance is to get control over your time by changing they way you think and deal with the never-ending responsibilities that flow over you each day.
We spend too much time on what I call Junk Time. This is the equivalent of Fritos or marshmallows. This is the time we waste on activities before we get to the main task, leaving little room for it.
For example, a person can sit down at his computer fully intending to compose the important memo that needs to be sent out soon. When the computer boots up instead of going straight to the word processing program he checks his email and ends up spending 45 minutes. Email is a classic consumer of junk time. Other dangerous consumers of time include your cell phone, instant messaging, newspapers, magazines, TV, or colleagues who stick their head in your door to say, I don’t mean to interrupt you, but…”
There is a time of day when you are mentally at your freshest, most able to concentrate and think clearly. This is your peak energy period. For most people this is the morning. Figure out when your peak time is. It’s important to know when your energy peak comes and to make sure you use this time to your full advantage doing your most important and demanding work during this time.
Remember, do first things first. Identify the five things you must accomplish on any given day, and then pick the one you absolutely have to do first. This becomes your biggest and ugliest frog. This is the task you must do first. By doing that task first, in essence you eat that frog first—and in so doing you relieve some of the pressure and make the rest of your day much, much easier. It’s a great strategy. But unfortunately most of us leave the biggest and ugliest frog for last—hoping it will go away or somehow become easier. It never does.
However, when you accomplish your toughest task early in the day, it sets the tone for the rest of your day. It creates momentum and builds your confidence. In other words, tackle your most important priorities immediately.
In other words, do the important work first. Put an index card on your desk that reads DO IT NOW! The flood or email, voicemails etc is like a riptide that will pull you out to sea never to return.
The ability to concentrate single-mindedly on your most important task, to do it well and to finish it completely, is the key to great success and work/life balance.
There is no doubt that with our 24/7 work environment there are more demands being made on our time. May companies are requiring their employees to work longer hours both inside as well as outside the office. Despite these new demands you can still find a health work/life balance by working smarter and setting priorities and boundaries to more effectively manage your time.
Don’t get me wrong establishing a good work/life balance is challenging, but here is a Sanity Saving Tip that will help:
Sanity Saving Tip: Maximize Your Peak Energy Time.
There will always be more to do than you can ever accomplish in the time you have available to you.
One of the keys to work/life balance is to get control over your time by changing they way you think and deal with the never-ending responsibilities that flow over you each day.
We spend too much time on what I call Junk Time. This is the equivalent of Fritos or marshmallows. This is the time we waste on activities before we get to the main task, leaving little room for it.
For example, a person can sit down at his computer fully intending to compose the important memo that needs to be sent out soon. When the computer boots up instead of going straight to the word processing program he checks his email and ends up spending 45 minutes. Email is a classic consumer of junk time. Other dangerous consumers of time include your cell phone, instant messaging, newspapers, magazines, TV, or colleagues who stick their head in your door to say, I don’t mean to interrupt you, but…”
There is a time of day when you are mentally at your freshest, most able to concentrate and think clearly. This is your peak energy period. For most people this is the morning. Figure out when your peak time is. It’s important to know when your energy peak comes and to make sure you use this time to your full advantage doing your most important and demanding work during this time.
Remember, do first things first. Identify the five things you must accomplish on any given day, and then pick the one you absolutely have to do first. This becomes your biggest and ugliest frog. This is the task you must do first. By doing that task first, in essence you eat that frog first—and in so doing you relieve some of the pressure and make the rest of your day much, much easier. It’s a great strategy. But unfortunately most of us leave the biggest and ugliest frog for last—hoping it will go away or somehow become easier. It never does.
However, when you accomplish your toughest task early in the day, it sets the tone for the rest of your day. It creates momentum and builds your confidence. In other words, tackle your most important priorities immediately.
In other words, do the important work first. Put an index card on your desk that reads DO IT NOW! The flood or email, voicemails etc is like a riptide that will pull you out to sea never to return.
The ability to concentrate single-mindedly on your most important task, to do it well and to finish it completely, is the key to great success and work/life balance.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Dads Want Flexible Work Schedules Along with Working Moms
For the most part we have thought about flex-time policies for working moms, but with more Gen X and Gen Y fathers in the workforce men are seeking work/life balance in a similar way to working mothers.
With the competition for talent and the looming skills shortage as the Baby Boomers reach retirement employers must recognize the necessity for offering flexible work schedules and paid paternity leave as a key strategy for recruiting as well as retaining top talent.
However, one of the keys to making father friendly work environments effective is making such benefits acceptable and communicating this acceptance openly throughout the company.
A new poll conducted by Monster.com indicated that when searching for a job, 82% of working dads view companies more positively if they offer a flex-time benefit.
According to the Monster Intelligence Father's Day survey, 71% of dads with a child under five took paternity leave when offered, compared with just 48% of dads with a school-aged child, indicating that dads are increasingly embracing work/life benefits.
Approximately one-third of dads with toddlers reported that their employer provided paternity leave benefits or flexible work schedules for fathers; among working men whose employers offered paternity leave, 58% took advantage of it, and 71% adopted flexible work schedules when it was offered by their employers.
Monster's survey also reports that if money were no object, 68% of dads would consider being a stay-at-home parent.
The Monster survey demonstrates that the workplace benefit fathers appreciate most is a flexible work schedule (53%), followed by telecommuting (24%), onsite child care (12%), and paid paternity leave (10%).
It is becoming apparent that as more Gen X and Gen Y fathers seek to devote more time to their families companies will have to adopt gender neutral flex-time policies if they are going to retain as well as recruit the best and the brightest.
With the competition for talent and the looming skills shortage as the Baby Boomers reach retirement employers must recognize the necessity for offering flexible work schedules and paid paternity leave as a key strategy for recruiting as well as retaining top talent.
However, one of the keys to making father friendly work environments effective is making such benefits acceptable and communicating this acceptance openly throughout the company.
A new poll conducted by Monster.com indicated that when searching for a job, 82% of working dads view companies more positively if they offer a flex-time benefit.
According to the Monster Intelligence Father's Day survey, 71% of dads with a child under five took paternity leave when offered, compared with just 48% of dads with a school-aged child, indicating that dads are increasingly embracing work/life benefits.
Approximately one-third of dads with toddlers reported that their employer provided paternity leave benefits or flexible work schedules for fathers; among working men whose employers offered paternity leave, 58% took advantage of it, and 71% adopted flexible work schedules when it was offered by their employers.
Monster's survey also reports that if money were no object, 68% of dads would consider being a stay-at-home parent.
The Monster survey demonstrates that the workplace benefit fathers appreciate most is a flexible work schedule (53%), followed by telecommuting (24%), onsite child care (12%), and paid paternity leave (10%).
It is becoming apparent that as more Gen X and Gen Y fathers seek to devote more time to their families companies will have to adopt gender neutral flex-time policies if they are going to retain as well as recruit the best and the brightest.
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