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In this episode Joel and Antonia reject the idea of a work life balance and suggest an alternative way to see work and life.
In this podcast on the work life balance you’ll find:
- The structure of civilization supported work life balance in the past especially in the Industrial age. There was a clear definition between things to do at work versus things to do at home. There used to be a definite time to do work related activities and a definite time to spend with loved ones at home thus making work life balance easier to attain during that time.
- We are currently in an over communicated time wherein we are so much tethered to communication devices and technology that keep us connected to the world. These allow us to stay on top of things but in turn create a very demanding intensity of workload making it a great challenge and somehow a confusion to have work life balance nowadays.
- Work life balance applies to a structure where there is a need to close one’s self from certain environment and situations. This kind of compartmentalization may appeal to some people but it is now becoming a trend for companies to provide their employees work which allows them some freedom from it.
- Since everything is becoming integrated nowadays, work life balance seems to be a non workable ideal. Instead of work life balance, consider work life integration.
- Integration is better than separation. Instead of compartmentalizing things which is done in work life balance, integration of important components of life allows us to take more control of our increasing workloads.
- Full engagement, full focus and doing things one at a time are some of the ways to integrate components of work and life.
- Overestimating things that we can do is overwhelming and very idealistic that it becomes impossible to attain goals.
- There is an existing belief in society that there is something wrong in achieving things without struggle. Deprogramming ourselves from that belief and instead creating personal development goals that incorporate all components of work and life allows us to experience pleasure along the way making such goals so much easier to attain.
- Personality hacker is fundamentally about being part of your own personal growth and development journey.
- Know whether Work life balance or Work life integration best works for you.
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16 comments
“If you are in a job that does not even allow you to make personal phone calls, you are probably not super-happy there. Those kinds of corporations that make those sorts of prohibitions on people’s lifestyle are going the way of to dodo.” Love it! I actually want to be a sort of boss one day, which is weird since I’m an INFP, who will provide employees the best and happiest environment ever.
To answer your questions:
1. I don’t do New Year’s Resolutions. Instead, I make 2-3 resolutions every month. They are simple, basic, and concrete. This way it is easier to track progress.
2. I follow Taoism. People have this mistaken notion Taoism is about being laid back and directionless, but actually it is about balance of energies. It is about having a good, relaxed time, yet knowing when to push forward diligently too. There is an instinctive knowing inside that always presently provides direction in life, and deep inside you know when there is too much of one thing or too little of another, what opportunities to take or not to take. So you are right, focus on one thing at a time, because the Tao is presently only focused on one thing at a time.
3. I disagree that online communication necessarily gets in the way of real relationships. The world is constantly changing, and the goal would be how to live an authentic life regardless. It is about using technology as a resource not a hindrance. People are so focused on the external condition (too much technology suppressing my real world connections, too many options is ruining life). If anything, you can use technology to easily schedule real world events with people, easily get people together (Meetup.com, Facebook groups and event planning), while continue deep conversations online when you cannot meet face-to-face. People say there are too many options. Do I eat Indian food or Chinese food? They let this dilemma make them miserable, especially if they go to the Indian restaurant but then think I should have been to the Chinese restaurant. Then they blame it on the external condition of having options: they come to the conclusion tribal life is better, since they eat grubs every day of their life and so they are happy without so many options. Options are good, and diversity shakes up trenchant narrow-minded conceptions of life. The real problem is a weak subjective factor, not the nature of the external condition—that is, being able to subjectively appreciate the Indian food at the present, even though you know that other great options are available. Certainly that is better than eating grubs.
3. I am going to give a TEDx talk on Western and Eastern notions of creativity. The Western notion is what leads to this illusion that new & more is necessarily better (more external manifestations of creativity, the better). Ancient Eastern idea of creativity actually has nothing to do with “novelty” at all, but rather the subjective pleasurable experience (as I mentioned in point #2) of creative activity. Neither is better than the other, but it is rather about balance.
4. To address #2 again, I actually think changing external conditions (like making a better work environment) is important. What I mean is that external change and internal change need to be balanced. Some people rely too much on the external condition to determine their happiness, others rely too exclusively on internal willpower.