My dad made me write this article on Work-Life Balance...

When someone says the words "Work-Life balance", what does that mean to you?

I last minute decided to hop on a plane and join my parents and brother's family for a vacation in Saratoga NY this week. I didn't actually take vacation time though because it was last minute... so a good chunk of this trip I've been on zooms and my laptop for work.

With that in mind, I asked my dad what the topic should be for my next article.

And he goes "work-life balance".

I'm like.... I'm not sure I'm the best to write about this topic.... because I've screwed up work life balance many times throughout my life. Then I started thinking more about it... and I think many people struggle with this concept of work life balance as well.... ESPECIALLY HIGH ACHIEVERS.

So what's the trick?

How does one know when they've actually achieved "balance"?

How much time should we spend working and how much time should we spend on our life?

It has taken a lot of soul searching for me to figure out these answers myself. There are plenty of moments in my own life where I excelled in my career, but my personal life was a mess. and vice versa.

Lets get into today's lesson:

Match your Professional Growth with your Personal Growth

We aren't born to naturally be in the top 10% of our field. It takes focus, learning, and practicing to get there.

Guess what.... the same goes for our personal lives. From relationships, to parenting, to taking care of our health, to personal finances, etc... it takes focus, learning, and practicing to operate at peak performance on a personal level too.

And just like work world.... people get so caught up in the activities of their day to day lives, they rarely take a moment to actually figure out how to improve their personal lives too.

This newsletter is all about the building the 10% training habit in the workplace.... aka, spending up to 10% of your time during your working hours sharpening your skillsets.

What would happen if 10% of your personal time, you are focused on sharpening your personal skillsets? What would that do for your family long term? What would that do for your health? What would that do for your finances? What would that do for your self-confidence?

Growing professionally will drastically help your personal life, and growing personally will drastically help your professional life. This is the real balance we should be seeking. -Dan Clapper

One of my absolute favorite techniques is the pomodoro method. Simply defined, it is doing a focused activity for around 25 minutes without any distractions. Then take a 5 minute break, and do that focused activity for another 25 minutes.

That being said, I feel like everyone should dedicate up to 25 minutes a day on professional growth, and 25 minutes a day on personal growth.

And the pomodoro method also helps high achievers "disconnect" from their day job. When I put down the phone and honor my personal timeblocks without distractions, those are the most impactful moments with my family and self.

ACTION TIME:

1. Spend a moment and reflect on the time you spend on your Professional and Personal Growth. Is it truly balanced... or are you only growing on one side of the equation?
2. Build more pomodoros, aka "focused time blocks" into your Professional and Personal life.
3. If you have employees, think about what Professional growth habits you can help them build in the workplace that will also help them grow personally.

Thank you for taking a moment to read through this article. We as leaders need to inspire growth and learning in the workplace now more than ever- and many times those efforts will help people grow personally as well. I look forward providing fresh, actionable content week after week, thank you for subscribing.

Your Friend,

Dan