Are you Time Rich or Time Poor?
Today is officially Go Home On Time Day
According to Working Families thirty five percent of parents state that their work affects their home life in a negative way and only seventeen percent of parents leave work on time every day – which means a whopping 83% of parents don’t manage to leave work on time, cutting into time with friends and family and stopping workers from properly switching off.
But what does leaving work “0n time” really mean to many who don’t have set hours as such. There is definitely still a culture of “presentism” in many workplaces but as more of us are moving towards the working smarter not harder when is your work really “done”?
If you are passionate about your work and committed to achieving your potential, working can and should feel more of a pleasure than a chore so stopping this at a set time can be the challenge.
If on the other hand you are feeling under pressure to continue working every available moment to have the edge over your perceived competition (internally within your company or externally) the desire to stop and have fun may seen as frivolous and something you can ill afford but working from this place of lack and fear is not beneficial or the key to real and sustained success.
Feeling as passionate about your work and your home life is the balance we can all seek and find.
In The Big Leap Gay Hendrick’s talks about working in our Zone of Genius rather than our Zone of Excellence. We move to a place where our natural gifts and brilliance are set free and results flow with ease. Time becomes less relevant and the focus is more on performance and output. Living in a flow state can be described as blissful – when we are so focused and immersed in what we are doing we literally lose track of time.
Simon Sinek’s Start with Why highlights the importance of knowing the real reasons behind our choices first before moving to the how and what, so that your passion and beliefs are engaged and inspiration rather than manipulation occurs.
Trading time perimeters for performance and results is a difficult shift for many businesses to make. It requires trust and a level of faith in your employees ability to self motivate and be as committed to the end goals as you are. This is where a collective connection to the why can be so valuable.
When the level of personal commitment and investment is there the shift from hours here or there become less relevant. Spending time with your loved ones, enjoying nature, finding pleasure and recharging is in fact as beneficial to a business output as ensuring an employee is at their place of work “doing” and if you have truly found your zone of genius the lines of distinction between one and the other will be very blurred. You will be living in Einstein Time.
If you find yourself leaving work today thinking “hurrah, freedom” and time to have fun you may have become stuck in your Zone of Excellence or have not even discovered your true gifts. When work feels “hard” and a “chore” it’s not the right fit for you and just something you have found to “pay the bills”.
That’s no way for our society to live and whilst I support the concept of work/life balance I would love to see more focus on discovering our unique gifts so that we are all living a life without sacrifice. Where time no longer feels such a precious commodity but something we have in abundance as we make each moment matter and feel joy wherever we are.