Finding A Work-Life Balance With High Payoff Targets

Hey guys! Hope everyone is enjoying the last bits of summer. We’ve had a pretty hectic month here. We finished selling our house, packed up everything and moved across the country back to St. Louis. We were also able to find a house right off the bat. That was great, but we can’t close on it for over a month. Less than ideal. Especially because we are living in my in-laws’ basement for the time being and with only about a suitcase worth of our things. But overall, things are going great!

With so many things going on, now is a perfect time to discuss work-life balance and how I try to make it all fit. It has definitely been a struggle my whole career with month-long training events; military schools, deployments and just long days in the office. The Army (specifically the Special Forces Groups) actually did a decent job of giving you long periods of leave in the summer and winter, so you could almost always depend on those to recharge. It never quite made up for the long periods away, but it was always something to look forward to.

I would say I’ve certainly been running on the edge of what my time can allow in terms of commitments – school, work, moving across the country, military commitments (either active duty or reserves), house projects, etc. I have missed things because I’ve been so busy or simply mismanaged my time. It’s a constant struggle.

Here are the two main ways I’ve found to help me find a good balance and manage my time effectively:

First, prioritize!! If you don’t prioritize your time, someone else will and it will often be in a way you don’t like. Take some time to find the things that are most important at this point in your life. It is something that you might want to revisit periodically, based on your situation. Work might be your top priority at one point in your life, but shift lower down the list as conditions change.

Second, find your areas of focus (or High Payoff Targets for all the vets out there). Every part of your life is going to have things that are important and are worth more in their effect than they take in time. For example, a school final might be worth 30% of your grade, but won’t take anywhere near 30% of the total time you spend on school activities in a term. Probably less than 5-10%. For work, it could be a presentation that solidifies (or changes) your professional reputation. In your personal life, it could be that big dance recital or baseball game for your kid. The point is to use your time wisely and make conscious decisions to do what is important to you. Nothing is going to magically give you more time and I certainly wouldn’t say you have to always be doing something “productive” with your time. However, by focusing on the big ticket items, I have been able to manage quite a few things the past few years.