Information overload! Achieving a work life balance

Juggling

Us Australians are losing our laidback, carefree reputation, as we continue to work longer hours, exercise less and neglect our leisure and family time. Information overload makes achieving a work life balance increasingly difficult.

Recent research indicates that 67 per cent of Australian professionals spend at least 20 hours a week thinking about their job when they should be relaxing, and less than half take their entitled annual leave.

Why is it that achieving a work life balance is an increasingly difficult challenge for many people?

Could it be we are trying to pack more and more into our busy lives?

Or is it the fact we are now faced with so much information overload that our attention span is getting shorter as we strive to wade through the deluge of messages now coming at us in a range of forms?

The Gartner group has found that we spend on average an hour a day dealing with emails and that only includes work-related communication.

We are creating unnecessary stress for ourselves, which is taking a heavy toll on our families, not to mention our health.

Is this due to the "information rich" society we now live in?

Marketers in the US now know the average teenager is exposed to more than 3000 discreet advertising messages each day and by the time they have reached 18 they will have seen more than 10 million.

How do you manage family commitments while enhancing your career and dealing with all this increased clutter?

Well, most people are aware of their tendency to overload on work or suffer from information overload but simply don’t know what to do to get their life back to a healthy balance.

Being successful isn’t only about your career and your possessions, it’s about waking up every day and feeling good about the person you are and the life that you have created.

Many people are searching for ways to achieve positive and lasting change both in and out of work.

The reality is many people are now living out someone else’s life dreams without leaving the comfort of their own lounge room. Why renovate your house or makeover your garden, when you can fantasise and watch someone else do it on TV for you?

If you find yourself in this twilight zone you are not alone. Perth has more sunshine than any other capital yet Western Australians watch on average 14 hours a week of television.

Most people spend more time watching TV than taking time to create positive changes in their lives.

So what are the secrets to achieving a work life balance in a busy and demanding world? Here are the Top 5 ways you can get the life you deserve.

1. Work at being an optimist and take action.

Take a positive attitude to life, get out and do things. Make things happen and take action.

2. Have strong self-belief.

Believe in your potential to create the life you really want for you and your family.

3. Exercise regularly and eat well.

Your physiology directly influences the quality of your life.

4. Visualise happy endings

Make a point of scheduling fun and keep life simple. Make time to enjoy life. To laugh. To take time out.

5. Find perspective.

Take the 'helicopter view' to see the big picture and delegate if you can’t do it all yourself.

Thomas Murrell MBA CSP is an inspiring, engaging and authentic keynote speaker, author and business mentor with a passion for helping others harness their full potential.

5 comments | Add your own

Fantastic article, but I am a little biased, Tom is my bus. coach here in WA. Jacqui Jordan from Perth, WA
My personal favourite on dealing quickly and effectively on what I should do next with my time is David Allen who wrote "Getting Things Done". He is the only author I have read who tells you SPECIFICALLY what is step 1, 2 and 3. Derek Johnston from Belfast, UK
Love reading the information.................................. The typing font is too small.........................when I print out a page, font size is smaller than the one on the computer screen......
........................PLEASE CAN YOU HAVE PRINT VERSION IN LARGER FONT than you have now...................... e thomson from sydney NSW
For an interesting and/or frightening insight to what drives our obsessively consumerist culture, the root cause of overwork, read Clive Hamilton and Richard Denniss' book Affluenza - When too much is never enough Zern from Vermillion
I have an issue with the phrase "work-life balance". It can imply one is good, and the other one less good. I prefer a more integrated view of life and work. Or a wider definition of work if you will. For those of us lucky enough to love what we do, it is often hard to clearly separate what is work and what is no work. My thinking is - don't! I try to live my life in a way that uses my gifts, with diverse experiences, regular fulfilment, and minimal regrets. It doesn't mean I sit at my desk 15 hours a day just doing stuff that directly makes me a living. It means I am free to do and think stuff that interests me (a lot of which can be construed as work-related) whenever wherever. Am I working when I am swimming, or having a coffee with a friend reinventing (ok, whinging about) CityRail? Possibly. Does it feel like work? Hell no! We (Vermillion) has an article coming to Flying Solo that talks about this issue and the 3 types of work. Watch out for it! Zern from Vermillion

5 comments | Add your own

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