Finding a Balance between Work and Non-Work Life

Work/Life Balance:  Controlling the influence of stresses of one’s non-work life on work life and vice-versa.

Time Management:  Making good use of time by organizing, prioritizing and scheduling tasks.

Organization Skills:  Organizing one’s responsibilities and performing them in an efficient manner.

Personal Resiliency:  Withstanding and overcoming stressful situations.

Stress Tolerance:  Remaining effective even when situations become stressful.

In today’s society, people are taking on more demands than ever before.  Aside from the demands of work or school, friends, family, and daily tasks of life (e.g., paying bills) also put forth demands and expectations on individuals.  Trying to juggle work and non-work demands is a very daunting task and can be difficult for some to accomplish.  It is important, though, that one finds a balance, otherwise their work or non-work life may suffer¹.  Below are some suggestions for achieving a balance between your work and personal life.

Time management skills, also a competency under our model, are critical to be able to juggle multiple demands.

• Many classes are offered on campus that teach successful time management skills.  Contact your Resident Director or Academic Advisor and they should be able to help you locate one of these courses.
• Investing in a calendar and personal planner can be very helpful.  For those with a computer, Microsoft Outlook has many tools that help you organize your calendar and create task lists.  Contact the help desk on campus or go on the web to www.microsoft.com to locate training courses for Microsoft Outlook.

Organization skills are important to ensure that you can manage multiple responsibilities and meet all of the deadlines impressed on you.

• Again, a personal planner or technological helper like Microsoft Outlook can help you organize your tasks.  Create task lists to ensure that everything you need to accomplish gets accomplished.
• Seek help from others in creating your schedule and task lists.  For example, if you are enrolled in a difficult class, get together with a classmate and set a study schedule.  You can encourage each other to stay on task and can further your organization skills.

Personal resiliency is important to be able to maintain a clear head when a stressful event occurs.  Conflicts often happen between work and personal life, so it is important that you learn how to deal with stress when it occurs.

• Some research suggests that there is a personality that lends toward being able to bounce back after a stressful event².  Individuals who are successful in this feel like they are in control of their lives (rather than an external force controlling it), that they are committed to achieving a goal or marinating composure during a stressful situation, and they will see the stressful event as a challenge rather than a threatening event.
• Maintaining a strong social network is also crucial to being resilient during times of stress³.  When you are experiencing stress, call a friend to share your troubles.  Getting together with friends to have fun and socialize also helps you maintain your ability to persist in your efforts at work.  They can support you and give you advice when you need it or just be there to listen.

Stress tolerance is crucial to being able to continue to achieve despite difficult demands.  Under stressful situations, a leader must be able to continue to accomplish tasks and work well under pressure.

• Often stress tolerance skills are simply accomplished by practice.  The more stressful events that you encounter and successfully work through, the more you will feel that you can work under stress.  Novel situations can often be stressful.  Try getting a leadership position that you might not normally take (for instance, if you do not have much experience in marketing, join a group as their Public Relations Director).  This will encourage you not only expand your skills, but it will provide you with a novel stressful situation that you can work through.
• Sometimes we learn best from the mistakes of others.  Contact leaders that you know and interview them about stressful events that have happened and how they dealt with them.  Ask them if they had any experiences that did not got well and why they had a hard time dealing with the stress.  Ask them what strategies they used to get through stressful situations.
• There are many books on stress management skills.  A particularly easy-to-read one that gives specific suggestions for stress management is “Stress Management for Dummies” by Allen Elkin, Ph.D.

References

1. Grant-Vallone, E. J., & Donaldson, S. I. (2001). Consequences of work-family conflict on employee well-being over time. Work and Stress, 15(3), 214-226.
2. Beehr, T. A., & Bowling, N. A. (2005). Hardy personality, stress, and health. In C. L. Cooper (ed.), Handbook of stress medicine and health, (2^nd ed). New York: CRC Press.
3. Carlson, D. S., & Perrewé, P. L. (1999). The role of social support in the stressor-strain relationship: An examination of work-family conflict. Journal of Management, 25(4), 513-540.
   
   ~ Contributed by Misty Bennett

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