By Alex Nikotina, Amr Shokry, and Heather Blanchard

With the professional lifestyle becoming busier and busier, maintaining a balance between work and personal time has grown in importance. Whether an office worker, a successful executive or the Prime Minister of Canada, we need to make tough decisions to ensure that we can maintain our performance at work, but not neglect other areas of our life: family, friends and down-time. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon to sacrifice one (or several) of these latter aspects in favour of the former. As a result, we are more likely to experience stress, chronic fatigue, depression and/or anxiety in stronger or milder forms.

HR practitioners at Ashton College collaborated with Amr Shokry, a director of Human Resources and an instructor of the Diploma in Human Resources Management, to outline a few 21st century challenges that many of us face.

Being Busy as the Norm
The culture of busyness is one of the main reasons that make balancing work and life difficult. Here are a few examples:

• Students often have part-time work, volunteering or extra-curricular activities on top of their studies.
• Professionals are looking to take courses for extra certifications, meeting their CPD hours requirement, or to improve their credentials.
• Mothers and fathers have to work at both their job and being a parent.

With a schedule that already balances work, professional development, studies and family, it may be very hard to find time for ourselves, our friends, partner, hobbies, or simple relaxation. However, it is very important to allocate some time for these activities in order to maintain basic physical and mental health, according to the Canadian Mental Health Association.

Don’t Know Where to Start
We may be so used to juggling different tasks and different roles in our life that sometimes we don’t even think about balancing – we simply concentrate on surviving, often living from weekend to weekend, and never getting enough rest. We tell ourselves that being busy is going to benefit ourselves and our family (be it financially or in terms of personal growth), but we often end up hurting ourselves in the long run.

If we find ourselves running around too much and not knowing how to find a balance, we may want to start with acknowledging the fact that we are too busy. The truth is, being constantly busy, sleep-deprived and/or stressed is not going to benefit us or our families unless we take the time to dedicate ourselves to our close ones and allocate time for ourselves, ensuring we are rested, replenished and healthy.

So start with a simple recognition of where we are at. We need to ask ourselves, how often do we feel stressed and tired, and are we willing to prioritize your health and wellness? There are plenty of helpful online resources: for example, the Canadian Mental Health Association has a short quiz which can help us establish where we currently stand with balancing work and life.

Take Advantage of the ‘Always On’ Culture
One of the key changes in the 21^st century is the concept of ‘always on’ culture. In the age of rapidly developing technologies and widespread internet access, we are often expected to be available at any time. This sometimes silently understood expectation can add stress to the lives of busy professionals and deprive them from quality time with their family.

But, on the other hand, we may be able to take advantage of the phenomenon:

Firstly, being interconnected can help both busy professionals and students better utilize their time through online education. As Shokry highlights, “online classes have now become just as effective as the physical classroom, if not more effective, because they really allow you to be flexible with your work-life balance (actually, work-life-study balance).” Indeed taking CPD seminars online, incorporating a few online courses, or even switching fully to the online education in order to have more free time for family and work can be a great opportunity for many students and professionals to stay on track of their daily activities.

Secondly, the ‘always on’ culture allows us to shift from talking about work-life balance to raising discussions about work-life integration – being able to combine work with the other aspects of your life. In fact, some people prefer to integrate their work and life, because it is the only thing that allows them to stay in the work force. For example, a single mom is now able to work from home at her own pace, because technology now allows for more flexible work environment.

Work-life integration can even be an option for office workers. For example, we may be able to leave work early to go to a family dinner, and then spend some evening time at home finishing up the tasks you left at work. Since more employers are now recognizing the importance of a flexible work environment, we may be able to make such arrangements and stay on track of different aspects of our lives.

If, however, we decide we do not want to integrate our work, study and family time and find it stressful to be ‘on call’ all the time, then we need to make sure that we are incorporating quality self and family time into our week: create a few ‘unplugged’ hours doing hobbies or interacting with a partner; or plan ahead for relaxation time – see more below.

Working around Busy Schedule
If we are running on a busy schedule – be it a time-consuming job, or balancing studies and employment – then we need to know how important it is to plan ahead. Staying organized not only makes us more productive at work; it also helps us achieve a better work-life balance. When organizing a calendar for the weeks ahead, let’s make sure we put in some self-time (relaxing, spending a few hours doing hobbies, etc.) or quality family time into the schedule. For example, we can allocate two hours to our kids each Sunday afternoon; or plan a meeting with a friend for a weekday evening.

We can choose how often we want to have time for ourselves: a few times a month, or an hour every day. But when we do schedule it, we need to treat it as a priority. Remember that most of the time, other tasks can be scheduled on a different day. Keeping time for ourselves will keep us happier and healthier during busy work weeks.

If organization is not a strongest point, start with small tasks. For instance, get a calendar and/or a planner, divide work tasks into daily activities, schedule meetings with colleagues and friends a week ahead. Small things go a long way.

If we stick to a habit of scheduling long enough and take advantage of online trends, we will find more time on our hands for the activities that really matter, and will be able to execute a higher control of our lives.

Alex Nikotina is an Online Marketing Assistant at Ashton College in Vancouver, BC. Originally from Russia, Alex loves to travel and experience new countries, having previously spent time in Japan before moving to Canada.

Amr Shokry is a Human Resources leader with 20 years of senior leadership experience in Canada, USA and Europe. He is currently the HR director at InterWrap Inc. and teaches the Diploma in Human Resources Management at Ashton College.

Heather Blanchard is a graduate of Ashton’s Diploma in Human Resources Management program and currently the Talent Acquisition Specialist at Ashton College. Heather is passionate about recruitment and the challenge of hiring in the academic world.