Discipline and Balance

Coaches/managers/experts often advocate discipline as a key to success. I agree, having disciplined habits can help keep you on track toward your goals, whether professional or personal. But I also advocate being disciplined in protecting your personal time. I can't tell you how often I've heard friends and co-workers talk about how many hours they are working, about how they can't leave at a reasonable time, or how they never have a real weekend. And, with so many people working from home, it can be difficult to draw the line between your work and personal time.

Although some companies and industries reward hard work and long hours, for the most part long hours are counter-productive and are not rewarded in any tangible way. Long hours lead to burn out, illness and lower productivity. Sometimes there is tremendous pressure to "stay and finish this deck or report for so and so who needs it first thing in the morning".

While I understand there are occasional (and I emphasize not very often, unusual circumstances) times where a late night might be warranted, this shouldn't be the norm. But it requires discipline to embrace the end of your workday, leaving the office, or turning off your phone and computer. I can tell you that I've worked long, long hours and I later evolved to be more disciplined about my work life. I did a better job and was much happier when I had a more disciplined schedule. I also advocated that approach for people who worked on my teams, finding that the same was true for them. And I found equal evidence that when people work too many hours it all evens out, because they inevitably get sick or otherwise eventually require time off, usually unplanned.

There are effective ways to be disciplined about your time so you can have a healthy work/life balance and still be viewed as a valuable and hard-working employee. If you want to chat about how to have a balanced life and meet your professional goals, let's chat.