I’m still here! (And a little on work-life balance)

Hi, Jillian here.

I think I will always be working on my time management skills (and on not overextending myself), but one of the ‘victims’ of my time management has been the lack of posts in this blog. It’s about time I changed that.

So here I am, sharing dog and cat photos and making a resolution, complete with witnesses (yourself included) to hold me accountable, to post at least 3 interesting/useful things here this year (not just my personal musings or job opportunities).

While I have an interested audience, I’ll also put my commitments to myself out here too. These are some things I’ve committed to doing to keep a health work-life balance and hopefully avoid burnout. I’m a little uncomfortable sharing some of these, as they are things not everyone is able to do; they are luxuries I feel very fortunate to be able to do. Here we go:

• Schedule one week off each quarter – in advance. Often, by the time I want that week off, I’m buried under work and projects and can’t take time off for a while. If I plan for it in advance, that (hopefully) won’t be the case. I do hope that one of those weeks includes a vacation this year, we will see. I set myself a reminder to check my calendar and make sure I have that time off scheduled for the next two quarters.
• Take the dog on at least 1 walk each week. I’d like to be doing more active stuff than that, but this is a commitment I feel comfortable making in front of an audience.
• Rearrange my office. This is already complete, but it’s made such a beautiful difference, I can’t even explain it. I still need to find/figure out artwork for the wall that’s now behind me, that’s also the case for the rest of the house, so maybe this is the year for that too?
• Schedule a massage every other month or so. I started this last year, and am appreciating myself for it already. I have a reminder set every other month to make sure I have something scheduled. Now, when I start really wanting (can I say needing?) a massage, there’s one scheduled. While that’s not quite as awesome as it would be to get one the instant I feel that way, it feels nice to already have it on the calendar.
  • Is your jaw clenched right now? If so, I invite you to relax it.
  • Same for your shoulders – are they up by your ears? Let them down, maybe do a couple stretches for your neck/shoulder area, or heat up a neck pillow and put it across your neck/shoulders.
  • Those are the places I hold most of my tension/stress, but if you’re holding some anywhere else on your body, I invite you to take a moment to relax and let go.
• ‘Do my eye mask’ 3 times each week. My eye doctor had me come in for a special appointment and testing where they let me know my eyes are on the dry side. I suspect it’s because I work in front of computer screens all day. They suggested I use this special eye mask that I heat up and wear for 20 minutes each day. I’ve had every intention of doing this daily, but that hasn’t been the reality. Perhaps once I’m consistently doing it 3 times/week, I can work up to 4, then 5, 6, maybe even daily. We will see!

I hope maybe some of those inspired you to try something for yourself. Or that you feel fulfilled and happy with the balance between work and everything else in your life. I might put this list somewhere in my office to keep it all front of mind. I’ll let you know how everything goes!