Work Life and Personal Priorities

Published 27. 3. 2019

Hi, this is Katie, the Project Manager.

I decided to balance my personal and career life a bit better.

What led me to this decision?

 

Always busy

“Yes, dinner tomorrow!” I promised Ted happily when we were on the phone. “But I need to go because my boss is on the other line!”
“Oh, Katie, always so busy!” Ted replied, but he sounded happy, even though we haven’t spent time together for a while.

He had a different tone the next evening when I called to tell him I needed to stay at work longer.
“Sometimes I really wonder what is more important to you,” he sighed and hung up.

And I had to ask myself: What is actually important to me?

 

The important things

I thought about it and the result was: the most important things are my health and my loved ones, my relationship, and my career. And if I want to be healthy, successful at work, and maintain a happy relationship, I need to set some boundaries.
I googled a bit and put together a few points:

  1. List the roles you have. Each of them has its own needs!
  2. Learn to say no. You can’t just take on more and more tasks without sacrificing other things.
  3. Focus only on personal life after work. No e-mails or calls!
  4. Recognize your distractions and minimize them.

The last two are the most challenging for me. What helps me is that I don’t need to save any business contacts to my phone at all. eWay recognizes the callers for me and my iPhone contact list is strictly private.
As for social media, I have decided to download one of those apps that block your social media for a certain amount of time. Private stuff can wait for the lunch break or after work!

hand EN CALL

After work, I focus on my personal life!

The next day, when I was just about to leave the office, my colleague Robert came to discuss a matter with me.
“Do you have like one hour? I would like to hear your opinion on something.”
Normally, I would have sat down with Robert without hesitation.
Not this time, though.
“I appreciate that, Robert,” I smiled. “Please come to my office in the morning. I’m having dinner with my boyfriend tonight.”

katie walking