Career Advice >> Browse Articles >> Work-Life Balance

Career Advice >> Browse Articles >> Healthy Living

Top 10 Tips to Balance Work/Life in 2010

Featured Author:

Todd Wheeler, President and CEO

Todd Wheeler is the founder and president of Concierge Colorado and Hospital Concierge of America. For over 20 years he has been a successful entrepreneur in many sectors of the service industry.

At the present time Hospital Concierge of America and Concierge Colorado provides concierge consulting services and concierge programs to hospitals as retention and recruitment tools. These concierge programs have been noted by both hospital administration and staff as “indispensable”, “extremely professional”, “world-class” and “life savers”. Feedback proves that many nurses site these programs as the reason they work at this hospital. For several years, Concierge Colorado has been exceeding the expectations of over 10,000 individuals and has completed over 35,000 requests for hospital staff, with a 99% same day completion score.

After developing and utilizing web based concierge management technology to run the concierge business for the last 6 years, Concierge Colorado is now offering consulting services, training and the most powerful Customer Relationship Management tools for hospital concierge and small businesses.

More articles from this author:

• Stressed Out? How Health Care Professionals Can Regain Some Calm
• Manage Work/Life Stress During the Holidays
• Work-Life Balance: Why You Need It & How to Get It

A new year, new habits, new financial pressures — 2010 is shaping up to be a year of opportunity, uncertainty, optimism and change. However change doesn’t only have to be negative. Change can be very positive, and balancing work and personal life is key to positive attitude and your happiness. Keeping an open mind and an optimistic heart will go a long way to support your self-improvement and emotional wellness efforts.

Following are our Top 10 Tips to Balance Work and Life in 2010:

1. Prioritize – While this sounds obvious, we see families reprioritize their values at the holidays. Why not continue that pattern? Are your goals to purchase a fancy new car or to spend more time playing catch with your son? Are you focused on a fancy vacation abroad this year or could you spend the time exploring the area where you live, discovering attractions and sites you’ve only driven past? What means the most to you this year?

2. Commit to less – When people and businesses get stressed, we tend to over-commit as a way of showing loyalty and dedication. However, in stressful times, we also need to ensure success, and that often means having laser-like focus on what we can do well, and not committing to projects and teams where we won’t contribute high value. It is better to say no than it is to say yes and not do it!

3. Focus at work and on your job – Yes, we did say to focus more at work. With competition in the marketplace growing exponentially, with PhD’s working at McDonald’s, having a job means doing everything you can to keep it! Recommit to your work, engage with colleagues and staff, and renew your dedication to patient care. Now more than ever, performance expectations are scrutinized and practitioners who apply themselves fully, and with focus, stand out.

4. Breathe – ensure you are taking time to catch your breath. On your way to work and on your way home from work, do some deep breathing in the car to help relieve any work-related stress and don’t bring your job home with you.

5. Ask for Help – Enlist the support and resources of others to help you manage tasks, errands and projects where appropriate. If your hospital or medical center has an on-site concierge program, use them to help you manage your list of “to do” tasks, enabling you to focus on work, and not on oil changes for the car, picking up dry cleaning and planning a birthday party. Instead of taking everything on yourself, whom can you enlist to help? Discuss with your employer the idea of bringing in assistance (such as an on-site concierge service) to help manage stress at work.

6. Set realistic goals – What can you actually accomplish right now? For instance, if it would be nice to participate or volunteer on a task force at your hospital, but the time commitment would mean added stress and pressure, now may not be the right time to join the team. Believe me, it is better to say no than it is to say yes and provide less than stellar performance. Now is the time to deliberately avoid adding stress to your life. Focus on doing what you do well, getting done what is within your control, and if you can, put off what you realistically cannot do.

7. Be specific and break big projects into smaller tasks – Instead of “buy gifts for my staff,” be specific — consider “Buy scarves for women on my team, and Gift Cards for the guys.” Also don’t wander the mall, go with a specific purpose or item in mind.