I’ll Be Working On Vacation: What’s Your Idea Of Work/Life Balance?

"Work/life balance" as we know it can kick rocks if it means I can enjoy working so much on something that I can't stop. I tend to be obsessive about things too. Unfortunately I haven't found a purpose to obsess over quite yet.

Either way I hope you enjoy yourself on vacation. I live less than 2 hours away from West Palm and sometimes I go there to shut down. Everybody needs to shut down for a while, even for a few hours.

"I have allowed work to completely, totally, consume my life, and I couldn’t be happier."

This is really where we all want to be, right? At least, this is what I see myself striving to achieve in the (hopefully) not-too-distant future. Work is an integral part of life, and to me, the best place to be is to cut out the work/life balance and have it all integrated - and most importantly, be fulfilled and love the work that you do.

I wrote about the concept of work/life balance a couple weeks ago. I encourage you to give it a read and share your thoughts! http://www.lifewithoutpants.com/?p=30

Enjoy your vacation!

I'm a Gen X'er that grew up in the Gordon Geckko era http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Gekko . I jumped in to career and was driven like a mad man. 80 hour weeks were a break. I didn't take vacation for years. My love life was non-existent. In a way it paid off. I'm at a point now where I don't worry about money, and I live life on my terms. The good news is I no longer choose to work that way anymore. I am happy for all that I have, and can appreciate what that hard work brought me. However, that being said, if I could do it all over again, I wouldn't do it that way again. I've learned in my old age (almost 40), that now that I can step back and smell the proverbial roses, it's nice. There is a whole world out there to see and explore. I'm married now, and I regret the fact that for a decade I worked constantly and didn't meet my wife until I'd finished that. It is a shame that I missed those 10 years with her (even though I didn't even know her yet!), and those ten years of happiness. And I guess that's what you have to ask yourself about work life balance: what makes you happy. We all have a very limited amount of time on this Earth, and when you take your last breath, do you want to smile knowing that you did a killer Powerpoint in your 20's, or that you got to play a game of soccer with orphans in Costa Rica. Your call.

make sure you do a few fun things...those 2-3 hour unplugs are what make it a vacation or rather a rejuvinating time out from the norm...and turn the cell phone and crackberry off when your doing those things...enjoy your time away from Wisc....
M

Ryan, loving work when it also loves you back is really NOT a lack of balance -- but simply a choice.

Through developing 7 businesses in 7 industries -- and working everything from
-0 hr- to (some years regular/some years no...) -90 hr- weeks, the truth is I've NEVER awakened a day "dreading" or regretting it was (or was not) a "work-day."

For some years, I've been thinking more of this as having the type of career that allows you the flexibility to CHOOSE is what many of us thrive on -- however that does get defined.

What I discovered (FINALLY...finally) was I'm really at best an "edge-worker" -- and what IS truly best for me is crossing regularly ENOUGH through fairly dramatic change -- from the edge of one interest to the far edge of another. How that's played out for me, personally/professionally -- is designing my career to allow me the freedom to work INTENSELY when and wherever I'm endeavoring on client/professional projects.

THEN when, if, wherever I'm off, to make sure I've the right type of "access" (to whatever it takes) to be comfortably ON that other edge of my own life where i also thrive.

So -- for me -- when i go on retreat - while it may SEEM remote, i almost always have just enough pre-arranged to get connected to or how whatever it is that can bridge me into my other world - conveniently enough. Right now - that means i can travel without my laptop comfortably -- but most comfortably WITH my phone/pda and Internet connection WITH me. If i"m literally out of the territory even of THAT connecting...i just don't plan to BE there longer than 3-4 days - simply because i MISS all that's also going on, including contact with "the people."

Could i do otherwise? Yes...but why?

To me, this is all part of continuing education -- about life. Not something i want to see end for me this lifetime. Is that an addiction? If so, it's one I'm probably never going to seek a cure for - nor donate to the cause of should anyone create one for that. ;)

Thanks for starting the post! Is being really interesting to see response.

Sherry In Austin Texas USA

دردشة , دردشة حبي

Ryan, I often times feel the same way. Completely 'shutting' off and going off the grid isn't something our generation can do easily and I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing. When work and projects are growing, it doesn't always seem right but I have to admit the fact that you can get away, get some family time and indulge a little is a good balance in itself (even if you're going to work while there).

I say, to each their own. There's a time and a place to work and vacation but as long as it works for YOU then that's what you need.

I don't take any work with my on vacation. I believe in the importance of decompressing and just letting it all go for a few days. I'm curious if those who work on vacation have tried not working on vacation (as adults, of course), and what happened. If you haven't not worked on vacation, would you ever try it? (May be an interesting blog post in that.)

I think that you are thinking of this all wrong: you aren't shutting down one part of your brain in order to start another one up. You are taking time to indulge in what you like doing. Some people today have jobs that they like doing so much that there is no separating between work and home. I was like that in my first job...which lasted more than five years. It was too much because I had nurtured one thing I loved (what I was doing for work), and I had neglected other things.

Going on vacation for me is a time to spend with friends, something I don't do because of work. It's a time to break out the PSP, something I enjoy but don't often do. It's a time to explore new surroundings, again something I don't often do. Even when I don't go away, work is the farthest thing from my mind. Why? Because I know that no matter how much I do, work will keep coming my way, therefore for me it's more important to balance out things I love doing versus work. At this point I don't love my work. I don't hate it either. It exists. I like my coworkers, I like my boss, I like my clients. But once that bell rings, I well our yabba-dabba-doo and it's "me-time" :-)

I don't like it when other people tell me how to take my vacation time, so I won't tell you how to spend yours :-). Live and let live :-)

I find that it is difficult to avoid working and not thinking about work when I'm on vacation. Vacation time is necessary to replenish yourself so that you go back to work being more productive and with a different outlook on the same things.

Some people at my job come into work on their time off. They show up tired, leave tired and keep on coming into work tired, dragging their feet and sighing the whole day. For what reason?

I have always taken my time off with no work and have no regrets about it. I have had some interesting travelling experiences that I would not trade for work--ever.

My father worked until the moment he died. I would never want to live my life like that.