Description

In Chapter 15 of 15, energy efficiency consultant Audrey Parker shares how she created a healthy work-life balance plan to be happier and more productive.

Transcript

How to Create a Healthy Work-Life Balance - Audrey Parker Erik Michielsen: How do you improve your approach to finding balance in your personal and your professional pursuits? Audrey Parker: That’s been a challenge up until about a year or a year and a half ago. And I really just made the commitment that I needed to do it. I have cared so much about the work that my company does, and wanting to make sure that it was growing and it was thriving and health, and vibrant company that I was out of balance for awhile, where all of my focus and all of my energy was going toward the company. And actually what I found overtime was I was working at two higher level pretty consistently when I was just working too much basically. My effectiveness started to go down, and so what I've actually found is by having that boundary and having a good healthy work-life balance, and actually able to work harder and be more productive and more effective when I'm there, because I'm not burned out and slow, and tired. Erik Michielsen: How long have you dedicated time in your schedule to get that outside activity? Audrey Parker: A lot of times it just started with just a commitment to do it, so signing up for something, or committing to something where I knew that I would have to not work certain times. I remember there was one time, where I was preparing for a big meeting, and I decided to have a friend come visit me from out of town, that exact same time, because I knew that if I didn’t have that I would spend all my time preparing for the meeting, but I knew it was going to go okay. I just wouldn’t spend as much time prepping and stressing about it, and so I did I was much – I had just a much better perspective going into it, I was fresh and everything worked better, because I had that work-life balance. So committing the things like choir rehearsal once a week or going out with friends once a week or doing something out of town , committing to taking trips and things like that. I have to make time for a trip, you have to buy a plane ticket to go on a trip, you have to make time for it.