More work. Less time. Interruptions. Ambiguity. What can you do about it?

Relief is closer than you think and it all comes down to balancing priorities in and out of work. Since our work and life are interrelated, it's an integration of the two, not a separation. Both need to be worked simultaneously. Some look at this as "Work Life Allocation" versus a "Balance" as there will always be times when one may have increased demands over the other so prioritization is key.

First, reaching our goal must be managed with the inclusion of all components, paying careful attention to repercussions the decisions in one area, can make on another.

Second, the focus is not on perfect balance, specifically a 50-50 balance between work and life. The goal is to gather information , resources and ideas from others, to assist in recognizing the underlying obstacles that may interfere with or slow down reaching satisfaction and success.

"Balance, or whatever word you use, is just the result of other actions taken. Your focus should just be on self-awareness and the determination of what will lead to a fulfilled life and just work towards that, the results will follow."

Managing your time is a big part of all this, check out this article "30 Time Management Tips for Work-Life Balance" by Frances Booth. When my wife and I started a family, calls from the day care with a sick child happened all too often. I quickly learned that in order to keep my job and my new child (one would have to go :-)), I had to come up with a solution. I started a system where I processed my email each morning, built a  list of tasks either in Task Manager or on a separate spreadsheet, then I would sort the tasks from most important to least. I'd start cranking out the list, as I accomplished the most critical items (especially the ones I'd been putting off), my stress level would decrease and the ability for me to handle an interruption (either personal or work-related) in my schedule would increase. I still use this method today. 

Join the Zero Email Journey

CEO Thierry Breton of Atos, a French information technology company is preparing his company for a future of no internal email. In this day of constant email communication, seems impossible, right? Certainly not, it's as possible as the introduction of email a couple of decades ago.

This eradication of email is a response to the massive amounts of data we are accumulating. According to Atos, it is estimated that managers spend between 5 and 20 hours a week just reading and writing emails. In addition to processing email, middle managers spend more than 25 percent of their time searching for information.

Email at Atos is being replaced by improved communication applications as well as new collaboration and social media tools, with an emphasis on social business solutions. This is a response to the fact that online social networking is now more popular than email and search, plus future generations are choosing alternative methods to communicate.

For expanded details, check out the original ABC News article and the Atos site for Smart Organization and the Zero Email blog. Keep tabs on this company as they are leading us into a more effective way to communicate and collect/retrieve information.