If you’re looking to improve your professional and personal lives, then you should consider a work-life balance accountability partner. In general, an accountability buddy can offer you an outside perspective or deliver tough love.
They tell you the things you need to hear that can help you improve your performance. Very often these are reciprocal relationships.
Accountability partners have existed for many years and there are some good tips out there for making the most of these partnerships. I’d like to expand the concept to the time spent outside of work.
In today’s world, the lines between professional and personal lives can blur and a poor balance in one can create growing problems in both. Why not make sure you’re not neglecting the things that allow you to excel at work and at home. Consider these tips for creating this valuable relationship:
Same Partner or Different Person?
It may be easy to add work-life balance to an already existing accountability relationship. But make sure the other person values this trait.
If they see nothing wrong with being plugged into work 24 hours a day, then they may not be the right person for your work-life balance accountability partner.
Keep in mind that a discussion of work-life balance may include more of your personal life and some may not feel comfortable with that level of sharing.
Goal Progress
Like any accountability process, you want to create some goals. Examples could include things like going home on time, being able to go to school events, or not checking your email after a certain time. The goal represents something you want to achieve and have the ability to achieve.
When you get together with your work-life balance accountability partner, you want to honestly update your progress. While you should celebrate your victories, you’ll probably learn and grow more from when things didn’t go as planned.
Define Distractions and Traps
You want to make sure you’re not just restating problems but coming up with solutions that can help you reach your goals. Go through those times when the office dragged you back into work mode or kept you from going home when you planned.
Some situations may arise that demand more of your time and are unavoidable. But are there clues that could help you minimize the challenge in the future?
For instance, if a time consuming activity, like a monthly meeting, happens on a regular basis, maybe you need to start preparing for it earlier. Your brainstorming may reveal no-win situations, like being expected to present on information at 8 a.m. that you received at 7 p.m. the previous day.
There may be opportunities to adjust these scenarios and improve your work-life balance. Don’t believe yesterday’s problem will continue tomorrow.
Talk about Excuses
A good work-life balance accountability partner can help expose some of the excuses you may use that keep you working later than you should. For example, are you spending too much time trying to be perfect, when good is more than adequate?
Also, do you spend too much of your time on tasks that are enjoyable, rather than the ones that more important but less fun. A good accountability partner can help you see the light and reveal your moments of self-sabotage. From there, you can make some positive changes.
Let’s Create a Memorable Meeting
