MY WORK IS NOT JUST MY COMPANY'S WORK.

There has always been a thin line of differentiation between personal and professional work. But more often, the two tend to get entangled. Yet somehow, majority of the times it so happens that we consciously end up picking personal over professional.

Take for instance, it is the fifth anniversary of your organization and at the same time, it is your wedding anniversary too. Wouldn’t you first have a mini celebration at home and then head to the office function to make a guest appearance? Or would you rather skip that all together and claim to be feeling unwell?

We subconsciously tend to prioritize our personal work over the company’s. We give preference to things that give us gain rather than those that act as a value add to the organization, indirectly portraying a much laid back attitude towards work life.

 
Take for example, you are in the midst of a new project and you have to send across a proposal for a pitch by the end of the day. You work hard the entire morning, focused and determined to get this done before the clients’ expectations; and then comes the lunch break!

Three fourths of your proposal is ready, all you need to do is fine tune it a bit and add in the commercials. But after a deliciously heavy lunch the mind begins to become numb and you crave to grab a quick nap. An hour down, two hours before the submission and you receive a call from home about a dinner party you would be attending at night.

You are in a hurry to get home, the focus begins to waver and you somehow put off the proposal completion for yet another hour. In the last slot, you have to attend a meeting to plan a schedule for the next day. In the interim, two more things come up and the proposal takes a back seat, not forgotten but with no sense of urgency either. 

Time’s up and yet again you are more excited about meeting your friends over dinner than sending across the proposal. You decide to take it home and work over it at night. By the time the client receives the proposal in his inbox the next morning, the pitch has already gone to somebody else.

This was an extreme situation. But at times, procrastinating at work and then working from home to meet deadlines, the wheel of work life balance undoubtedly goes for a complete toss. Take a few minutes to reckon, we spend most of our waking hours at work. Isn’t it only fair that we adopt a more professional attitude towards our work life? Adhere to the norms – when at work, the work at hand should be given priority unless an emergency occurs.

Consider the company to be your family, take ownership, show initiative, and be proactive. Live by the philosophy of ‘under commit, over deliver’ and you will notice your work life balance improving as well as your work interestingly becoming more likable.