Tips for a Better Work-Life Balance

Posted on May 27, 2014 by OfficePlus

North Americans tend to struggle drawing a line between work and home. Living in such a tech-savvy world has created assumptions that employees have to be accessible outside of the hours of 9 to 5, which skews the balance between work and home. This article sheds light on how involved North Americans are in their work and ways we can shadow the European workforce in handling work-life balance.

Work-Life Balance

Here are techniques to get your work life under control:

Take your work e-mail off your phone.

Some employees have gotten in to the habit of constantly checking their phone for work-related emails. This can lead to unnecessary stress which cuts into personal time. By taking your work email off of your phone, you will no longer stress over work-related issues in your personal time and the temptation to always be checking for emails will disappear. Normally colleagues will not notice if you reply at 9:30am instead of 9:30pm the night before.

Use you work laptop to do only work-related stuff and remove all your work-related stuff from your home computer.

Do your work at work and search the web in your personal time.

Only check into work at work.

Corresponding to the first point, checking work-related emails causes unnecessary stress. Stress from being overworked causes health issues which are a reason why you need a clear boundary between work and home life.

Make the most of your time at work.

By being as productive as you can at work, there will be less temptation to continue work at home as well as less stress over what you could have completed at work if you were more productive.

Turn off e-mail alerts and keep your browser minimized.

By controlling interruptions, you will have more time to focus on what you have to do and therefore be more productive. Limit your e-mail checks to every half hour rather than every time you receive an e-mail.

Decline a meeting invitation if you’re not needed.

Going to a meeting you aren’t needed at just cuts time from your day to work on your important tasks. Create more time for yourself by declining these meeting invites or by asking for a time in the meeting you are needed at.

Do You Have the Right Tech Skills?

Posted on November 11, 2013 by OfficePlus

Our workplace is overwhelmingly becoming more and more technology oriented. From laptops and mobile devices to smart watches, we are relying on technology more than ever. Recently, The Globe and Mail put together an article called Fifteen basic tech skills all entrepreneurs should have – in which they outline answers from some of the top entrepreneurs as to what skills they think all small business owners, freelancers or entrepreneurs need to have.

While the list is relevant for entrepreneurs; it also carries over to all workers of all ages. These skills can help you stay on top of the job market and the increasing requirements that new jobs demand. Here is part of the list from that article:

Managing an inbox
Basics of analytics
Basic HTML coding
Communicating via social media
Customer acquisition
Handling your own computer
Map out e-marketing

The original article outlines more skills and details about each skill (see link above to original article). This is what leading entrepreneurs find as useful skills – how do you fare in your skill development compared to these tech capabilities? Keeping on top of new technology and developing relevant skills will be fundamental in staying prepared for a long, successful career.