I’ve often worked jobs that required evening and weekend hours. The question is: What can we do?
1. Morning Gratitude Moment
When you wake up in the morning, don’t jump out of bed for your workout immediately, or drag yourself to the washroom. Sit up straight, relax, and close your eyes. Say to yourself, “I am grateful for those who support me, believe in me, and are always there for me.” Say this with a deep breath in between each time you say it, and I recommend saying it for a full five minutes. When you open your eyes and look at everything around you—keep that moment of gratitude with you, throughout your day, reminding yourself how you can’t wait to get home to your loving family.
2. Workout Partners
Begin your day by stretching with your family and doing some physical activity together. All you need is 10 minutes. You’ve accomplished a two-for-one: physical activity and family time!
3. Family Playlist
On your shared streaming service, make a playlist of your family’s favorite music. When you take a break at work or feel a negative moment getting the best of you, listen to that music, think about your family, and regain your focus. Music is a powerful voice and has the ability to affect our mindset. Your family playlist will energize you and improve your mood.
4. Daily Phone Call
At least once a day, call or text your significant other or your kids and repeat Stevie Wonder: “I just called to say I love you, I just called to say how much I care.” Let your family know they are always in your thoughts. Even in the face of a big deadline or an important meeting, that moment will relax you and make your family smile!
5. Clarify Your Work Hours & Expectations
Discuss with your boss his/her expectations of you in regards to your time and your position to foster a mutual and clear understanding of your role. Should your role involve evening/weekend hours, and tasks such as answering emails, working from home, or extra time needed for special projects, establish a strategy and discuss with your boss how to meet these expectations so you don’t feel overwhelmed and pulled between your family and your job. If you are a new parent, have family members who require special needs, or have personal circumstances which require attention, bring these up as necessary, so if you have to leave early, there is an understanding of why this is the case.
6. Socializing At Work
It’s common for colleagues to hang out after work. Say yes when your significant other and/or kids are also busy. This will balance things out more. There are times to have beers with colleagues, but there are also times to go home, relax, watch a movie, and simply have fun with your family.
7. Buffer Moment
We all deal with a lot at work and at times might get irritated or annoyed. Remember you are a human being, not a robot, and thus it’s acceptable to have a buffer moment for these feelings. Take a deep breath, zone into your happy place that involves your family, think about how your energy can be used towards something else, and move on.
8. Yoda Philosophy
As Yoda put it, “Do or do not, there is no try.” Don’t try to leave at 6:00 p.m. or 5:30 p.m.; just do it. Allocate the last half-hour of your day to do the following and leave at 5:30/6:00 p.m.:
- For two minutes, take deep breaths, in and out, looking away from your desk, feeling the moment of gratitude you felt in the morning. Turn back to focus on leaving to see your family at home.
- Organize your emails based on what is to be reviewed, what requires follow-up, and what needs a response after your breakfast/snack/meal. Your emails are emails, not a to-do list.
- Write out your to-do list, priorities, goals, and key items for the next day.
- Double-check that you have a water bottle and healthy desk snacks.
- Organize your desk so that your to-do list is in front of you, papers for review are next to your list, and keep a pen ready with blank paper to jot down extra notes. Don’t always rely on your computer; rely on yourself and your mind.
9. Phone And TV-Free Dinner
At the dinner table, leave your phone and turn off the TV. Focus on your family, not on work, and use this as a time to bring all your energy, your aura, and your being in the moment with the people who support and believe in what you do, and love you for the ability to do what you do.
10. Your Work Journal
Keep a two-week work diary: try to track every fifteen minutes of your work time. After that, analyze for, and attack, any inefficiencies! This will import balance in your day and yield a well-deserved coffee break, a breath of fresh air, and time to make your daily family phone call!
Does email control you and take you away from your priority list, and thus your work-life balance? Organizational skills are an important factor in how you balance your day, affecting your work-life balance. Get organized and get happy! You'll find that work-life balance sooner than you think.
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This article was originally published at an earlier date.
By CAREEREALISM-Approved Expert, Laura Labovich
Resumes that incorporate graphics and color are not simply for creative professionals anymore. A purely textual resume is often not enough to stand out in a crowd of candidates, so if your resume is finding its way to the black hole again and again, it may be time to spice it up. Tasteful and professional visual accessories (note: no clip art or cheap graphics) can add value—and charm—to your resume and can be helpful in grabbing attention, creating interest, and increasing attractiveness to employers.
Here are 7 ways in which you may use visual elements to spice up your resume:
1. Charts or bar graphs: Charts demonstrate you exceeded expectations by illustrating your actual vs. projected performance. By incorporating charts or graphs in the accomplishments section of your resume, you can provide very clear proof of your achievements.
2. Certification logos: A certification that is impressive, hard-to-achieve, and contributes strongly to your candidacy is a good visual accessory to add to your career marketing document. Of course, be sure to first confirm that doing so is approved by the certifying agency or organization.
3. Industry-appropriate icons: Consider the inclusion of images that represent a field or occupation—such as a chef’s hat for a chef or a pen for a writer—as they can be eye-catching, visually interesting, and relevant.
4. Drop caps: Drop caps—or large initial letters or words at the start of a paragraph or document—can add style and focus to your resume. These are frequently used at the top of the resume, in the career summary or profile section, to draw dramatic attention to a word or sentence.
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5. Watermark: The use of a watermark can add a touch of flair to a resume, as long as it doesn’t interfere with readability. Graphic artists or other creative professionals may consider using their work samples as watermarks.
6. Text box: The inclusion of a text box can help to separate lists of unique accomplishments or skills. Many job seekers use text boxes to highlight a client list, technical and/or software skills, a career summary, and/or testimonials.
7. Spot color: Liven up your resume with the addition of text color or, for something a bit more subtle, add spot color on icons such as bullets or other non-textual elements.
Charts, graphs, tables, logos, watermarks, drop caps, text boxes, color, and industry icons are among the other graphic aids available to you in your quest for a compelling resume. Remember to carefully select each visual element as you do each word on your resume, and they will complement—not detract from—your qualifications for a position.
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CAREEREALISM Expert, Laura Labovich, MLRHR, is a Guild Certified Five O’Clock Club Career Coach, speaker, trainer, networking expert and award-winning resume writer with more than 12 years of HR leadership experience at Walt Disney World and America Online, Inc. As a job coach and writer, Laura specializes in getting her clients “unstuck” in their job search by partnering with them to develop proactive, targeted and effective job search marketing plans that increase campaign momentum and achieve breakthrough results! Connect with Laura via LinkedIn or follow her on Twitter.
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