Last week I attended the breakfast put on by Community Business to present their survey findings around work-life balance issues in Hong Kong.

You can download the full survey report  here - and I think you will get a lot out of it if you make HR decisions for your company.

One of the best suggestions made during the morning was for businesses to study the questions asked in the survey and to find ways to get input from their own employees on the issues raised. This information will form the basis of a work-life balance initiative that makes sense for your corporate culture and values.

To give you the gist of the results – here’s my summary of the key findings:

• Most employees’ expectations of their employers’ obligations to address work-life balance issues remain unchanged, despite the economic recession.
• For Hong Kongers, the ideal work-life ratio would be 62:38.
• 30% would consider leaving their current jobs for a better work-life balance.
• Hong Kongers are working an average of 48.4 hours per week, down from 48.8 last year. This is 21% higher than the 40 hours recommended by the International Labour Organisation.
• Gen Y is more concerned with work-life balance than Gen X.
• Those making less than HK$10,000/month work the longest hours and struggle most with work-life balance.
• Financial security was rated the greatest challenge to achieving work-life balance. The 2nd greatest challenge is long working hours, 3rd is company downsizing and 4th is leader’s attitude.
• Work-life imbalance is causing prolonged fatigue, insomnia, poor diet and not enough time for partner and family.
• Employees cite a 5-day work week and more paid annual leave as the top priorities for employer intervention.
• Flexible work arrangements and the ability to work from home are also key areas for employers to address.

My response?

We have a lot of valuable data about where people’s time is going and how they want to be using it. Companies need to work out ways to measure the quality of this time, i.e. just how productive are these working hours?…and could the same output be achieved by employees who know how to work efficiently in non-traditional locations or at different times of the day/night? Could they actually get MORE done this way? Can management be tangibly assured their people are working hard even if they’re not sitting in a cubicle all day?

I say yes – The right people with the right skills and the right boss can definitely pull it off. Teams will need to learn new-fangled collaboration techniques in order to make it work, employees will need to manage their workloads effectively, and managers will need to focus on deliverables rather than seat time.

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We recently did a facilitation session with a group of senior sales managers whose team leader felt they needed to revisit the issues of work-life balance, prioritisation and boundary-setting. One of the most interesting conclusions to come out of the session was a need for a new model for thinking about balance, particularly for parents.

The group commented that what is commonly meant by the ‘life’ side of the work-life balance equation is ‘family,’ specifically time spent with the kids. While several participants felt there was room for improvement here, others stated that their job and their kids were indeed getting enough time; the missing piece was actually ‘self’ time. By this the group meant time for exercise, hobbies, adult relationships, reflection, and so on. Here are some thoughts on how to strike a Work-Life-Self Balance:

Put yourself first – in the day.

For many of us, the only part of our day we can truly control is first thing in the morning. This is the time to schedule exercise, meditation, reading and reflection. Build a ritual around it. We’re big fans of Leo Babauta of Zen Habits fame, and here’s his helpful piece on How to Become an Early Riser.

Plan in small ‘Bio-breaks’ during the day.

Your body and brain naturally cycle in 90-minute intervals called ultredian rhythms, and they will force a change of activity for you, even if you haven’t overtly changed your own activity. For example, when you try to push past 90 minutes in a meeting or on a project your brain will start to wander, and your focus will falter. Your body may start to ache, asking you for a stretch, drink or change of scenery. Take advantage of this natural cycle when planning your work day, and build in little boosts for yourself every 90-minutes or so. Don’t do anything work related during these little breaks. Instead – stand up, have a stretch, take a walk down the hall, make a personal phone call, flip through a magazine, or go get a smoothie. You will then be more productive in the next work session than you would have if you’d pushed straight through. Remember – your brain will take the break regardless of whether you officially give it permission.

Establish defined working hours, and stick to them.

Decide – and communicate to your team – when you will and will not be responding to email and calls. When you’re at home, don’t turn on the computer. Scan handheld email for emergencies if you must, but don’t respond unless the company is going to shut down without your immediate intervention. When you’re at work, don’t attend to personal issues. Keep the two separate, and deal with each in turn, efficiently and effectively. Harvard has proven yet again that this ‘work less/get more done’ approach actually makes you MORE productive than the always-on lifestyle you may be living now.

Get organised.

Get better systems in place at work and at home so less time is spent on the tedious, repetitive aspects of each. Streamline, simplify, cut back, create templates and share the load. Figure out how to do everything faster and better, with less time invested. This frees up more time for everyone to focus on the top professional and personal priorities. I really should mention that we can help you with all this – just get in touch!

Love what you do.

Make sure you’re doing work you love, so it doesn’t feel like such a slog. For help with this, turn to our friends Angela and Carole at Loving Your Work.

Get some help.

Get a life coach and/or personal trainer to help you develop the habits you know will make your life better. It makes all the difference in the world to have someone keeping you accountable and pointing out the progress you’re making. We recommend Ana Scherer of NRG Coaching and Andrew Cox of Innate Fitness. Andrew’s the guy who taught us about those ultredian rhythms!

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Every year since 2005,  Hong Kong’s Community Business has promoted Work-Life Balance Day in order to raise awareness of balance as a business issue to the wider business community

Organising Solutions is proud to be a participating organisation, and we encourage you to find ways for your company to become involved.

Here are some suggestions to get you started:

• Download Work-Life Balance: the Guide, a practical guide for small, medium and large companies in Hong Kong.
• Attend a Workshop: Adopting a Strategic Approach to Work-Life Balance
• Get the results of this year’s survey at the Breakfast Seminar October 19: The State of Work-Life Balance in Hong Kong 2009 Survey – A Summary of Research Findings
• Sign up as a Participating Organisation by completing a simple survey to register your company’s planned activities.
• Have a look at the Work-Life Balance Day Toolkit for ideas on how to promote the day in your company.

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A 4-year Harvard study reveals the business benefits of forcing employees to unplug and take time off.

Here’s the data you needed; now put it into practice and enjoy the benefits!

To Work Better, Try Working Less

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This article reminds me of that essay we had to write when we were kids: “How I Spent my Spring Vacation” by Kristin Lowe.

There are 4 extra bodies in the house this week, and they all want to be wherever I am, drawing me into whatever they’re doing. I am genuinely interested, but I keep wondering, “Does anybody else see the computer in front of me, or the phone I’m holding up to my ear?”

Our clients are all working this week – kicking off 2nd Quarter with much more optimism than Q1 – so nothing is slowing down on the work front. I could go into the office, but I sort of like staying in my jammies all day with everyone else.

Here’s how I’m staying focused in the midst of piano practice, Play-doh, PBJ sandwiches and paint being applied to the walls of the study where I (try to) work:

1. Hard stuff first - Whatever requires the most intense concentration is the first task of the day, before kids and clients start looking for me.
2. Clear priorities - I start my day with a gorgeously organised RTM task list – and I don’t go to bed until it’s ready for tomorrow.
3. One thing at a time - I write on a piece of paper next to me the ONE thing I am working on right now. I cross it off when I’m done. Under these circumstances it seems to take a superhuman effort to stay focused on one thing at a time, but by day’s end, the list of completed items is nice and long.
4. Batching tasks – Processing email, making calls, writing proposals, replying to email…these are all distinctly separate chunks of the day, interspersed with family stuff like cleaning the guinea pig cage, getting dinner together and watching a movie. There’s a rhythm to it; my brain likes the variety.
5. Change of scenery - I move my laptop around the house whenever I switch activities. Depending on what I’m working on and how deeply I need to concentrate, I might sit at my desk, on the sofa, or on the balcony.
6. White noise – If I sit at the kitchen island, the rain on the window drowns out the noise of the playdates and renovations. When the rain stops, sometimes I put in headphones and listen to recorded ambient noise: the sounds of a waterfall, ocean waves, or a thunderstorm. (By the way, this is a great trick for when you have to work in a coffee shop or airport lounge).
7. Support - My husband is on holiday too, and he’s great about throwing the kids in the car and making errands feel like a special outing. This is when I can call people without letting on I’m at home. I guess now my secret’s out.

Is it a picture of perfect familial and entrepreneurial bliss? Nah – I’ve shouted at everyone plenty of times…but this is what I wanted, right? Freedom, fulfillment and family. It works – as long as I stay focused!

How do you stay focused in the midst of distractions when you’re working from home?  How about in an open-plan office?

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We all know we’re expected to manage loads more information and communication that our parents and grandparents had to in their careers, but what we don’t seem to be grasping fully is the fact that we simply cannot do it all – even if we’re great with technology.

We keep trying to do ‘Everything ASAP’…and it’s just not working. The consequences of treating all incoming information and communication as equally important and urgent are dire; we’re more stressed and working longer hours than any generation before us.

The root causes are threefold:

1. We are so busy trying to keep up/keep moving that we lose sight of our big-picture goals.
2. We don’t establish parameters around what is truly deserving of our limited time and attention.
3. Many of us naturally tend toward a random and reactive workstyle, so we are woefully inefficient – even if we are indeed very busy!

Is this true for you? Let’s look at a few behavioural indicators of people who suffer from the ‘Everything ASAP’ problem.

Working at the Pace of Panic

Do you spend a good deal of time rushing to complete a meeting agenda, project or product just before the deadline? Do you feel a sense of pressure to follow-up immediately on most phone calls and emails?

Ask yourself:

• Do I allow for enough hours each week to work on longer-range projects slowly and steadily? …or is most of my time spent on day-to-day tasks?
• Have I managed the expectations of my clients, colleagues and bosses, or have I created a rod for my own back by being hyper-responsive?

“Worked all day, got nothing done…”

Do you feel that your days can become a black hole of endless activity, but very little productivity?

Ask yourself:

• Do I work systematically, allocating some time for attending to incoming communication and other time for high-value tasks and projects?
• Do I start each day with a few clearly-defined, reasonable goals?

“Hey – Have you got a sec?”

Are you an open-door type person who can’t get any of your own work done until everyone else has gone home for the day?

Ask yourself:

• Could I make myself fully available at certain times during the day and request private time to focus at others? When would those times be, ideally?
• How could I communicate about this sensitively and effectively with my team?
• What signal could I use to let others know that I am needing time to concentrate without interruption?
• Could we try my idea for a week or two and see what works and what will need to be tweaked a bit?

Overwhelmed and Paralysed

Do you ever look at your email Inbox or paper In-tray and just freeze up?

Ask yourself:

• Could I spend a few minutes on sorting rather than working, to get some peace of mind and a clear picture of what’s in there?
• Could I close my email program and/or work someplace else today in order to complete my important work without becoming distracted or depressed by the sight of all that email or those piles?

Perpetual Projects

Are you frustrated by projects that are never finished?

Ask yourself:

• Can I work on one project at a time rather than try to chip away at several simultaneously?
• Do I have a clear (and simple) project plan written down someplace?
• Is my plan broken down into small steps?
• Have I established a (realistic) target timeframe for completing each step?
• Can I dedicate a weekly block of time to this project?

Did you spot any trends in the problems and solutions here? That’s right – to solve the ‘Everything ASAP’ Problem you’ve got to change your workstyle to one that is more proactive and focused. You’ll also need to give people around you a heads-up that things will be changing for the better, even if they don’t understand it at first.

Pick your poison and try some of the suggestions above. Stick with it – bearing in mind that your reward is less stress and more free time!

Filed under: Focus, Info-Overload, Productive Routines, Time Management, Work/Life Balance | 1 Comment »

If we all worked alone, it would be a cinch to focus, get our work done and get on with living. The tricky bit is that most of us work in teams, coordinate projects and activities for groups or depend on others for information and support. This means there’s a lot of communication happening all day, every day.

With each email, SMS, chat, voice message or note left on our desk there is an expectation that we will respond ASAP. The volume – coupled with the presumption that we will follow through immediately – is the primary source of stress for info-overloaded employees today.

In a landmark study published in 2007 by Intel, the authors state, “The problem isn’t the abundance of accessible information. It’s the queued streams of pushed information; that is, the accumulation of messages governed by the expectation that the worker process them all.”

We need to get smarter about how we handle this. Let’s look at some strategies for resetting our rhythms and managing the expectations that other people have of us.

Turnaround Time Conditioning

If you think it makes you look professional and responsive to reply to every communication immediately, think again. Your colleagues – and your boss – could take this as a sign that you are erratic and reactive or that you don’t have enough to do! Your ability to remain focused on high-value activities and deliver timely results is where you should concentrate your personal PR campaign.

For those people who really do need to hear from you frequently, work together to determine a reasonable turnaround threshold for your communications – email in particular.  Is it 20 minutes? 40 minutes? 90 minutes? The benefits for both of you in having longer stretches of time to concentrate on important work are significant.

If you’ve slipped into a negative habit of interrupting each other frequently, have a conversation about the challenges and take control together.

For true crises, use the phone or your feet to walk to each other’s offices.

Selective Response

This is just a fancy way to say: Ignore anything you can. You’ve got more important things to do.

Worst Case Questioning

If you thought that last one was a bit tough to swallow, try asking yourself, “What’s the worst thing that could happen if I don’t engage in this conversation?” Could you live with that scenario?

Remember – you’ve got more important things to do. What’s the worst thing that could happen if those tasks don’t get your attention?!

Stand-up Meetings

For conversations that are best had face-to-face, have a stand-up meeting. If nobody sits down, the meeting will be short and focused! This works for quick team meetings as well as 1:1 discussions.

Stop the Drop-By Meetings

Even if a discussion only requires 5 minutes, everybody deserves a heads-up on a conversation.When people drop by each other’s desks whenever it suits them to have a chat, the discussion is generally unfocused and takes longer than necessary.

The ‘dropper’ may get what he/she needs, but the ‘dropee’ has been interrupted and compelled to comment on an issue without a chance to switch gears mentally.

When someone drops in on you and asks if you’ve “got a second,” look at your watch and give one of these answers:

• “Now isn’t a great time, but I should be able to think about that in about 30 minutes. Can we schedule a chat at 10:00?”

• “Sure, but I’m pushing to finish something. How much time do we need?” Stand up when saying this so your visitor isn’t tempted to sit down and linger! If the conversation drags, suggest you schedule a longer session at a mutually convenient time. Open up your calendar and/or walk toward the door while doing this.

Get Better at Saying NO or Later

If much of your day is spent spinning your wheels, and your evenings are spent working late when the office is finally quiet, you may need to work on establishing some better personal and professional boundaries. See 7 Ways to Say NO for some tips.

Put an End to Pouncing

One of the greatest complaints we hear from senior managers is that their people ‘pounce’ on them all the time. The second they return to the office, are seen online, or set the phone back in the cradle, a line forms at their door of people needing to talk.

What do the associates and support staff complain about? The bosses never give them any time. Thus, they grab it whenever they can.

The answer to this problem lies in establishing a sacred rhythm of daily briefing and/or weekly meetings (ideally on Monday or Friday – looking forward) to review progress, clarify priorities and schedule time to discuss critical issues.

The key is that these meetings must never be cancelled. If absolutely necessary, they can be rescheduled within the same week, they can be held via phone and remote desktop sharing, or they can be shortened…but they must take place.

When people come to trust that there will be a regular opportunity to touch base, they will begin to collect issues for review at the regular meetings rather than playing ‘catch as catch can’ all week long.

Reduce the Volume and Get Back to Work

There is a lot you can do to regain control of your work environment by
cutting the amount of input you have to deal with. You also need
to understand the difference between processing and working. These
topics have been explored in depth elsewhere on this blog:

• Create a ‘Front Office’

• Put Your Inbox on a Diet

• Establishing Com-Free Zones

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Here’s the challenge: do you value your time (a.k.a. your life) enough to place some parameters around how it gets used? Or do you find it easier just to go with the flow, crossing your fingers that it will all get done? How well is that working for you?

If you’re like many of our readers, you probably struggle with finding ways to make yourself available to colleagues and clients yet also get your work done so you have some time left for your life and loved ones.

Let me share a little truism with you: The less time you have, the more wisely you will use it. This is our variation of Parkinson’s Law, which states that ‘Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.’ We have all experienced the validity of this law when we pulled off a great term paper the night before it was due. There’s nothing like a looming deadline to help us tune out distractions.

Enough Chit-Chat

The law applies to our social tendencies as well, i.e. ‘Conversations expand so as to fill the time available for their completion.’ If your door is always open, your phone is always on, and your chat status is a free-for-all, there will be no end to the interruptions and distractions you are battling. Whenever somebody else is bored or stuck, they will seek out the easiest path to their own procrastination: always-available-you.

Sound familiar? Let me share some tricks to help you change this by establishing what we call ‘Com-Free Zones.’

These are chunks of time each day when you block all communications and focus on – well, whatever YOU want to. This could be a critical task or project…but it could also be going to the gym without being tethered to your boss via the Blackberry at 8 p.m.

Defined Working / Available Hours

When do you work? When are you off work? Did you know there was such a concept?! Just decide, and stick to it – at least publicly, anyway. If your hours aren’t fixed by someone else, set them for yourself – especially if you work from home. If you are a corporate professional, decide when you start and when you finish, and don’t respond to email and text messages outside of those hours.

People will catch on. Even your boss will catch on. You say you’ll lose your job if you do this? Hmmm….so how long are you going to live under that sort of pressure? 5 more years? 10 more years? And what will the payoff be for that? Just asking…

OK, here’s a cheat for you. If you occasionally chose to work ‘under the radar,’ e.g. after the kids are in bed, in the early morning or evening, don’t let everybody know about it! Queue your email messages to be sent out when your official working day begins. If you are careful and consistent about this, your workmates will start to adjust to your rhythm, and you will find your life again.

Control Outgoing Communications

“We have met the enemy and he is us.” So said Walt Kelly, and so say I about how we distract ourselves as much as the other guy.

I will put my hand up here and say I am as guilty of this as the next person. I will be working along and suddenly decide to make a call or send an email, check in with someone via chat, etc. Sometimes my communication is directly relevant to the work at hand, i.e. I need some information before I can move forward. But most of the time it’s nothing fancier than boredom or procrastination.

So when the only enemy to my productivity is actually me, my trick is to completely shut down all communications channels. That means I close (not minimise) Outlook and Skype, and I set all phone notifications to still and silent. Then I put my phone away so I don’t see it flashing. I am always amazed at how many times I try to click over to my email or reach for my phone. When neither is handy, I remember that I’m supposed to be working on something! So I make a note of what I need to do online or on the phone, then get back to work.

Even though I’m a productivity consultant, I have to play these tricks on myself. Maybe they will help you as well.

What’s Your Threshold?

I understand that you really need to be in touch with your colleagues and clients. I hope you understand that you really need time to focus and also to be not-working.

So let’s agree to a little experiment. Think realistically about how long your team, your boss, or your clients can reasonably wait for a response from you during the work day. Is it 20 minutes? 40 minutes? 2 hours?

Now try it. Test yourself and your work environment to see what happens if you are not available by phone, chat or email for that length of time. Find your threshold, commit to it, and use those golden minutes to actually get something meaningful done.

For tips on how to help people cope during your ‘extended’ absences, read Create a ‘Front Office.’

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Gone are the good ‘ol days when most white collar workers had a dedicated secretary to filter incoming communications and information, making sure the boss could keep his or her mind on the most important matters. Email, instant messaging and mobile phones have given everybody direct access to everybody else – all day, every day.

While today’s tech tools can be great business and productivity boosters when used with discretion and flair, the general trend is toward non-stop interruptions and distractions preventing most of us from finding the quiet time needed to focus and complete critical tasks.

So how do we leverage the tools to our advantage but retain control over what gets our time and attention? Here are a few nifty little tricks to help you mimic the days of old with your very own ‘Front Office.’

Voice Mail + Caller ID

We’ll start with an easy one. Make sure frequent callers’ numbers display on your land line and mobile phone when they ring, and create protocols for yourself about which calls you’ll answer immediately and which you will return later.

Leave a short and sweet greeting to the effect of:

“Hi – sorry I can’t pick up your call right now. I’ll check messages at least once daily and will get back to you within 24 hours. For urgent matters, please send me a brief SMS beginning with the word URGENT.”

Email Autoresponders

This is the same idea as above, to manage expectations and put you in control. Set your server to reply to all incoming emails with a message like this:

“Hi – thanks for your message. I will check email twice daily at 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Hong Kong time (GMT +8) and will reply within 48 hours. If you need a response by a particular time, please indicate this in the subject line of your email. For urgent matters, please send me a brief SMS (+123 4567 8910) beginning with the word URGENT.”

Tip: For both suggestions above, be sure to follow up as you have promised; otherwise people won’t trust your system or respect your boundaries.

IM: Not Available

Even if you are in plain sight of your workmates, set your instant messaging status to ‘Not Available’ or  ‘Do Not Disturb’ when you are focusing on essential tasks or project work. Ignore all attempts to get you to crack – even the funny ones! You won’t have to do this more than a couple of times to send a clear message that your M.O. has changed.

Workstation: Do Not Disturb Signal

Come up with a team-wide signal to indicate when you are not free to chat or answer questions. Some companies use a coloured flag system on the door, cubicle entry or computer monitor. Others create open door/closed door guidelines and understandings.

Some employees put headphones in/on their ears and orient their computers so that passers-by can’t gain immediate eye contact. Brainstorm ideas with your team and support each other to implement the system. Everybody wins!

Personal or Virtual Assistant

Build a solid case for an extra pair of hands by logging your time use faithfully for a 2-week period. Demonstrate to your bosses which tasks could be done by a support person, freeing you up to clock more hours on the creative, value-adding work you were hired to do. Calculate and compare the cost of your hours against the cost of support hours to put some teeth into your pitch.

Consider part-time and virtual assistant options rather than thinking you need a full-time employee. Delegate work on an hourly basis or outsource entire projects. Then be a good manager – give clear expectations and deadlines, allow enough time for discussion and revision, etc.

Empower Others to Act for You

There’s a lot of power in systems that are written down so people can follow them to your specifications and quality standards. Make a list of all the things you do on a routine basis that could be documented and handed over to someone else. One by one, create a short how-to guide and train others to implement your processes just like you would.

This takes time, but the payoff is HUGE if you do it right!!

Away Find

Small businesses and open-minded corporates can achieve much of the above with this elegant productivity app: http://www.awayfind.com/

Filed under: Flow, Focus, Productive Routines, Time Management, Work/Life Balance | 1 Comment »