Work-Life Balance (And Why It Actually Matters) Part 1
Helen McHugh, RN, BSN.
As a nurse, what comes to mind when you hear “work-life balance”?
For a long time, I thought it sounded great in theory—but impossible in practice. I’m busy! I figured work-life balance wasn’t in the cards for me with a work schedule that was often over 8 hours, single mom with school age kids back in the day. I didn’t see how it can happen.
As my mission is about addressing nurse wellbeing and supporting them in taking really good care of themselves so they can live the lives they want both professionally and personally—I’ve realized that work-life balance isn’t a luxury. It’s a necessity..
In my exploration of this topic, I came across Dr. Christine Carter, the author of The Sweet Spot: Finding Your Groove at Home and Work and author and narrator of the Audible Original Find Work-Life Balance. Her insights shifted how I think about balance, busyness, and what really sustains us.
Dr. Carter explains that as humans, we’re wired for stability and consistency. Our brains interpret uncertainty as a threat.
We all know the world isn’t a predictable place. According to Accenture’s 2024 Pulse of Change Index, the pace of change from 2019 to 2023 increased by 180%! That was the time of a global pandemic, a polarized political climate, a presidential election, and frequent technology changes. And it keeps coming! As nurses, especially in direct patient care, the change is constant, and patients and their families are often in crisis. Your work environment and the amount of support from leadership may be low.
According to planning we’re gonna stay in for a little while OK sounds good Dr. Carter, we respond to uncertainty and change by staying busy. Busyness becomes our badge of what happened honor—it makes us feel important and in control. We end up spending our time on tasks that might benefit others (especially our families), but may not spend time on what is restoring us. Without time for creativity, rest, and flow, we can get to nurse burnout.
Here’s the part that really hit home for me:
“When we dial down overwhelm and allow ourselves to feel our human feelings, we create the space we need to cultivate balance, energy, ease, peace, freedom, and contentment.” 2
When I read that sentence, I said, “Ahhh…”. It seems too good to be true. But is it really?
Can we be proactive in finding work-life balance? It seems so. Dr. Carter describes ways to do this. What I have learned to achieve work-life balance is much more than I can tell you about in this blog. I plan on posting more on this topic in the future. In the meantime, I want to give you a couple action steps to get started.
Dr. Carter recommends narrowing your focus to your top 3–5 priorities—and spending 95% of your time on those. These are the things that are most important to you, that bring you joy, and meaning. The rest of the stuff? You do those in the remaining 5%. That sounds impossible to me, and yet, it intrigues me as well. I’ve started applying this by scheduling less in my days and being more intentional with how I spend my time. I know my highest priority is my self care, or nothing else good happens. I considered what self care looked like for me. It includes nutrition, all kinds (in addition to food/liquids, what I take in regarding my environment, media, people, etc), movement, relationships, sleep and my spiritual practices. I do feel more balance and ease. And I am just getting started.
Dr. Carter suggests something that goes hand in hand with your top 3-5. That is a Not To Do List. These are the things that take you away from your priorities. For me, this includes too much NetFlix and games on my phone. Now I’ve cut back to just some New York Times games. I share a couple of them with a dear friend in Florida. I can only play these once for the day. And as for NetFlix, as I stick to my priorities, I am finding I am bored by a lot of what is available to watch now. Hmmm… a little bit of more ease and joy? Yes!
What are your priorities? And what might belong on your Not-To-Do list? If you are struggling with finding your 3-5 priorities and what to put on your Not To Do List, Please let me know. I would love to explore this more in the blog, or other ways. You can email me at theempowerdnurse2@gmail.com
And if you would like to tap into your own inner healing, please click on the link below and I would love to send you a complementary gift, which is my imagery audio recording.
Take Really Good Care,
Helen
Bibliography
“When people feel flow, they are in a state of intense concentration. Their thoughts are focused on an experience rather than on themselves. They lose a sense of time and feel as if there is a merging of their actions and their awareness. That they have control over the situation. The experience is not physically or mentally taxing.” ucdavis.edu/curiosity/blog/research (2022, January 6) Why Does ‘Flow’ Feel So Good? Communication Scientist Explains in ‘Conversation Piece’, Huskey, Richard Retrieved from ucdavis.edu/curiosity/blog/research
Carter, Christine, Find Work-Life Balance The Great Courses, Audible Original,
Klotz, Leidy (2021) Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less,
New York, NY, Flatron Books