The idea of bringing your whole self to work has been well-covered and discussed. A related topic I’ve recently considered is what it means to bring your whole self back home again.
As the chief people officer in a New York City agency, my job is fast-paced and demanding and requires extreme organization to make the most of the day. And my role as a mom of four, with a husband who also has a full-time job, managing a household and schedules for six people is also fast-paced and demanding and requires extreme organization.
The more I think about these similarities, the more I wonder: Do the habits that make you great at your work translate to how you operate at home?
I asked my co-workers, and was surprised by what they said. One co-worker, a vice president of client service, described how his focus on moving things off his plate has helped him get through time-intensive and detail-oriented projects at home, like his current mortgage process. Don’t ask him about the dishes, though. Apparently, the urge to complete important tasks does not extend that far in his home.
Another co-worker, an account lead — also in the business of client service — plays a game at home to see how many home tasks she can complete in small chunks of time. If she has 10 minutes, she’ll challenge herself to see what she can get done in that time. Pay some bills? Check. Put up some laundry? Check.
Turns out this is a strategy she uses at work to make the most out of spare minutes in her today. Only difference? At work, she doesn’t call it a game. Too bad.
For me, I absolutely pull on the strategies and skills I use at work when I’m at home. Take my time-blocking system, for example. It works very well for me in the office, so I applied it to my house cleaning.
For the record, I despise cleaning with a deep and burning passion. By chunking it into 30- to 45-minute spurts — something I do at work to plow through large projects that require deep thinking — I am able to muster the intensity I need to get through a burst of cleaning. I take 15 minutes to recharge by reading, meditating, taking a walk or spending time with the kids. Then I head into the next 45-minute spurt. It works.
However, when I apply my planning intensity to other areas of my home life, my husband does not love it. He’s much more spontaneous and likes to take the day as it comes. I’ve had to learn to pull back on my tendencies and allow life to happen. It’s uncomfortable for me, but I’ve found some surprising joy in it as well. Don’t let my husband know I said this, but maybe I don’t have to be all Type A all of the time.
I suppose therein is the lesson: What makes us great at work may well make us great in other areas of our lives as well. We shouldn’t burn ourselves out so much that we can only be our best at work. Our friends, our families and our minds deserve the best of us, too. The strength is in knowing when to lean into those skills, and when to let them go. They’ll still be there for you on Monday morning.
