Work Life Balance Resolution

Another biggie I worked on last year... and it's still a work in progress! Having one of those jobs you can never quite finish makes it hard to draw a line under each day and quit. At the end of the day there's always a job undone - a pile of books still to catalogue, planning that is still to be finished, teaching resources to be created, a policy in need of attention or some adjustment to the school website, and sometimes it is all of those and more. For me, the temptation is to do just one more thing and more often than not I have had the cleaners kick me out at 5.30. I'd then go home and put in another couple of hours after 10 at night. Each morning I'll walk in and it's as if the work waiting for me was the magic pudding, though I'd bitten off a large chunk the night before, there was another chunk to replace it. I have always worked late at school. It started in my first years of teaching when it was not uncommon that my car was the last in the car park and the cleaners were telling me to go (not a lot has changed). As a young single woman and even as a young married one this wasn't an issue. I only had myself, the cat and later my husband to answer for and as long as a meal appeared at some stage of the evening all three of us were happy. It became an issue when I had children. As a full time working mother my time with them was precious (and still is) I knew that I wanted and needed to spend as much time as possible with them, however I would feel guilty walking out "early" (as I termed it). Some of this guilt stemmed from a passing comment made by a principal one afternoon in the late 80s. At that stage I generally worked until 6 most days. On this particular day I was leaving "early" to get to the shops to buy some new shoes. As I walked through the office at 4.00pm he said "Hmm Leaving early???" "Yes I have to buy new work shoes" I said - indicating my very worn out shoes "That's what the weekends are for" was his reply. His tone said "I would have expected better of you". Now despite the fact that I was well within my rights to leave then, in fact the majority of staff had already left (including the deputy) I felt incredibly guilty. Stupid wasn't I? Slip forward some 18 years in time... Still working late. Still feeling guilty if I had to leave early. When I embarked on my weight loss and get fit program, I began to realise was that in order to become fit, I would either have to start getting up earlier or knock off work earlier. Getting up earlier meant bed earlier. Some of my best thinking is done after 10.00pm and I am not a morning person, so I figured the answer was that I have to leave work earlier. I have now set myself a finishing time of 4.00 (4.30 on staff meeting days). School has been over for over an hour at that point. Nearly everyone else has also left, so it means that it is highly unlikely that someone will want to use the library at that time. Leaving at 4 means that I can do half an hour in the gym, talk with a consultant if I need, pop into the shops on my way home to pick up meat or veges and still be home by 6.00pm. That gives me time to prepare dinner, spend a few minutes in the garden before dark and just generally unwind. I have the option of still doing some work in the evenings, but am finding that I often just need to veg out and recharge. I have found that one of the benefits of having a definite finishing time is that I am using that hour in the afternoon more efficiently. I set myself one task to complete that is "do-able" for that time allocation and because I hate coming back to things, I think it motivates me to work just that little bit faster and harder. I now refuse to feel guilty as I walk out the door on time. It took me a long time to realise as I walked out the deserted car park at 5.30 that no-one knew or cared what time I was leaving. No-one was handing out medals to the last person to leave the site. If I didn't ever return for whatever reason tomorrow, no-one was going to say, well I'm glad she stayed back to finish that job as I sure didn't want to - no-one would notice!