Work is activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result. Sometimes other words like labor, toil, exertion, effort, slog, drudgery are also used to describe a particular type of work. Here, we are not talking about the definition of work in physics as, Work=Force x Displacement.

Life has different definition in the eyes of different people. … For many life is all about love. For a few, life is all about religious practices. For philosopher like Aristotle life is about happiness. As per Bhagwat Gita life is about doing Karma (Duty) as per Swa-Dharma (work naturally assigned to you when you are born). However, we are limiting here in this book, meaning of life as what experiences we all have in today’s time.

Why there is too much to do?
All of us many times find ourselves in a situation,” I have too much to do, but there is no time”. One solution is that; we need to prioritize our work. There is a principle called ‘Pareto’ principle.20 % items in the ‘to do list’ will give us 80% value. So focus on top 20 % of the items first (and practically forget the rest 80% for most of the time) and re-prioritize your ‘to do list’ periodically. In ‘Agile’ way of working, this ‘prioritized to do list’ is called Product Backlog and its priorities are revised periodically as the life moves on.

The 10th Principle of Agile Manifesto says” Simplicity—the art of maximizing the amount of work NOT done—is essential”. This means, eliminate those items which ‘do not add value’. Push maximum items which ‘do not add much value’ in the category of second priority. Focus on few high priority items.

Avoid Multi-Tasking
Multi-tasking results in inefficiency. This is because every time you change the task, your time goes in ‘recap’. If you work for two hours with full concentration on one job, you will do more work compared to you doing 4 partial jobs of half an hour.

Learn to delegate and avoid micro management
Many times you are working in a team. Understand that others can also work. Recognize and appreciate others’ capabilities and take their help. Give them work and trust them. Finish the work collectively. Avoid giving every small instruction which will irritate others. Great jobs are done with collaboration and collective efforts.

Separate office work from Personal work Suhas, my friend, works in software company at Mumbai. His friend came from USA, landed in Mumbai. He called him, “Hi Suhas, feeling great to touch home land….”. Conversation continued for 15 minutes.

Suhas did not even realize that he is in his office and wasting valuable office time and resources. He could have finished in one or two minutes welcoming him back home and fixed up some time for leisure talking after office hours.

Many times we spend time on personal matters in office and then complain that we need to work for 12 hours! Same thing happens when you are with your family. You are on picnic with family. Your wife is making coffee. You don’t share your time with her. Instead of that, you are at your mobile, checking office messages! You must spend quality time with your spouse and children.

Have dedicated time for your family every day.
Make some ground rules for home. As far as possible have breakfast and dinner together. All will arrange table and everybody will clear the table turn by turn. Have some light discussion on the dining table like sports and festivals. Avoid, serious discussions like children’s progress or not being able to repay your loan. Continuous communication with family members will help reducing conflicts and stress. No need to jump to conclusion or dictate. Many times what matters is paying attention.

Some special activity on weekend. Participate in cooking or visit some nearby park/beach. Go for cycling or pursue some hobby like gardening, pottery, painting or playing key-board or simply watch movie at home together. Being together is more important than the activity itself!

Have long holidays (10-15 days) at least once a year. After working hard throughout the year, surely you deserve holidays, even if you are a businessman or entrepreneur. This vacation is for recharging yourself. You come back with fresh mind, new ideas and lot of zeal to do more work!

Case of husband and wife both having career:
In this case work-life balance for both is important. Careful time management is required. Both the partners and other members in family (children and senior citizens) must understand each other with love and care.
All must share the domestic work equally. This way children will also know their responsibilities. All must keep their egos away in preference to love and care.

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