Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

Today's tip is that when it comes to work life balance, flexibility matters more than ours.

Today's tip is that when it comes to work life balance, flexibility matters more than ours.

Being able to move.

Being able to move.

Work around on dimensions of time and place means you can work quite a few hours and still feel like you have a full personal life too. So here's a question to ponder. Let's say something interesting or cool in your personal life was happening at eleven am on a Wednesday. Maybe your elementary school age child is a performing in a school talent show. Or if you don't have kids, let's say it's your niece or your godson, but it is something very important.

Work around on dimensions of time and place means you can work quite a few hours and still feel like you have a full personal life too. So here's a question to ponder. Let's say something interesting or cool in your personal life was happening at eleven am on a Wednesday. Maybe your elementary school age child is a performing in a school talent show. Or if you don't have kids, let's say it's your niece or your godson, but it is something very important.

To the child. Would you be able to go? Would it be easy? If it weren't particularly easy, how much notice would you need? You will quickly see that the answer to this question doesn't necessarily depend on how many hours you work. Maybe you are a medical professional who works part time. Let's say three eight hour days per week, but you are normally doing patient procedures on Wednesdays, and these are scheduled three months ahead of time, so you really can't move them except for extreme emergencies. If the talent show came to your attention three weeks ahead of time, you probably wouldn't go. On the other hand, maybe you are a consultant who travels a lot and logs fifty plus hour work weeks, but you tend to decide where and when you are going on any given day, whether that is to visit a client, to work in your office, or work at home. Unless the CEO of your biggest client has asked for eleven am on that Wednesday, you could probably make it work. That scenario describes my husband, so he recently went to a special person's tea at our four year old's preschool at eleven am on a Wednesday, and then got on a train to go to Washington, d C. For a meeting immediately afterwards. In other words, it is possible that someone working part time hours wouldn't be able to go to something, but someone working more than full time hours would. It just depends on how much flexibility you have. This is important to realize because one of the most common questions I get from people who are trying to make work and life fit together is whether they should go part time. But if you have to work, set out in a set place.

To the child. Would you be able to go? Would it be easy? If it weren't particularly easy, how much notice would you need? You will quickly see that the answer to this question doesn't necessarily depend on how many hours you work. Maybe you are a medical professional who works part time. Let's say three eight hour days per week, but you are normally doing patient procedures on Wednesdays, and these are scheduled three months ahead of time, so you really can't move them except for extreme emergencies. If the talent show came to your attention three weeks ahead of time, you probably wouldn't go. On the other hand, maybe you are a consultant who travels a lot and logs fifty plus hour work weeks, but you tend to decide where and when you are going on any given day, whether that is to visit a client, to work in your office, or work at home. Unless the CEO of your biggest client has asked for eleven am on that Wednesday, you could probably make it work. That scenario describes my husband, so he recently went to a special person's tea at our four year old's preschool at eleven am on a Wednesday, and then got on a train to go to Washington, d C. For a meeting immediately afterwards. In other words, it is possible that someone working part time hours wouldn't be able to go to something, but someone working more than full time hours would. It just depends on how much flexibility you have. This is important to realize because one of the most common questions I get from people who are trying to make work and life fit together is whether they should go part time. But if you have to work, set out in a set place.

Going part time might not help as much as you want, because the things you want to do won't always happen during the hours that you are not working. Whereas, if you can set your hours and work from home when it makes sense to do so, you can work quite a few hours and still be able to do things during the traditional work day if you wish, that can make work at life balance just feel far more possible. There have been some studies finding that this distinction is true and does affect how people feel about work in life. Many years ago, before COVID made remote work a more common choice, there was a study done of a group of tech workers. Those who had to be in the office at certain times could only work thirty eight hours a week before a significant chunk of them experienced work life conflict. For those who could set their own hours and work from home when they wish to, that breakpoint was fifty seven hours a week before a significant chunk experienced work life conflict. In case you are doing the math, fifty seven hours is fifty percent more hours than thirty eight hours. We are talking an absolutely huge difference. Now, the point of the Before Breakfast podcast is to give useful tips you can put into your life, and I am not sure that this tip can immediately be put into practice. If your work involves being in a certain place at a certain time, then that is what it is. But if you are considering a new job, getting clear on how flexible it is might be a more important form of doute than seeing how many hours you will be logging. You might also consider jobs that seem to require longer hours but are very flexible. Ask if people regularly work from home, or if you are considering going part time in order to deal with complexities in your personal life. See if your organization might be open to your working far more flexibly instead. They might be happier to have that option than to see you work less, or you could find another organization that is more open to your talents. But in any case, these days there are a lot of full time and more than full time jobs where it is possible to do things in your personal life during the traditional work day. You might be able to make the pieces of work and life fit together better than you thought, so it's worth thinking about in the meantime. This is Laura, Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

Going part time might not help as much as you want, because the things you want to do won't always happen during the hours that you are not working. Whereas, if you can set your hours and work from home when it makes sense to do so, you can work quite a few hours and still be able to do things during the traditional work day if you wish, that can make work at life balance just feel far more possible. There have been some studies finding that this distinction is true and does affect how people feel about work in life. Many years ago, before COVID made remote work a more common choice, there was a study done of a group of tech workers. Those who had to be in the office at certain times could only work thirty eight hours a week before a significant chunk of them experienced work life conflict. For those who could set their own hours and work from home when they wish to, that breakpoint was fifty seven hours a week before a significant chunk experienced work life conflict. In case you are doing the math, fifty seven hours is fifty percent more hours than thirty eight hours. We are talking an absolutely huge difference. Now, the point of the Before Breakfast podcast is to give useful tips you can put into your life, and I am not sure that this tip can immediately be put into practice. If your work involves being in a certain place at a certain time, then that is what it is. But if you are considering a new job, getting clear on how flexible it is might be a more important form of doute than seeing how many hours you will be logging. You might also consider jobs that seem to require longer hours but are very flexible. Ask if people regularly work from home, or if you are considering going part time in order to deal with complexities in your personal life. See if your organization might be open to your working far more flexibly instead. They might be happier to have that option than to see you work less, or you could find another organization that is more open to your talents. But in any case, these days there are a lot of full time and more than full time jobs where it is possible to do things in your personal life during the traditional work day. You might be able to make the pieces of work and life fit together better than you thought, so it's worth thinking about in the meantime. This is Laura, Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.