6 Ways to Work Less and Have Your Dream Career

It was a story every caring professional can relate to.  My client had started her career with good boundaries in place, allowing her to enjoy balance between work and home.  In her own words, it was lovely.
 
And then an exciting project came along, and for a temporary period of time she worked 50-60 hours a week.  The work was rewarding, and she increased her visibility – so much so she received a promotion.  It was a dream come true
 
Her new role had a lot of travel and sensitive deadlines, so the 60 hours a week continued (and sometimes crept up to 70-80 hours a week), until 2 years into the new job things were completely falling apart at home, and she recognized she was no longer enjoying her work.  Her dream had become more of a nightmare.  She was on the edge of burning out.
 
She came to me to help her find a new dream job that would give her back her sanity.  With her permission, I helped her take the dream job she had and made it work for her.
 
If this story mirrors your professional life, then know there are always things you can do to stop work-creep and burnout.  You can put healthy boundaries between work and life back into place, without losing your credibility, or your dream career.
 
Here are strategies to do just that:

• Know where you add value (and where you don’t).  Take an objective look at your calendar.  What work and meetings present an opportunity for you to add value to the work you’re accountable for, and which one’s don’t?  As an example, there are likely some meetings you don’t need to be a part of, just as there is some work you kept with you as your responsibilities grew, but could (or should) be done just as well by someone else.  Be discerning here, some of the work you have you may have kept out of habit or because you like doing it, but is not value add in the role you’re in now (and if you’re a manager, don’t forget about delegation and job enrichment for your staff).  It’s flattering to be invited to meetings, but do you really serve a purpose in all of them?  Curate your schedule so the majority of your time (80% or more) is focused on what adds value to the organization, letting go of work you don’t need to be involved in, giving yourself back time.
• Work a little less each day.  If your work schedule has ballooned beyond 45 hours a week (on average), gently pull that back.  This may not be easy, because at a certain point you’ll need to start saying “no” to things to make this happen.  Build some momentum by working 15 minutes less each day (as a start).  This allows you to practice the boundaries you need to stop burn-out, while gently allowing work to adjust to your needs.  Target working 40-45 hours a week, that is the threshold where humans are most productive in professional settings (beyond that it’s taking you longer to do things due to fatigue, etc. and is mentally and physically unhealthy).
• “No” is a complete sentence.  There are many ways to say “no” without actually saying it that are highly effective (check out 5 Ways to Say No at Work).  When you don’t say “no” you may be over committing yourself (or your team) and indicating that things can be done, when in fact they can’t. Saying “no” means your organization will need to prioritize and plan with constraint in mind.  To do less means there is no steady hand guiding the right things getting done at the right time for the right reason, creating a low-trust loop (where things get done by happenstance and expectations are not met despite people working ridiculous hours).  Stop the cycle, plan with constraint in mind (and get more hours a week back for your personal life).
• Perfectionism is the enemy of healthy boundaries.  Perfectionism is seductive, but it’s rarely possible without an over-commitment that takes time away from something else important.  Your job is to strategically use the time you have to best impact; to do less means you’re being ineffective. Worse, perfection is rarely recognized (or rewarded) and creates an ever-increasing level of expectation that cannot continue to grow without you burning out.  Put a healthy boundary into place with “good for now”.  You can go back to tweak something later if you need to.  Holding perfectionism at bay gives you back much needed time each day.
• Check your assumptions.  Building on the theme that “good is good enough”, don’t assume your vision for something is the one that’s most important to pursue.  Your boss or clients may be fine with something less elaborate or complete as a starting point, because that allows for more collaboration and iteration as you go.  You may also be going down the wrong path altogether and that wastes a lot of time.  Check your assumptions as you go.  Ask open, curious questions like “Can you share with me what this looks like once it’s complete?” rather than “You want this to be X, right?”.  Curiosity saves time.
• Turn off your devices at the responsible close of your work day.  Work phone, work laptop, tablet, etc. shut them down and off or they’ll make it too easy to “check that one thing” or “quickly send this e-mail”.  And down the rabbit hole you go (emerging hours later).  If you’re concerned, put on your Out of Office on to support your boundaries: “Thanks for your e-mail.  I’ll respond to it first thing tomorrow morning, beginning at 9:00…”

​You're a great person and a committed, caring, professional, so it’s easy to see how you get to a point where the boundaries between home and work blur beyond what’s healthy for you.  That said, you are the only one who can put these healthy boundaries back where they belong.  Doing it where you work today means you will be less likely to blur them at your next job (blurring boundaries becomes a habit that follows you wherever you go) keeping you on the path to your dream career.
 
Don’t over-commit in one place in your life at the expense of another, or you’ll lose something precious you need – something even more precious than time.

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