The Autonomy to make your Work-Life Balance thrive
I can choose, so my best work/life balance is achieved outside the 9-to-5!
A recruiter reached out to me last week, and it turned out to be a very helpful thinking exercise for me.
Far from being a coaching conversation, it sticked with me the whole weekend nonetheless. Also, it felt good to be on the other side of the fence for once ๐.
The questions asked (to assess my current and desired situations) allowed me to state out loud the aspects of my profession I love, and the ones I love a bit less. One question in particular stood out: โWould you consider going back to 9-to-5?โ. My hunch went: โHard No, with every fibre of my body!!โ.
Flexibly is not a given these days, however common it has become. It is a personal flair (at work, it has to co-live with company policies): night owls shine after dusk, early birds excel at dawn, and the hybrids early owls ๐ฆlike me live at their best at different times depending on the day (and quality of sleep).
It did, however, exposed the sheer difference between my last 5 years (high flexibility), and the previous 5 of my life (low flexibility). It can be translated geographically as well: a difference between my home country (Italy) and other countries Iโve lived in (Germany and New Zealand).
The underlining theme? I was given the choice (autonomy in neuroscience lingo terms). Autonomy has been linked to productivity: the higher the autonomy one has, the more productive they can be.
Autonomy can be defined as the ability to make choices according to one’s own free will. It is a key driver of human behavior: we seem to be hard-wired to desire autonomy.
Restrictions on our autonomy may well be the culprit of our unhappiness!
And yes, it has got that full 50-shades-of-colour meaning it is not black and white. In certain situations (like if your work requires you in person) your autonomy may be rightfully limited: imagine an ICU nurse trying to work from home.
When it comes to striking our work/life balance correctly, weโd better include autonomy as a weighing factor.
So, if you are experiencing dissatisfaction or that languishing feeling that can be translated with a โMehโ, here are a few questions you can ask yourself:
- What can you decide on?
- What can you not decide on?
- How do the two relate to each other?
- How do you feel when someone tells you to do something vs you telling yourself?
Having the flexibility to structure your day is then crucial: also when it comes to your Leisure time!!
Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash