Whoah, wait a minute… It’s already May? Where the bleep did April go? And March, for that matter?? It’s pretty sad when your work-life balance is so poor that weeks have flown by in Rip Van Winkle-like fashion. Time to wake up and find a way to avoid this never-ending cubicle hell and get a grip on my work-life balance.
Since the big promotion a few months back, work has been sheer chaos. Time spent hacking and slashing through business administration minutiae has soared to well over 50 hours a week. And on weekends, you’d likely find me reading a book for work training, or even responding to a few “important” emails. If I threw in a bad boss story, you’d probably break out with hives.
After reading It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work, I have some newfound knowledge and methods to apply to my situation. (I don’t think I’ll take a Basecamp-inspired sabbatical though. That option doesn’t exist at my company. It probably wouldn’t go over well during this period of crazy-busy nonsense, topped with a hiring freeze.) At any rate, here is what the experiment will look like, at least at the outset…
Work-Life Balance Sustainability: My Steps
The experiment starts as of this draft’s inception, on May 7, 2019. We’ll string it out through the rest of 2019 to determine if I can weather seasonal shifts in work demands. Granted, at my company, it doesn’t matter what time of year it is.
There’s always time for gobs of worthless emails and questionable meetings. Still, we’ve got a solid 8 months or so to see where the work-life balance sustainability experiment takes us.
Here’s the list of changes I’ll attempt:
- Return to blogging at the magic 5:20 AM – 6:20 AM hour, every day AND build in 20 minutes to exercise from 6:20 AM to 6:40 AM.
- No work at all on weekends. Period. Unless it’s a really good book that’s about leadership and better work cultures – I get into that stuff
- Cap my work week to a 45-hour average. No tricks – Vacations do not factor into the numerator.
- Reduce status meetings with staff and implement office hours instead.
- Create a list of top five objectives for the week on my whiteboard (rather than just reacting to emails flooding my days)
- Delegate (appropriately) work to others, including my boss!
- No more checking in on work when I’m on vacation. Call my cell phone if the volcano erupts!
- Block off time on my calendar for concentration-oriented tasks, and disallow others from viewing my meeting subjects.
- Turn all 1:1 meetings into walk-and-talks. Might as well get some steps in and double bonus: have productive discussions.
Things that won’t change (squeeze the balloon at one end, and…)
- No work in the evenings. No change here. Mrs. Cubert and I already have our hands full raising young twins. Brains turn to mush after the kiddos’ bedtime.
- Bike to work when possible. When the weather is nice and I don’t have to pick up the kids, we’ll be pedalin’!
- Taking all my allotted vacation. I’ve got to set a good example for my team. It’s a sustainability thing.
How I’ll Track Progress and Hold Myself Accountable
Just like I did with the Airbnb Experiment last year, I’ll pop a little progress box onto the Right Nav of the blog home page. It’ll be pretty straightforward. Each month I’ll review how I did on each of the items above, pass or fail. Then, we’ll go “old school” and figure an overall letter grade score.
E.g., If I can muster 11 or 12 out of 12, that’s an “A” for the month. If I can achieve at least a “B” average of 85% or higher throughout the experiment, we can this whole thing a success. ALMOST…
Ultimately for this experiment to truly be a success, I need to sustain high performance at my job. I can’t just go off and do those 12 things above and hope for the best, come review time. I need to be effective. (Notice, I did not say “I need to be productive”. There’s a big difference in that nuance. See if you can discern that for yourself.)
If I’m still able to pull the highest possible review score once again this year, on top of getting a B average from the list above, then I’ll know that all that extra time spent chasing nonsense isn’t worth the energy spent. This is NOT a post about how to be a slacker with your work. On the flip side, this post is all about how to be the most effective kid on the block, and being so for the long-haul.
After my promotion, I quickly fell into the trap of believing I had to be “ON” a lot more than I had been. I had forgotten the approach to work that got me to that promotion in the first place!
Repeat after me: Sustainability. Sustainability. Sustainability… Okay, Dorothy, let’s go back to Kansas and start to work smarter, not harder. We need to turn our cubicle hell into something slightly less awful…
The Latest on Cubert’s Plan to Escape Cubicle Hell
Now that I have this fun experiment underway, I can start to ponder early retirement again. I was supposed to be wrapping things up this July, remember? Well, it took a little longer than expected to pay off the mortgage. (Our 2018 tax bill had something to do with that.)
Recalibrating the FIRE Time Machine, my new target is March of 2020. I’m still within a year of being able/ready to walk away. The main thing I need to focus on is finding a new landing. More and more I’m liking what Uncle Daryl and Dave at Accidental Fire are up to, with their Semi-FIRE part-time work. Consulting gigs might just be the answer, and I need to do my homework to figure out what I’d like to jump into.
Originally, I thought I’d sit around and write blog posts and maintain the rental houses. Trouble is, those houses are so passive, and a lot of what needs to get done requires skilled trades (e.g., new roof, new concrete walkways, etc.) There are still some projects I’m planning to take on with the rentals and with our home as well. But again, I wouldn’t mind 16-20 steady hours of work to maintain some cash flow and keep me out of trouble.
Another angle on this experiment: What if the experiment goes so well, that I wind up finding a work-life balance that’s juusssst right? CNN BREAKING NEWS: Goldilocks ditches early retirement for some yum yum corporate porridge… The Lions win the Super Bowl… Atlantis discovered…
For me to abandon early retirement altogether, I’d have to go full-Danish on this shit and reduce my work week to 40 hours or less and add at least one more week of vacation per year. (We have the option to buy up to one week of extra time off at my company, assuming the boss approves.) Still, I tend to think if I’m going to get enough time back in my life for all the side projects I want to pursue, full-time work, even with a sane schedule, just won’t cut it.
What do you fine readers think? What work-life balance sustainability practices have you successfully (or unsuccessfully) tried?
Thanks for the “shout out.” Still doing the semi-retired consulting gig here. Doing just enough so it is fun, but not so much it feels like work, plus it brings in some “fun money.” Took a brief blogging sabbatical but about to get back in the saddle.
As of yesterday, back in MN — AZ was starting to get hot. We have a high school graduation (first grandkid – how did that happen so fast?) so we came back early. But we took our time and visited with friends along the way. Fun trip.
Care to do coffee again? Can’t do this weekend, but anytime after works right now. Happy to share ideas, and best wishes on your experiment. Life should be a grand experiment — or as Helen Keller said, a grand adventure.
Hi Daryl! Of course!
Glad you’re back in MN. Let’s definitely plan a coffee confab soon. Let’s exchange emails to nail down a date/time. Maybe find a window over Memorial Weekend?
Will be following your progress with great interest as work is dominating almost every waking hour for me lately. Love the list of practical and actionable changes. I’ll try some of them myself. Thanks for sharing and I look forward to reading more
I’m glad you found this, Mr. Simple Life! By all means, share any nuggets of wisdom here in the comments as you uncover them. Hopefully we can get through our respective slogs in good form soon!!
dude, i feel semi-retired right now and mrs. smidlap IS semi-retired. i wake up at 6 am, go to work. run 3 miles AT WORK, which i just wrote about and make my little 8 mile commute to be in the house by 4:20pm almost every single day. mrs. smidlap is home when i get there from here little 4 hour a day gig. i feel lucky that we could probably continue like this for quite some time.
i hope you get it all sorted out and you’re saving all that extra mad jack that came with the promotion.
Ooohhh.. That does sound ideal to me Freddy. (The four hour a day gig, not yours 🙂 )
Getting it sorted out is the tough part. A side of me doesn’t mind the chase all that much, especially when I get to ride to work – that really frees up the mind in a meditation sort of way. I am saving some more “mad jack” in the 401K – first time maxing in several years, courtesy of a lame-o real estate market!
We’re in similar spots re: work, friend. We went through a re-org and they’re throwing more at me with no increase in pay. :/
So yeah, finding that balance is a key for me while I’m also in the home stretch to FI. We’re still about 2 years out (market performance pending, and yeah, got to pay off that mortgage). It’s a bit too long for me to just tough it out. I’ll have to make some healthy changes to go the distance.
I think I’m going to steal your daily writing and workout goal. Want to try an accountability partner thing? DMs on twitter?
Oh no!! That’s the pits. Been there, done that, especially at my current shop.
Steal away, buddy! I like the accountability partner thing – could make for a funny guest post?? 🙂
I would love to hear more about your take on effective vs productive. Might be good material for a future blog post.
Great article!
Certainly! Effective entails limiting the work to tasks that actually move the ball forward for your business / objective. It could be as simple as striking a huge deal with a client in a 30 minute meeting. Those 30 minutes maybe yielded millions in revenue. Productive is where your simply churning through tasks regardless of whether those tasks truly matter to the business / objective.
Thanks for the reply! Sounds like working on the right things to me. Love it.
Barista FIRE to the rescue! Why stop completely if you can work some part-time and have some fun with that?!
My Dutch Brother from another Mother! I love that idea – except the barista part. Those jobs SUCK. We sometimes visit our local Starbucks – those jobs are for kids making money for college or adults trying to scrape a living. It’s hard work. No, I’d rather do something a little less “fire drill” pace, maybe along the lines of writing, or mowing the lawn like Forrest Gump.
Thanks for the shout-out dude! Your strategy looks good – that which gets tracked gets improved (or something like that..)
Keep it up. It’s a hard road for sure but the semi-retirement is still treating me wonderfully. I have 8 days in a row off coming up and I’m using no leave to do it. Some kind of adventure awaits!
Absolutely, Dave! I think that’s the case re tracking — Since I don’t track my exercise, I’ve become a royal slacker. With this experiment, baking in that time to work out should be a useful tool.
I salivate at the idea of 8 days in a row with zero office time. WOW!
I have kind of failed at this balance thing in the past. Crazy startups, fast track promotions, etc. I think what you are aiming for is admirable and in line with the 80/20 rule can you get 80% of the results with 20% effort. Hell even the 65/35 rule sounds ok. You comments about being efficient as opposed to slacking resonate with me and may be the key. Good luck and I’ll be following along
Well, I’m certainly going to give it a shot and see where this experiment takes me. Appreciate the kind words – 80/20, here we come!
I’ll be following this closely to see how it goes for you! Good luck!
Thanks, Gwen!! I managed to somehow squeeze a half hour of my work day to hit the company gym yesterday, and it felt great!
Good luck with the experiment. It’s tough to find a good work/life balance these days. The employer demands so much.
I think semi-FIRE is the perfect way to go if you can pull it off. Good luck!
Thanks, Joe! I don’t think it’ll get any better with the current job market tight as it is. Odd how many figured the advent of technology would lessen the typical work week. Hahaha!
I love walk and talk meetings! I don’t get to have them often, but perhaps I need to take some of my phone meetings out for a walk.
That’s a great idea too! All of my walk and talks are with other people, but I see a lot of colleagues walking around with ear buds – presumably on work calls! 10K steps, here we come!
I do admire your dedication to the cause Cubert and believe me I’m cheering you on to the finish line with great gusto! But, and here’s the rub, I didn’t realise you had twins and this does change things a bit. You may have to modify your early retirement model a little here bearing in mind that kids don’t leave home nowadays until they’re about 38, consequently for most parents in the modern era early retirement might be 69-85 with a bit of luck – is this a good idea? I admire your dedication but I must say that having children was the biggest mistake I never made…
Hi Ben! Thank you for that encouragement! It is greatly appreciated.
That is all too funny, and all too real about kids leaving the nest. Once they turn 6 next month, I’m going to start putting hints about how they’ll have to find their own living arrangements at 18. That’s how it worked with me – good motivation!! Luckily, we find our life with kids is rewarding on the deepest levels. It sure puts a dent in your options and even your relationship with your partner at times, but the trade off is surprisingly worth it! (up to two kids, IMHO…)
Agreed Cubert though I wonder if 6 might be a bit early lol. Two is wise methinks. Incidentally, that 38 figure comes from a recent survey in UK to determine the average age kids leave home – I’m not entirely sure it’s accurate as with most of my pals their kids left home when in their mid- to late-20s
Ha! You’re right. Maybe we’ll use some subtle messages and find a kids’ book or two that lays it out in fable-like fashion. “The Kid Who Never Left Home” or something…
Mid to late 20s is really pushing it. I technically moved at out 22 after college, but I spend 90% of the prior 5 years in a dorm room, not at home. No regrets!!
Can’t wait to see that scorecard! I always found that the work intensity peaked in the first year after accepting a promotion. Hopefully, you’re learning curve and “experiment” will bring things back to a more sane level. One thought on the “one more year”, you could “Go Danish”, force yourself down to <40 hours per week, and give it a 6-month experiment. I did OMY and have no regrets, just don’t fall into the trap of OMY followed by OMY followed by….
The Starting Line is getting closer. I’d encourage you to find a way to start thinking about your life in retirement a bit more, and your work responsibilities a bit less. I took that approach, and my transition to retirement went exceedingly well. Perhaps one additional metric for your scorecard! I’ll continue to peer through the window with interest.
Hey, Fritz! Thanks for stopping by. I’m very optimistic after just one week of applying a more sane structure. I’m even taking time to reply back to your comment during the work day – how’s that???
I do like the 6 month Danish idea… I wonder if my boss would crash that party within month one or let me get away with it. Depends on how effective I am, at the end of the day, right?
Appreciate your encouragement, my friend. Work and life have been too busy to think hard on the retirement life, but I have to get on it.
Love the experiment Cubert. I bought two extra weeks vacation this year and I am considering going reduced hours in July. You are in the FU money zone now and that should afford you the privilege of structuring your work that aligns best with your personal ambitions. We all only have a limited number of healthy trips around the sun. Let’s make the best of them.
Thanks, Dap! Did your boss have to approve those two weeks? I’d be less shy about buying that one week – but I suppose one’s boss would want to know why someone on their team is taking all that extra time… The FU money zone – well put – and definitely very, very close to real for us.